CREATE OUTSTANDING

ORGANIZATIONS
Winning with employee ideas
CREATE OUTSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS
Winning with employee ideas

Gain competitive advantage

through employee ideas 1
2 What do outstanding organizations
do differently?
The secret of exceptional ideas
Interview with #1 expert Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer 3
Case Study 2: Strenger Bauen und Wohnen –
4 Case Study 1: GlaxoSmithKline – Employees devel-
op ideas for innovative toothbrushes
Defending the leading position through ideas
from employees 5
6 Case Study 3: LV1871 – Shaping digital transforma-
tion through ideas from employees
Innolytics® Ideas – originated from the experience
of more than 300 projects 7
1
Gain competitive advantage through employee ideas
Think about how often you need new ideas in your team, department or
company. And how often you miss opportunities because the right idea
is missing at the right time.

 What do you do if you cannot convince customers of the value of

your offer? If you give up, you lose your customers. Ideas are the main driver for
Ideas for new sales propositions are essential.
innovative companies!

What if you notice that your business processes are too Ideas are the keys to competitive
complicated? If you accept it, you remain inefficient. advantage. The basis for your suc-
Ideas for simplification are needed. cess.

In this e-book we share with you

Your goals in production are ambitious: Significantly
€ lower costs along with considerably higher quality.
the experiences of more than 300
customer projects, supported by
No problem if you develop and pick the right ideas. scientific research results.

You want more than just to satisfy your customers. We show you how organizations
You want to amaze them. become outstanding by using
What you need: Ideas for exceptional customer experiences performance-driven idea software.

The impact of your marketing decreases. You can increase the

advertising pressure with a lot of money. Or save the money.
What you need: ideas.
2 What do outstanding organizations do differently?
At 9 a.m. in the morning at the Average Inc.
Like every morning Susan Sorrow
starts her computer. Her mailbox
„What‘s the point?“ Susan thinks,“
I‘ve typed these numbers into this
At 9 a.m. in the morning at the Outstanding Corp.
Peter Power also receives many
e-mails. 30 this morning. It takes
„Today it just takes us minutes
to answer. And the number of
is overflowing. She received 25 document at least four times in the him five minutes to work on it. inquiries has dropped by more
internal mails. Susan thinks: last three days.“
„Since we‘ve developed the new
than half, since customers find
“Where are the topics that are rele- communication rules, I make
all the answers online.
vant to me?“ twice as many mails as before,“ „When the concept of ​​the cus-
10 o‘ clock. Team meeting. Susan
Sorrow proposes three ideas: he thinks. tomer community was first ex-
Ideas platform pressed on the Idea Platform a
At 9:15 a. m. the phone rings: A It‘s been four months since he
year ago, there were many
customer has a question about “Let‘s develop an internal e-mail submitted his proposal to the
questions. Today it is a huge
the 3P machine, the company‘s format in which the most impor- in-house idea platform. He was
success.
new product. Susan Sorrow is tant to-dos are clearly displayed for overwhelmed by the feedback.
trying to help. She patiently everyone. The team meeting will start this
From all areas colleagues have
explains to the customer how to In addition, we should optimize the
morning at 9:15. „I‘ll be able to
given his proposal five stars. Since
read the instructions correctly. instructions for use. Customers do
quickly compile the figures for
then, all emails start with three
the reporting.“, Peter thinks.
She notices that there are misun- not get along with them. lines summary and a mention of
derstandings in several parts. The And I would suggest that we set tasks for the recipients. One click and the relevant
instructions tend to confuse up a central repository for key data Peter Power takes a look at the
information has already been
customers rather than help them. so that they don‘t have to be labori- customer community of his com-
transferred to his Excel docu-
ment. „Hard to imagine that my
Susan remembers: “Last week ously entered by hand.“ pany. There were two inquiries
colleagues used to spend
there were five similar calls, which „Susan, you‘re too negative,“ says about new products this morning.
several hours transferring the
took a long time to process.” her superior. „Everything is great! One has already been answered numbers by hand ...“
We have other things to worry Customer-
by customer service. The col-
It is 9:30 a. m., when a colleague about.” community league was just on the train and
sends her a mail: an Excel docu- Is the Average Inc. open for Ideas? wrote her comment from the
ment in which she has to enter the Not a bit. smartphone. „Our service in the
numbers from last month. past was really bad,“ says Peter.
 Small ideas - big impact
The Outstanding Corp. has managed to effectively collect,
discuss and implement a large number of ideas from employees.
This focus - successfully utilizing the creative potential of
employees - is the secret of outstanding organizations.

