It was a simple change to the production process that not only saved employees a great deal of work and frustration, but also significantly reduced production costs and delivered a 40% efficiency gain.

The idea came from the team – made possible by modern, professional idea management.

How can companies benefit from their employees’ ideas? How does professional idea management work, and what benefits does it bring for companies and their employees? You will find out in this article.

Employees are valuable sources of ideas

Many employees have good ideas. Every employee brings strong expertise – they know the processes and experience day in, day out, which workflows function well and which do not. They are also often in direct contact with customers or suppliers and pick up valuable feedback there.

They thus spot not only problems but also opportunities that can save their companies a lot of money.

A company’s employees therefore hold enormous knowledge and know-how – which is not always tapped to its full extent.

The solution: professional idea management.

What is meant by idea management?

Idea management is a process that aims to foster the exchange of ideas and to support their implementation.

Professional idea management enables companies to easily collect, evaluate and implement ideas. It also offers employees a platform on which they can share and discuss ideas in order to foster creativity.

Through effective idea management, companies can strengthen their innovation capability, expand competitive advantages and secure their long-term success.

In contrast to innovation management, where it is mainly the company’s experts who submit proposals, idea management draws on the ideas and suggestions of all employees.

Idea management: An evolution of the company suggestion system (CSS) and the continuous improvement process (CIP)

The company suggestion system (CSS), introduced by Alfred Krupp in 1872, was about gathering spontaneous ideas from employees, optimizing processes, improving products and saving costs.

In the CIP (continuous improvement process), the goal is to drive small but continuous improvements to products or processes in teams and thus continually optimize quality.

Idea management as it is understood today encompasses both the individual approach of the company suggestion system (CSS) and the team approach of the continuous improvement process (CIP).

Idea management: The 5 most important benefits for companies and employees

How can professional idea management be implemented in your company?

Effective idea management is crucial for any company that wants to succeed. It allows companies to identify and implement the best ideas, while filtering out the weaker ones. An effective idea management system is able to continuously generate new ideas and accelerate the implementation of innovations.

Create the foundation in your company

The prerequisite for effective idea management is the creation of an open, innovation-friendly corporate culture, in which employees feel free and safe to express their ideas. Employees need to feel and see that their ideas can be valuable and that everyone has a share in the company’s success.

It also makes sense to strengthen idea management through training employees in creativity techniques.

Create incentives

Good ideas are worth their weight in gold. You should therefore create strong incentives that encourage your employees to share their ideas. While the opportunity to help shape their own company is a strong advantage for many employees, bonus payments for implemented ideas have also proven their worth in idea management. The bonus can be calculated, for example, as a percentage based on the first-year benefit.

Formulate clear goals for idea generation

It is also important to clearly define and communicate the goals of idea management. Goals can include cost savings, revenue increases, more efficient workflows or improved customer satisfaction.

Implement a professional idea management system

One of the most important elements of idea management is introducing systems or processes that let employees submit ideas in a structured framework, such as our idea management software, the Trendmanager. This software should be clear and easy to understand, to make submitting ideas as simple as possible while ensuring the quality of the ideas.

In an idea management system, all employees can express their thoughts freely and share them with others immediately. Everyone has the chance to react to new ideas quickly, discuss them and act on them.

With the software you can launch idea contests and campaigns, track idea generation and development, and derive important KPIs for assessing your idea management.

Which employees in the company does idea management affect?

Idea management – in contrast to innovation management, which is usually run mainly by selected teams and at the management level – involves all employees in the company.

In idea management, particular value is placed on every employee being able to contribute ideas and propose solutions to problems. Suppliers and customers are also welcome as sources of ideas.

To encourage more reserved employees to share their ideas too, it is especially important to communicate appreciation and to set clear rules for evaluating ideas. For example, criticism of submitted ideas should be avoided.

It can make a lot of sense to appoint or newly hire an idea manager to drive idea management forward.

The idea manager’s main tasks include:

• Planning and running idea contests
• Organizing and overseeing idea generation
• Organizing the evaluation of ideas with the help of subject-matter experts and according to defined criteria
• Analyzing business-relevant KPIs and creating reports

In very large mid-market companies and corporations, idea management can even become its own department.

For which companies is idea management suitable?

It is not only large corporations and industrial companies that benefit from idea management. Small and mid-sized companies, too, can significantly unlock their potential through effective, professional idea management.

In fact, studies show that success in idea management is not a question of company size, and that small and medium-sized companies can achieve equally strong results. In SMEs, the idea rate is, on average, 2.5 ideas per employee – even significantly higher than at large companies.

8 factors for successful idea management

Good, well-functioning idea management can move companies forward significantly. It lets you develop better products and services, optimize your processes, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

There are several factors, however, that are decisive for the success of idea management:

1. 1A clear "yes" to idea management. An essential prerequisite for functioning and successful idea management is a clear commitment from the company’s leadership. Financial, personnel and technical resources need to be made available – to deploy an idea manager, for example, implement management software or run training. Equally important is management’s willingness to allow and try out ideas from across the company.
2. 2A clear goal. A clear goal is the foundation of successful idea management. It gives participants a direction to follow. It is therefore management’s task to make the goal and the specific expectations for an idea clear to employees.
3. 3A motivated workforce. A motivated workforce is another key success factor. Employees need to recognize the potential of idea management and be willing to participate actively. Only then can new ideas be successfully implemented. Involve your employees not only in idea generation, but also keep them regularly informed about the results of evaluations and what happens with the good ideas. For every good idea, there will be 10 that cannot be acted on. Even so, no one should give up. Show your appreciation explicitly – even for ideas that don’t make it into implementation.
4. 4Appreciation. A reward system can be a strong motivator for your employees. Remember, however, that recognition should not only go to the originator of the idea, but also to other employees who helped develop and implement it. This is how you ensure that your employees push an idea forward, even when it is not their own.
5. 5An open communication culture. An open communication culture is also essential for the success of idea management. Only when everyone involved can communicate openly with one another and is willing to look beyond their own discipline can new ideas be developed and implemented. With clear rules and guidelines, you ensure that even more reserved employees feel safe to share their ideas without fearing the feedback of others.
6. 6Foster creativity. Offer regular training in creativity techniques or other skills relevant to idea management, so your employees can develop and unleash their full creative potential. It also helps creativity if your staff are not chronically overloaded. Make sure there is free time in which creativity can actually unfold.
7. 7Implementation strength. Even the best idea management is worthless if promising ideas are not put into action. It is therefore essential to have a clear and efficient structure for implementing ideas and innovations. To put new ideas into practice quickly, you need well-functioning project management and efficient milestone processes. This helps optimize both the development process and the timeline.
8. 8The right idea management system. Last but not least: you need a good, professional idea management system to put idea management into practice. An idea management software like our Trendmanager can simplify and structure company-wide communication around idea development. In a successful idea management process, everyone in the organization must be able to submit ideas, learn about ideas, discuss them or track their status without major hurdles.

In addition, a professional idea management software also supports the implementation and monitoring of ideas and provides you with important data and KPIs on the success of your idea management.

The Trendmanager from TRENDONE offers you exactly that. With the Explorer module, you also gain access to more than 50,000 innovations and Micro Trends from every region and industry, providing additional inspiration for you and your employees.

The Trendmanager is the ideal software for innovation teams. The tool offers high flexibility and is easy to use, so that ideas can be quickly and effectively collected, evaluated, communicated and implemented.

Would you like to try out the Trendmanager?

Book a tool demo and take a detailed look at all of the Trendmanager’s features.

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