Maximising Innovation Efficiency

Technology seems to make the world go ‘round. Tech has become such a fundamental part of modern business life it’s hard to believe that only 30 years ago, entrepreneurs were starting businesses without a computer, smart phone, or even an Internet connection. But new innovations are changing the way we live, and some are even referencing the increase as ‘the fourth industrial revolution.’ With the development of artificial intelligence, the Internet and big data, big businesses need to act quickly, smartly, and efficiently to keep up with the latest innovations and technology.

One of the ways older companies can keep up with rapid changes is by enlisting the intrapreneurs within their organization. These individuals incorporate an entrepreneurial mindset within a large, established business and can address new market opportunities, develop new ways of operating, and move quickly outside the normal scope of activities.

IdeaScale is the largest cloud-based innovation software platform in the world. We spoke to Vice President Jessica Day, about IdeaScale and how large corporations can use their services to better serve and utilise the intrapreneurs within their organization to better keep up with the changing times.

WHAT IS IDEASCALE?

Jessica Day: As your readers already know, the fourth industrial revolution has begun. It’s being led by information and innovation, which is changing the future of work for all of us. With technology trends shifting on a daily basis, organizations need a way to act quickly on new ideas that are already being shared at all levels of their organizations.

IdeaScale is software that allows organizations to gather ideas from employees or customers or citizens, but then also allows organizations to take scalable actions on those ideas— connecting them to other theories, thought leaders, money, and more. Organizations can then develop these larger concepts into new products or processes that will shape the future. It means that a good idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time.

It’s funny how we got into all of this, though. A couple of our co-founders were in the market research space, and their survey customers kept talking about how they were only able to gather information on questions they knew to ask. They weren’t able to gather quantitative and qualitative feedback in their blind spots. So we came up with IdeaScale as a way to answer that challenge [and] gather suggestions but [also] get real time feedback and information on those ideas, whether they were on your radar or not.

HOW DOES THE SOFTWARE AID LARGER COMPANIES IN UTILISING AND REWARDING THEIR INTRAPRENEURS?

JD: At our core, we want to change the workplace. We want everyone within an organization to be able to take action on good ideas, regardless of their position, job description or even employment status. We want companies to be able to solve their problems in a transparent, collaborative way that keeps huge organizations aligned and human.

So how does that work? Well, if a marketer has a great new product idea, even if he or she is in the marketing department and product development isn’t in their purview, they can share their basic product pitch in an IdeaScale community. Others in the community can then vote and comment on it, which can trigger a decision maker in the product team to review that idea.

That little idea becomes an opportunity to invest in the original idea author and bring them into the prototyping, testing, and launching process. Once that product goes live, it offers the company the ability to recognise the idea author for generating millions of dollars in new revenue. Other staff can then see the value they can add to the organization and get excited about sharing their own ideas.

search for ideas on a topic any time and reach out to idea authors for more information.

Some organizations will run time-limited challenges, asking for help solving a particular problem by a fixed deadline. But most of our customers do a mix of both, with those time-limited challenges delivering on new ideas in short sprints and keeping attention and interest alive, and the always-on database for ongoing idea development that creates a mine of ideas that can be tapped at any time by decision makers.

Here’s another example: the City of Atlanta wanted to find a way to save their city and taxpayers’ money, so they asked their employees for new ways to be more efficient or ideas for new programs that would help save money. The top three ideas alone amounted to a potential cost savings of $7.1 million annually. Those ideas include a new work release program for blighted city properties, a pay-as-youthrow waste management program, and e-records for all city communications. All those program ideas came from uncommon places in response to this one time-limited challenge set by the city and weren’t being explored by the existing business unit. It was the intrapreneurs who had this vision.

DO DIFFERENT COMPANIES HAVE DIFFERENT WAYS OF IDENTIFYING AND DEFINING AN INTRAPRENEUR?

JD: Oh my gosh, yes! Some are looking for continuous improvement ideas and some are looking for true disruptors. Some companies simply want an idea and others want to mentor and nurture the idea author. I will say our customers, that invest in training and celebrating their intrapreneurs, generally enjoy better long-term performance and higher delivery rates on good ideas.

To read more from Jessica Day head to www.intrapreneurmagazine.com/magazine