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In 2011, British Airways faced mounting economic and compliance pressures. Fuel costs were skyrocketing, emissions targets were tightening, and operational expenses threatened profitability.  Rather than impose top-down cost-cutting measures, BA leadership believed that the best ideas don’t always come from corner offices but from the frontlines where team members are actually doing the work.  The result was the launch of the Staff Suggestion Scheme – a structured program inviting employees

In today’s competitive business landscape, companies are constantly seeking ways to drive innovation while improving operational efficiency, and Siemens has mastered the art of crowdsourcing ideas from within to achieve both of these mandates.  Siemens is one of the world’s largest industrial manufacturing companies, employing over 300,000 people worldwide with a rich history spanning over 170 years. Their employee ideas program has become a gold standard in corporate innovation, generating

Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, has long championed innovation. But some of its most impactful changes didn’t come from corporate R&D labs – they came from the floor of its factories, the frontlines of logistics, and the minds of its newest employees. To unlock these ideas, Nestlé launched a global idea management program, inviting employees at all levels to share their insights on how to improve operations, reduce

Still looking to learn and grow on your innovation and improvement journey in 2025? Although we’re already blasting off into Q2, here are 9 handpicked innovation conferences still happening in 2025 to help you and your team more effectively harness employee creativity and build more robust internal innovation ecosystems. 2025 Innovators Summit (5/2025, Chicago) The 2025 Innovators Summit in Chicago is designed for professionals seeking to accelerate their organization’s innovation

The most common reason that companies we talk to don’t move forward with an employee ideas program is centered around “we have other critical projects and priorities” to implement over the next 6 – 12 months.  What this really means 90% of the time is that leadership perceives the ROI of these other projects and initiatives to be higher than implementing an employee ideas program. Today, we’re sharing several heavy-hitting

One of the most common issues that comes from running Hackathons, Innovation Challenges, or crowdsourcing ideas is that there are more ideas that potentially have a positive ROI than you can possibly pursue. But what if you could increase your organization’s capacity to validate and test new ideas and ultimately better prioritize the ones with the most promise? Meet Adobe’s Kickbox Program – An initiative that was designed to democratize

Challenges 20% Time Encountered As Google Scaled and Went Public  Although Google’s 20% Time Program produced massive ROI for the organization, it was never a formalized policy that was included in employee handbooks or actual company documentation.  As the company scaled and went public, quarterly earnings and a short-term focus started to conflict with the cultural mindset and norms of allowing employees 20% of their time to work on side

ROI is how you justify your programs existence, yet only 39% of organizations actually track their programs impact.

Toyota is the poster child for employee idea programs—you could say they were one of the pioneers who brought the practice mainstream, launching their system in 1951 as a core part of the “Kaizen” movement. Their employee suggestion program, formally called the “Creative Idea Suggestion System”, has been highly effective in driving both cost savings and cultural engagement. Over the decades, it has generated billions of dollars in value and

Since an employee ideas program is a large scale initiative that potentially involves every member of your organization, there are many senior stakeholders that you need to get and maintain buy-in from. This can be great, but oftentimes needing to incorporate feedback from so many different people causes unintended consequences that set your program up for failure in the long-term. Here are the six most common mistakes we see organizations