dispatches from the new world of work

Innovation U

Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company and co-author (with Polly LaBarre) of Mavericks at Work (pub date Sept. 1, 2006) is now writing a regular column for the New York Times. Sunday's article, titled "Here's an Idea: Let Everyone Have Ideas," discusses Rite-Solutions, a software company based in Rhode Island (USA) that has "an internal market where any employee can propose that the company acquire a new technology, enter a new business or make an efficiency improvement." It's a good case study of how a company taps into the collective genius of the whole organization.

Erik Hansen posted this on 03/27/06.

Comments

Quiet genius - love the concept - put it out there and ideas flow to solve challenges - networks expand - careful though ID theft runs rampant - brilliant beauty and evil lurk transparently ...

Posted by Sean at March 27, 2006 12:20 PM

I'm more impressed with the other example in the NY Times article, InnoCentive. Here's a paradigm whose time has come. This is a major mashup of collaboration mentality, capitalism and our passion for competition.
There great forces at colliding here. This is what Frans Johansson termed "intersectional thinking" in his book "The Medici Effect." (See: "The value of what you don't know.") http://www.innovativeye.com/blog/2006/2/8/the-value-of-what-you-dont-know.html
As the ever flattening world makes global interaction between communities of interest easier to accomplish, there will be more interesting business models that leverage brains and creativity from whatever source is interested in playing on any given day. The only thing predictable will be a guarantee of innovation. (Also see: "Collaboration for a Flat World.") http://blog.qmind.com/blog/2006/3/21/collaboration-strategy-for-a-flat-world.html

Posted by Chas Martin at March 27, 2006 3:17 PM

Letting everyone have ideas is good (maybe even super good), but I'm more and more in love with the phrase "innovation without permission."

I realize the "let everyone have ideas" thing is all about removing the filters and organizational barriers to innovation, but the title still conveys a sense of permission-granting and (here's the rub) control... because the ability to have ideas is oh-so-graciously granted to the great unwashed...

It's a step in the right direction, but I would rather see an environment which fosters genuine innovation (i.e. invention taken to market) without the need to seek & receive permission... sort of like the Burger King ads mentioned in an earlier post...

Posted by Dan Ward at March 28, 2006 9:29 AM

This is such a great topic to focus on at this point in time. Companies miss out on an abundance of knowledge that otherwise could be used to prosper the organization. With the emergance of more Master's & Ph.D. degrees in today's times, using the knowledge located within your organization is vital. I believe in the future, this could reap benefits for more and more companies. After all, today's emerging leaders are more software and tech savvy which makes using a system such as this much easier for the workforce.

Posted by Casey Peters at April 3, 2006 7:58 PM