Unlock Creativity with "Active" Idea Management

"Idea generation is everyone's job and no one's responsibility," wrote Robert Cooper in describing how no one individual in a company or business unit is specifically in charge of idea generation, and often, when new ideas surface, no action is taken (1). This lack of action could be due to the absence of a process to evaluate the worthiness of one idea compared to others or, more often than not, to the difficulty of finding the right home for the idea. One way of overcoming this problem is by using an idea management system. However, the classical idea management system as described in many books on innovation is little more than a suggestion box (2,3). Employees are encouraged to submit any idea that comes to mind. Typically, such programs don't get a lot of ideas after the initial marketing phase is over; moreover, the ideas that are submitted are often unfocused and hard to process and are rarely developed or funded. As a result, the process of extracting value from employees' ideas is often inefficient and random. Rather than leave ideas to chance, Bayer MaterialScience has developed an "active" process that empowers its employees to be innovative and creative by sharing their ideas for specific focused business needs using a Web-based idea management tool named Idea Works. The Event Approach Ideas are only as good as your ability to make them happen.-John Galt, CEO of Idon Resources. In 2003, a team co-led by two of us (Raymond Yourd and Valerie Patrick), with the Future Business group at Bayer MaterialScience, benchmarked idea management practices of several companies and evaluated a number of vendors offering idea management software. After considering building custom software, the team chose the idea management application called Idea Central by Imaginatik (4). The Imaginatik software is not simply a suggestion box; instead, it is designed to run focused "events." An event is a defined problem or need around which ideas are captured. These events are posted on the Web portal, and participants can enter their ideas within the event page. This approach solves several problems inherent in a passive "suggestion box" system. By definition, the ideas are focused because they have been generated to solve a specific problem. Additionally, they already have a home, which is the business unit that had the problem and sponsored the event. After deliberating the pros and cons of event-based versus passive suggestion box idea systems, the Bayer team was convinced that this "active" approach was the best, and rolled out their own Idea Central portal, christened Idea Works, in the summer of 2003. Today, Idea Works is a global tool used at Bayer MaterialScience in North America and Germany and will soon be launched in Asia as well. Anatomy of an Event In our experience, there are many types of events that can be addressed by an "active" idea management system. Examples at Bayer MaterialScience include: * Customer needs requiring technical solutions. * New technologies looking for a new application. * New applications of old products. * New products for old applications. * Process improvement. * New market strategies. * Continuous improvement and more. Employees are regularly invited to an event by an e-mail providing them with a special Web link to an event Web page like that on this page. Their activities in the portal are rewarded with feedback e-mail replies. This allows the idea submitter to be acknowledged immediately for his or her input. Each event has an assigned sponsor and a dedicated team to evaluate ideas and move the best ones forward, while keeping the idea submitter informed. All events are time-bound, soliciting ideas for no longer than two to four weeks. Success Stories The idea we're looking for is never beyond our reach.-Earl Nightingale, author, radio host and philosopher. …