In today’s world of breakneck change, companies need ways to develop ideas into strategies, strategies into prototypes, and prototypes into the next big thing. Quickly.
One way to do this is to combine two of the most powerful forces known to business: the market, and the crowd.
In the marketplace for ideas, those ideas that attract the most love and attention will be the ones that win out. They’ll get funding and intellectual energy that others don’t – no matter how much senior management pushes them.
The question is, how can organisations attract ideas, and then leverage the knowledge and understanding of its people to help the most viable ones become reality. What’s needed is a transparent internal market for ideas that allows everybody to see the ideas on offer, and gives everyone a stake in the process.
The answer? Social media. The way that social media sites operate is perfectly adapted to the generation, feedback and refinement of ideas into reality. Individuals can provide their ideas, feedback and participate in the refinement process, without leadership or facilitation – it happens as a result of the power of the swarm.
Software provider Spigit has developed a social media platform for doing just this. Customers such as Cisco, Pfizer, and Southwest Airlines use Spigit’s innovation management software for corralling the to-and-fro of collaboration across the enterprise, in a transparent process that encourages cross-fertilising of ideas through the organisation.
The software has been customised for the Australian Innovation Festival. The Australian Innovation Festival Ideas site invites all comers to provide ideas, to give their feedback on other participants ideas, and to invest their spigits (a fantasy currency created for the comptition) in those ideas they think are most promising.
Once the Australian Innovation Festival concludes, ideas in each category with the most investment dollars from registrants are awarded access to advisors and investors to continue to develop the idea for possible funding and real world implementation.
Business21C will support those ideas that successfully emerge from the process by providing expert business insight and academic analysis through UTS Business. They will also be supported by other partners including Patent Attorneys Griffith Hack; Innovation think tank the Hargraves Institute.
Ideas can be submitted against four themes: A Better Future for our Children (ideas to help future generations); Sustainable Environments (climate control, green technology etc.); The Connected World (making use of the national broadband network); and The Recovering Economy (making Australia a more robust economy).
Register your idea here now.