Cadbury

Business type

Co-creation

Service/product description

“There’s also a lot of science that sits behind our chocolate, gum and candy – from the ‘mouth feel’ and melting temperatures of chocolate, to the bounciness and flavour encapsulation of gum, to crystallisation and caramelisation of candy. Innovation can help us solve the scientific challenges we face in some of these areas. We know we can’t do this alone and that there are great ideas out there in other sectors and from our consumers. We’re looking for new partnerships to develop these ideas and to enhance and speed up our innovation.”

What does 'openness' mean in this case?

Actually publish their needs in some detail, unlike many enterprises that hide behind sites like innocentive. http://www.innovation.cadbury.com/ourinnovationneeds/Pages/OurInnovationNeeds.aspx
This is clearly a business strategy, not some research dressed up as open innovation. I don’t know how succesful it is but they’re clearly quite serious about IP and being responsible with it.