Developing Knowledge to Achieve Blended Value

Synergies:

• Use market research methodology to better understand where resources are, how to access them, who controls them, and how valuable they are to others.
• Research and develop appropriate technology to manage available resources (whether physical, human, relational or financial) in a more renewable manner.
• Instead of competing for the most obvious resources, research the potential of less obvious resources (e.g. intellectual property) or readily-available resources traditionally considered less practical (e.g. an efficient way to use volunteers on a larger scale).

Tensions:

• Be wary of over promising and under delivering! Make sure to invest in building knowledge and capacity to fully leverage new resources coming your way and keep up with the unusual (to you) expectations of new resource providers.
• Be mindful of the fact that research and innovation does require upfront investments, and thus always carries some risk of financial loss.