The iPhone was not a single idea - but a successful combination

of hundreds, if not thousands, of small ideas: The development
of the software, the combination of different technologies, the
design, the marketing strategy and the production process - all
made up of ingenious flashes of inspiration from the developers.

Why is Tesla so innovative? What makes Amazon

successful? And what is the secret of the most
successful innovation leaders?

Innolytics®-Founder Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer has

investigated it as part of his scientific work. In
addition to the great visions of its founders, it is
the ability to motivate employees to think along
with them. And to use their ideas for the company.
3
The secret of exceptional ideas
In six years of scientific work, Innolytics founder Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer has been researching a
Interview with key challenge for business success: How do ideas emerge in organizations?
Innolytics®-Founder And how are they successfully implemented?
Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer

Dr. Meyer, can a company be creative at all?

Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: Of course. Over the past few years I have
come across numerous companies in which ideas are constantly
being developed. You can already feel this when you
Idea management software has been around for years, providing a
clear process from the input of ideas to the award ceremony. What
do you think of these approaches?
Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: These approaches come from
another time. Traditional idea management processes
„ Creativity is
enter these companies. There is a different atmosphere.
were developed during industrialization at the end of particularly fostered when
Ideas are readily accepted and discussed. It is evident
that employees enjoy developing and driving new the 19th century. At that time, employees filled out idea employees experience
ideas forward. notes which they threw into a mailbox. Then these ideas an environment with
were evaluated one after the other by different experts.
Do you absolutely need software for this?
And finally, a bonus was paid out. Idea management a high probability of
Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: A software is first and foremost
a tool. It supports what the management wants to
software of the first generation illustrated exactly encountering other
this process, based on the technological possibilities
achieve and what it is committed to. From this point of at that time. But that has little to do with how ideas positive ideas„.
view, it is important to emphasize: Without the compa- come into being. Today such approaches are outdated.
ny really wanting new ideas and without the manage- Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer,
ment‘s commitment, little happens. But if a company Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer The ability of companies to innovate

wants to use the creative potential of its employees,

good software is almost indispensable. Nobody would come up What is the problem with classical idea management?
with the idea of not giving a craftsman a hammer or taking the Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: I took part in many congresses at which the
computer away from a programmer. This is also the case with classic instruments of the company suggestion system were presented
an idea management software: it is the tool that enables employ- and discussed. The idea managers were dissatisfied with the rigid
ees in the company to achieve maximum creative performance. processes: Creators of ideas sometimes wait several months before
they receive a reaction. This is simply outdated in times of Facebook
and the like.
 „
You have developed Innolytics® Ideas on the basis of your To what extent does Innolytics Ideas® support the development
scientific research and numerous practical projects. What of an innovation culture in companies?
makes you different? Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: In developing Innolytics® Ideas, we have
Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: Innolytics® Ideas is a software-supported taken into account all the results of my scientific research. The
idea management concept that radically breaks with the slow possibility of communicating across departmental and even An incentive system that

„
bureaucratic systems of the past. We rely on scientifically founded national borders and meeting like-minded people on a platform aims to incentivize creative
principles of motivation psychology and creativity research. - i. e. creating an informal network - is enormously important.
Ideas do not arise when you force employees to fill in an input Other important points: Companies need at some point the
thinking and action obviously
form. Ideas are slowly forming. It is a process that begins with opportunity to bring inspiration into the company and discuss needs to be built differently
questions, goes back and forth and plays
Systems must a very important role in the exchange of
it. If an employee sees a groundbreaking idea at a trade fair than one that primarily
today and wants to share it, where does it happen? If someone
support the specific information. gets a tip from a customer, where can you discuss this beyond targets the reward of
Many companies reward ideas that have
nature of creative thinking been accepted and implemented. Is that
department boundaries? Companies that do not have a platform operational success.„
for ideas discard opportunities every day.
processes and a mistake? Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer,

organize workflows Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer: Of course, successes The ability of companies to innovate

