Mehr als nur Administration

Das Ziel des Ideenmanagements besteht darin, Innovationen unter die Leute zu bringen. Damit unterstützt es einen Kulturwandel, der die Arbeit und das Leben aller Mitarbeiter in einem Unternehmen mit einbezieht.

Es muss versuchen, Menschen für interessante Themen zu fesseln, die geistigen Fähigkeiten in die richtigen Wege zu leiten, Trends zu identifizieren, Talente zu unterstützen, als Fürsprecher einzutreten für die Arbeit derjenigen, die etwas bewegen, soziale und das Arbeitsumfeld betreffende Diskussionen anzuregen, Innovatoren ein Forum geben und neue Beziehungen in der Gemeinschaft entstehen zu lassen.

More than just administration

The aim of Idea Management is to socialize innovation and build and support a culture of innovation that intersect with the work and life of all employees of a company.

It has to seek to engage people in interesting topics, channel the collective intelligence, identify trends, support talent, comment the work of those making a difference, stimulate social and work related debates, provide an opportunity for innovators to speak out, and foster relationships within the community.

Social Networking in Research & Development?

A few weeks ago I met the head of idea management (IDM) for the Research & Development organization of a well known car manufacturer. It was a very interesting and encouraging meeting.

Until today idea management is seen as a very one dimensional process at this company. Employees submit their ideas online and on paper. The ideas go to the manager and he/she decides whats next. Bigger ideas go to a central IDM team. All ideas face the usual challenges of not beeing evaluated in time and with an appropriate feedback.

So, what he now wants to establish is a social network where ideas can be discussed between employees and managers first. Good ideas will eventually go up in the top list and indicate importance and priority. Seems simple. Hopefully it is because this is the only way of bringing IDM to the next level.

Idea Management Congress in Hamburg, May10-12, 2009

From May 10-12, 2009 there will be the next international Idea Management congress in Hamburg, Germany, organized by the "Deutsches Institut für Betriebswirtschaft" (dib). The dib supports for many years the "idea management idea" and at this congress several hundreds of idea managers gather together to listen to and discuss latest trends and topics.

I have the opportunity to run a workshop about our idea management at SAP and how we think that new technology and trends around Web 2.0 should improve and direct a new collaborative evaluation model in idea management. Adapted social networking in a multi-dimensional community of idea submitters and assessors could be a key differentiator for companies compared with the standard one dimensional idea management.

I am also very excited to listen to the workshop of Tom Dupre , Program Manager for IBM´s Global Industry Networked Communities, USA . He is going to ask the question "What would Obama do? In these uncertain economic times, are Suggestion Schemes and other Employee Involvement processes still viable?"

What makes large corporations entrepreneurial?

Many times both individuals and organizations struggle to identify new ideas, evaluate them, and successfully implement them. They spend time and money to set up processes and tools to address the issues but many processes seem daunting, particularly in large organizations where new ideas springing from employees, suppliers and customers can overwhelm an organization the way e-mails can quickly flood your inbox.
Therefore large or small, old or new, most organizations are so overwhelmed by the ever-increasing demands of globalization and competition that they have little time to focus on new ideas. In particular large corporations request only the big ideas and forget all the good small ideas that drive bottom up innovation. Corporations like the idea of innovation but very often when you present any specific idea, the organization tends to reject it because it doesn't fit in what is already known. Very often, if the degree of suffering is then too big, a lot of money is spent to quickly buy knowledge and innovation with sometimes little success.

The outside in view is for sure important and necessary, but is it also sustainable? At the end people, both as individuals and in teams always have been and always will be the source of creativity, innovation, and improvement within an organization. The harnessing of this talent is crucial to the success and growth of any company.

In fact, only a two way approach with an innovation incubator placed outside of the company boundaries together with a company wide sound idea management infrastructure promises more success and more realized ideas.

Taking care of small innovations is what makes large corporations entrepreneurial.