From a creative and innovative point of view – yes, it sounds pretty boring ;-) But, most would agree that a bit of structure and system could benefit you when seeking new ideas – and keeping track of them!
In our new idea management system, Nosco App, we have pulled in experiences from working with numerous customers the past couple of years and, admittedly, we didn’t get these great customers by proposing an idea database to them. All of them were focusing on the power of being able to collect ideas amongst their employees, customers, partners, etc. and being able to quickly determine which ideas to move into projects. But, as they went along, they soon realized that the value created in this process needed to be structured and systematized – and most of all they realized that they didn’t have a uniform space/database for this purpose … but now they
Here at Nosco we are thrilled to be part of the fairly new industry of idea management systems, and day by day we are blessed with lessons learned from our wide range of customers.
In order to set a “status quo”, here’s our key lessons learned so far:
- Idea management is here to stay. Demand is increasing — not only from fortune 1.000 companies, but also from others.
- Making strategically aligned idea campaigns is “the thing”. Best results are made where strategy, insight and great communication meet in recurring campaigns.
- People, all people, have really really good ideas. Gone are the days where only the few contributed, now everybody has adopted idea management.
- Thanks Boss! Yes, management have woken up, and managers are now (almost) standing in line to endorse idea management implementations.
- Innovation is bla bla bla! Finally, ideation is not decided by the opinions of “experts”, and a tiring quest to discover the one
Based on our seminar yesterday, we decided to take the opportunity to form the “Nosco Innovation Club”. We hope that, by facilitating this club, our customers, friends and competitors will continue networking on the topics from our activities. For that purpose, we have created a LinkedIn group, which we hope you will join!
Yesterday’s seminar went extremely well, and everyone present expressed great interest through very insightful questions and comments. Thank you!
First up to inspire us was Søren Salomo, Professor of Innovation Management at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Søren talked about the parameters that need to be present in order to perform successful innovation.
Quotes from Søren:
Innovation efforts need to be based on projects, as innovation means creating something new, and thus it cannot be repeatable.
Innovation without proper communication will not work! An idea on its own is not enough – it needs to be expressed/communicated.
An idea is like a
Now, I am all for Apple, Mr. Jobs and all the great things coming from them – so this is not aimed at his/their way of innovating;-)
What I am adressing is that companies should not try to adopt, copy or imitate Apple’s way of innovating – but more be inspired by them.
Most “ordinary” companies will not/never be able to reach their level of innovation, but in many cases they try to copy it, and then they fail big time!
Even if your CEO turns up monday morning in a black turtleneck, comfy sneakers and jeans – it won’t do the trick;-)
Instead these companies should be inspired by the likes of Apple, and carefully handpick methods that can be useful to them and their innovation effort.
There is a lot of proven methods that can be implemented easily:
Time to innovate
- allow staff time for innovation – be inspired ie. by Googles 20% “rule”
Recently I wrote a response to an RFI on an Idea Management System coming from a +10000 employee customer.
The RFI was containing a very well written vision, on how the company wanted to explore and capitalize on ideas from their employees, and eventually include their customers, suppliers, partners etc. as well….so far so good;-)
Reading on, I faced 10-15 pages describing mandatory features and functions that they expected the winning bid to perfom…and, besides the mandatory ones, another 5-10 pages with a wishlist of even more features!
Now, I do understand that companies wants to secure that the adequate features are present – but hey! – what are the adequate features to be successful with your idea management system ?
Isn`t it basically that;
1. It`s easy to comprehend the topic of ideation.
2. Creating and sharing ideas are swift and fast.
3. Rating and commenting on others ideas are present.
4. Top ideas are moved quickly