accordingly.“ should be celebrated. No question about

it. The problem is that companies often
Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer,
The ability of companies to innovate focus only on success. This contradicts
all scientific research into how ideas are
created. The normal process is as follows: I ask you a question
that is new to you. You then have an idea, but it doesn‘t hit the THE BOOK ON THE TOPIC
target yet. Someone else picks up on this idea and implements it Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer –
successfully. Who is now the father or mother of the idea? Idea The ability of companies
generation is team sport - just like football: If a coach rewards to innovate
only the goalscorer, but forgets that without the team he would Business Village 2015
not have any chance to score, a team will never succeed.
The scientific basis of
Innolytics® Ideas
4
Case study GlaxoSmithKline
Employees develop Dr. Best is one of the best-known brands in the consumer goods industry. The typical feature, the flexib-
le shaft above the brush head, is an unmistakable product feature that consumers automatically associ-
the next generation of ate with Dr. Best. Is it really possible to make such a toothbrush even better? You can. Dr. Best‘s emplo-
yees proved it in an idea competition conducted within the company with Innolytics® Ideas.
Dr. Best toothbrushes

Planning Implementation
The campaign‘s objectives and messages for The competition was communicated on the company‘s in-
internal communication were developed in col- tranet, via e-mail and direct contact. Employees were able to
laboration with the company‘s managers and participate on a voluntary basis. Due to the principle of vol-
GlaxoSmithKline‘s communications agency. For unteering, only those who had ideas and were enthusiastic
the campaign, the company opted for a simple about the project took part.
Innolytics® Ideas Template: a cover page that
briefly describes the task - with a wizard that al- Due to the particularly simple registration process of
lows ideas to be entered directly. Several subject Innolytics® Ideas, an important hurdle for participation was
areas were defined for the idea campaign: Ideas lowered: The registration of participants only took place after

„
for new functions, ideas for innovative design and the submission of an idea. In the background, the software
ideas for accessories. ensured that only employees of GlaxoSmithKline and the sup-
porting agencies could register.

Innolytics® Ideas is a
Result super easy tool. Our employees really
enjoyed developing ideas. The results
More than 90 ideas and suggestions within a few weeks. have overwhelmed us.“
The best concepts flowed directly into the
process of product development.
Wolf Dieter Müller, GlaxoSmithKline
5
Case study Strenger Gruppe
Stay on top Anyone who thinks that the construction industry is not innovative does not know the Strenger Group. The com-
pany, based in Ludwigsburg, has two main focuses: high-quality design houses of the brand Strenger Bauen und
of the industry with Wohnen, as well as terraced houses of the Baustolz brand, which are up to 20 percent below the market price -
and that with the highest quality standards. To remain at the forefront of the industry, the company is constant-
Innolytics® deas ly in need of ideas for process optimization, new design standards, and innovative approaches to customer care.

Innovation as core
conpentence of Strenger Strenger Innovation Award
In a process lasting several months with Innolytics® With an annual ideas and innovation competition,
GmbH, the conditions were created to collect employee the company promotes ideas from employees. The
ideas. And to develop them purposefully to new management specifies the strategic goals that are
products and processes. Goals for Ideas and Innovation communicated via the company‘s blog and mailings.
Management were defined during the process, and Employees have several weeks to develop ideas on the
various ideas were developed that were important to topics that drive the business forward. The Strenger
the company. Important components of the process Innovation Award honors the best employee ideas and
were the development of internal voting processes, innovations with monetary and material prizes.
criteria for the selection of ideas and the creation of the
foundations of an incentive system.
6
Case study LV 1871
Shaping digital The insurance industry is facing a major challenge: Digitisation requires the development of new processes, services and busi-
ness models. LV 1871 is a specialist for innovative occupational disability, life and pension insurances. The company has more
transformation with ideas than 450 employees and almost 9,500 business partners. At the beginning of 2016, the company‘s management team decided to
involve employees and managers in the change process of the industry. Since summer 2016, the company has been relying on the
from employees. idea management platform of Innolytics® GmbH.

Setting up Innolytics® Ideas Das Ergebnis

In the summer of 2016, the interfaces between The platform was very well received by the
Innolytics® Ideas and the existing IT systems of LV 1871 employees of LV 1871. The top management
were created. Every morning, a user data comparison regularly receives suggestions for new products,
takes place between the systems. In addition, a single services and business models, process
sign-on was realized: Users who are logged on to the LV improvements and product optimization.
1871 intranet are automatically logged on to Innolytics® Through the introduction of Innolytics® Ideas,
Ideas. The automatic login ensures low barriers to employees from different areas were also
participation in idea management. The idea and networked with each other. Internal innovation

