Frontline
Ideas
from the front line can pay off
How
do you tap the brains of everyone in your organisation? Pip Frankish, 3M UK's
head of corporate marketing and communication, looks at the value of ideas from
employees.
Where
did the idea for the Big Mac come from? From someone at the front line, not someone
sat behind a desk back at the corporate head office. There are many examples of
employees putting forward ideas which have changed companies. And those companies
that involve employees and encourage ideas are likely to have a better track record.
Employee
involvement is not a new idea, reputedly started in the ship building industry
on the Clyde in the 1890s. These informal suggestion schemes are the earliest
known quality initiative. The oldest documented formal employee suggestion scheme
is that of US company Eastman Kodak which was started in 1898.
What
is new is the way that suggestion schemes are being rebranded, repackaged and
relaunched by companies in an effort to tap the collective creativity of an organisation.
As Jack Welch, chairman of GE, put it: "The only ideas that count are the
'A' ideas. There is no second place. That means we have to get everybody in the
organisation involved. If you do that right the best ideas will rise to the top."
Typical
suggestion schemes yield ideas for process improvements, changes to production
lines or environmental issues, such as recycling. However, increasing competition
means that companies are extending the scope of their schemes in an effort to
edge ahead. One US pharmaceutical company, for example, designed a programme to
collect ideas from sales and marketing employees to find new ways of promoting
a diabetes treatment. From 500 ideas, several were implemented within months of
the campaign starting. These included a travelling diagnostics unit which during
2001 and 2002 screened over 140,000 people for diabetes and raised awareness of
the disease throughout local communities.
Whether
ideas are for cost savings, marketing or new products, they can all impact the
bottom line. From a recent survey of 200 organisations, Ideas UK (The UK Association
of Suggestion Schemes) calculated a first year sales equivalent contribution of
almost £90 million from ideas that had been implemented through suggestion
schemes in the survey organisations. The charity's survey information over the
past 15 years indicates that over 99% of organisations achieve more in savings
than their programme costs to run - turning the schemes in fact to a profit centre.
According
to Ideas UK, statistically 60 out of every 100 ideas put forward in suggestion
schemes are rejected. Of the remaining 40, only 25 are implementable. Chief Executive
Steve Proctor says: "Initially you are looking for quantity not quality.
You will only get good ideas if you get lots of ideas. Think of it like panning
for gold. If you're not in the stream picking up every piece, many of which will
not be gold, you are not in with a chance of the big nugget coming along."
In
search for the 'big nugget' and specifically to accelerate growth, 3M recently
started an initiative called '2X 3X'. It is about generating twice the number
of ideas and commercialising three times as many winning ideas faster.
Should
you reward employees for their ideas or is it part of their job? Ideas UK believes
there are two routes you can take. "Tell people their ideas are all part
of their job and see how soon ideas dry up, or recognise and reward people and
see how your database of ideas starts to grow."
At
3M we do not use financial incentives for product ideas as we believe that this
search for new products using 3M technologies is part of everyone's job. However,
like many companies we believe recognition is vital to encourage an innovative
mindset. It is part of our culture and has been the bedrock of 3M's success -
from the lab assistant who spilt an experimental compound on her new tennis shoe
and had the idea which eventually led to Scotchgard fabric protector, to the much
quoted story of the idea for Post-it Notes when an employee was in church and
his bookmark kept falling out of his hymnal.
The
company has a range of corporate schemes recognising ideas and contributions in
sales and marketing, environmental improvements, innovation and scientific and
technical contributions - the most prestigious being election to membership of
3M's Carlton Society. In 2002, in a push for continuous improvement we introduced
two local schemes in 3M UK, one of which has a small financial incentive for individual
and teams who make an extra contribution.
As
a nation, the UK ranks high on creativity and low on innovation. Perhaps this
has something to do with our national culture or perhaps it is because many UK
companies lack a process to take ideas through the organisation. Capturing seed
ideas is one thing, harvesting them is another.
Homegrown
innovation means taking the ideas from the front line and sifting and sorting
them. It is then critical to accelerate the good ideas through the evaluation
gates to speed the commercialisation process.
Generating
the ideas and then prioritising and commercialising are two separate processes
requiring different skill sets. Involving employees in the first can only reap
benefits.
About the author
Pip Frankish is General Manager, Corporate Marketing & Communication at 3M
UK plc, where she leads a team of in-house consultants, providing specialist communications
and strategic marketing expertise to 3M business units. 3M is a $16 billion diversified
technology company providing innovative solutions to customers in health care,
safety, electronics, telecommunications, industrial, consumer and office supplies,
and other markets.
For further information
on innovation at 3M see www.3M.com/uk
or contact innovation@uk.mmm.com or
call 08705 360036
