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Process 5: Employee Implementation of Ideas and the Right Culture

It is essential for the implementation of this process that the organization have a culture that empowers employees and fosters their creativity, and a management team who trusts employees' insight and knowledge about the way business is done. Administer the program as informally as possible. The following steps are involved:2

Step 1: Encouraging Idea Submissions and Implementation.

1.       Set quotas for mandatory idea submissions covering everyone in the organization.

2.       Allow for implementation of ideas by employees who submit the ideas, provided the expenditure needed is within set budgetary limits.

LEVEL OF INNOVATIVENESS/ INNOVATION STRATEGY	LOW	MEDIUM	HIGH
Customer-driven	Customer feedback, complaints, Internet, CRM	Value-chain management, focus groups, CRM	Lead User Partnership
Employee-driven process innovation	Frontline implementation	Middle management implementation	Business development implementation
Employee-driven product innovation	Suggestion box, idea databases	Managed idea banks	Employee-initiated projects, venture capital units, skunk works lab
Technology-driven	Citation maps	Topographical maps	Topographical maps

EXHIBIT 12.7    Methods of Enabling Innovation Strategy

3.       Define the areas where ideas are needed very broadly by reference to critical business processes, including administrative processes.

4.       Define the criteria in terms of what these ideas should cover (e.g., job performance, cost reduction, process improvement, saving time, improving working conditions).

5.       When approval is required, respond to the idea originator within days, with justified rea­sons if the idea is rejected.

6.       Set a target for implementation rates and track results.

7.       Publish reports of implementation rates, success stories, improvements in productivity, and savings in a monthly newsletter and on the organization's Web site.

8.       Reward employees who exceed their idea submission quotas, and departments or units with the highest implementation rates.

Process 6: Idea Banks and Employee Innovation

To foster employee-driven innovation, the culture should be one that does not penalize failure, but rather sees failure as part of the learning experience—"fail soon to succeed later." As mentioned under Process 5, it is essential that the culture empower employees. With empowerment comes accountability, and that is when the highest level of creativity is cultivated. It is essential that employees be given the chance to take part in the development of their ideas. That has a positive effect on the employees' morale, and hence innovativeness, as well as on the quality of the idea. The idea bank outlined under the CICM model is one that requires active involvement of employ­ees in the development of concepts for new products and not simply in submission of ideas. A cen­tral department or decentralized NPD departments can be assigned ownership of the process. If the latter model is adopted, then a coordinator should be assigned to oversee the transfer of ideas that fit better with the strategy of other business units. The following steps are involved.

Step 1: Idea Submission and Building the Database

1. Create an idea bank or database and seek submissions from employees on defined areas by general reference to the strategic buckets of the innovation portfolio.

2.       Alternatively, distribute the proposed innovation portfolio (with confidentiality meas­ures in place) with its strategic buckets, with blank projects and resource allocation, to be filled by product and business development managers.

3.       Arrange the ideas received under type of business, level of innovativeness, required resources, time, and the strategic bucket.

4.       Create a file for ideas that do not fit into the innovation portfolio, and follow Steps 2 and 3 for their assessment.

Step 2: Assessment. This step deals with ideas that fall beyond the scope of the strategic buck­ets of the innovation portfolio.

1.       Transfer the idea to the business unit with the closest fit for consideration under the business unit growth/development plan.

2.       Allow free time and the granting of money to the originating employee for further research to develop product concepts in connection with the business unit.

3.       If the business unit rejects the idea on the basis that it is outside the scope of its growth plan, then transfer to the venture capital unit for further consideration and action.

4.       Refer ideas rejected for feasibility reasons to the originating employee for further study, and allow him or her time and resources (within defined budgetary limits) to produce a prototype and a presentation to senior management for further assessment.

Step 3: Prepare Idea Reports.

1.       Produce monthly idea reports that show rate of submission, rates of projects initiated based on employee ideas, and number of ideas implemented by their originators.

2.       Prepare reports of rejected ideas with justifications, for further assessment.
3.       Collect such reports from various business units and departments to assess their respec­tive innovative activity.

4.       Reward departments and units according to their idea generation and implementation records.


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