„
innovation management of LV 1871 was commissioned networks were created - staff members,
with the introduction of Innolytics® Ideas. The who deal with the topic of innovation across
responsible employees were instructed in the functions departments.
by Innolytics® GmbH and have been in charge of the
platform ever since. We are thrilled with the number of
ideas in our employees‘ minds. The
proposals we receive are thoughtful,
well-founded and forward-looking.“

Thomas Krüer, LV 1871

7
Innolytics Ideas ®

Based on the experience Since 2006 we have carried out more than 300 ideas and innovation projects. From the development of innovative products to the conception of
complex digital new business models. Our methods and expertise have been published in a number of books, including „The EDISON Principle“ and
„Genius is no coincidence“. During this time, we have dealt with a wide variety of different idea and innovation management systems. A number of
of more than 300 our customers relied on software that illustrated the classic continuous improvement and idea management process: a clearly structured process
from the input of ideas to evaluation and approval. Others - especially in innovation management - used complex processes such as the Stage Gate
workshops & projects process.

Road to Innolytics® Ideas

In many companies we have noticed the growing Formulate the finished idea here: In traditional idea and innovation
dissatisfaction of management with existing tools management, barriers are often
through our work. Traditional idea and innovation seen as obstacles to imple-
management systems begin when an idea is already ??? mentation. In Innolytics® Ideas,
formulated. This means that the submitter of an idea teams with different perspectives
must already have a very concrete idea of what an and perspectives work on finding
idea looks like and how it can be implemented later. ways to overcome these barriers.
However, this is often not the case.
Classic idea and innovation
management software

All the workshops and brainstorming processes that

we conducted began with questions and discussions.
Every idea is preceded by a phase of knowledge in
which the problem is precisely defined and discussed.
Colleagues from other areas bring other aspects and
Come on in!
Let‘s discuss! 1
Realization
new perspectives to the problem analysis. Inspirations
- i. e. inspiring examples from other companies and
industries - stimulate the flow of ideas. And once an
idea is entered, it changes.
Books byInnolytics® Founder
Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer
The Innolytics® Ideas approach
The experience gained from more than two hundred brainstorming workshops and processes was the
basis for the development of Innolytics® Ideas. The process begins with the discussion of important
issues. The effects of new trends and technologies are debated, the results of market research are
analysed and customer problems are discussed - Innolytics® Ideas provides the perfect space for these
kinds of discussions.

Employees on the customer hotline realize that

customers have the same problems when using certain
products. Employees of the customer hotline start a
discussion. Technology, marketing and sales contribute Administrative staff discuss the question of why invoicing
their views. takes so long. Employees from the finance department
pick up on the discussion because they realize that there are
As a result, quality problems are detected more quickly problems with cash flow due to late invoicing.
and innovative solutions are found faster.
As a result, innovative solutions can be found quickly
and easily by networking the expertise of employees from
different departments.

Employees in production encourage employees to

accelerate certain processes - with the aim of speeding
up production. Employees from the sales department
take up this idea. After all, customers have just
complained about the long delivery times.
As a result, management receives valuable
impulses for prioritizing measures.
Innovative functions of Innolytics Ideas ®

During the development of Innolytics® Ideas, we

focused on the needs of companies that need to
respond quickly to changing markets. We have created
a tool that follows the logic of social networks. This
makes it possible to pursue a wide variety of initiatives
at the same time. The employees from all areas of
the company are motivated to make a sustained
commitment to idea and innovation management.
And that is geared to the requirements of the mobile
Internet. We are proud to call Innolytics® Ideas the next
generation of idea management software.

Enter ideas, develop and

Idea blog
evaluate them into concepts

Extensive moderator
Incentive-System
functions

Optimization for the

Campaign management
mobile internet

User profiles and Clear, simple platform

administration management
 Idea blog
In an economy that is increasingly driven by
changes such as digitization, the idea blog
is the fastest way to bring knowledge about
new developments into the company.

At a trade fair you have discovered a new

interesting technology. You record a video on
your smartphone, upload it and employees
around the world can watch it. Inspiration, i. e.
the impulse from other areas and industries,
allows them to think outside the box.

Why did we implement this central feature?

Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer, Managing Director of
Innolytics®, has analysed numerous studies
in his scientific research on the innovative
capacity of companies, which clearly show
how important external impulses are for the
innovation culture. New ideas arise from the
confrontation with new impulses. Employees
can enter, read and discuss such suggestions
in the idea blog.
 Enter ideas, develop and evaluate
them into concepts
In our many years of activity we have repeatedly assessed on a large scale. This means that
noticed one thing: Ideas that are recorded on all participants awarded points. A first very
file cards or in keywords are a good start. But superficial impression. However, a second
that is not enough. When designing Innolytics® evaluation process was always needed before
Ideas, we therefore placed particular emphasis successful implementation. Experts and experts
on the functions that have emerged as the most evaluated ideas and concepts according to
important ones in our workshops and processes. various criteria. A qualitative evaluation was
• Ideas have to be visualized and presented in a created. Criteria such as feasibility, technical
striking way. Users of Innolytics® Ideas have feasibility and risk were added.
the possibility to upload picture galleries or even
videos together with their ideas. Attachments Innolytics® Ideas maps this process. There are Clear, graphic and striking presentation of ideas
can also be uploaded. different assessment procedures. On the one
• From the idea to the concept: high-quality hand, all users can vote and on the other hand,
 Evaluate
ideas are created when they are systematically a selected jury can vote according to different or
developed into concepts. Innolytics® Ideas gives extended criteria. In addition, Innolytics® Ideas
you the opportunity to define key questions for offers the possibility of assigning ideas and Attractiveness 
participants. For example:“What concrete benefit concepts to different levels: For example,“sub-
mitted“,“in discussion“,“successfully adopted“,“in Novelty 
does the idea have?“ or „Which obstacles could
stand in the way of a successful implementation? implementation“. This makes it possible to use Customer benefit
the positive aspects of innovation processes and 
• Evaluation of ideas and concepts. In almost all to keep the management of ideas and concepts Large audience

the workshops and brainstorming processes simple at the same time.
we have conducted, we have encountered the Enter evaluation

following phenomenon: First of all, ideas were

Innolytics® Ideas makes it possible to define different criteria for
user and jury voting
 Incentive-System
The question has been intensively discussed in creativity research
for years: What kind of incentives do employees need to provide
creative services? What motivates them to support internal idea
management or innovation? We have investigated this question
in numerous research projects, including the study „Motivational
factors of highly creative employees“ published by Springer Verlag.

By far the most efficient method to motivate employees to think

creatively is a gamification approach. Employees collect points for
activities such as entering or commenting on ideas. Based on this
research and our practical experience, we have developed the Incentive
Manager. Enterprises can define which kind of activities on the
platform should be rewarded with a certain number of points. Reading
blog posts, participating in the discussion of questions, writing ideas
and ideas that are successfully implemented. It is also possible to
motivate teamwork, for example by rewarding groups of employees.
The incentive manager makes it possible to make a company‘s culture
of ideas and innovation transparent in a playful way. How dedicated
are employees and teams to new ideas and innovation? Innolytics®
Ideas makes it possible to set goals and reward the activities of
employees and teams. In addition, the incentive system ensures that
employees are permanently and sustainably involved in idea and
innovation management. Innolytics® Ideas is the platform that you
can use permanently in your company. Employee involvement remains
high in the long term.

Establishment of the incentive system in the administrative area. You are also free to decide on the designations and number of
Decide for yourself how many points are awarded for each levels as well as on the number of points from which a new level
activity. is reached.
 Extensive moderator Optimized for the mobile
functions Internet
As in an idea or innovation workshop, an active We have seen again and again that participants had the
moderation of ideas and innovation activities is best ideas before or after a workshop. The situation is
required. Therefore, moderators have a special role similar for employees in the company. They are created
in Innolytics® Ideas. Among other things, they can when employees suddenly idle at daily intervals, for
change or even delete user contributions. When example because a train is 15 minutes late. They arise
users change posts during a process, the original spontaneously in a conversation with customers. Or
versions are saved. Moderators can always restore on the way to and from work. Innolytics® Ideas makes
them. it possible to read blog posts from anywhere, to follow
and participate in discussions on the go, and to enter
This gives moderators full control over what
ideas wherever they arise. The platform is optimized
happens on the platform. And they can help
for the mobile Internet. The apps are available in the
participants with words and deeds. In the
appstore of Apple and Google Android.
development of Innolytics® Ideas, we have
created a multitude of features that at first
glance may seem unimportant, but which are
very helpful in everyday life. For example, the
„hot discussed“ function. Moderators can specify
that a particular discussion is to be given the
status „hot-discussed“ after about three or five
comments. The most important discussions are
thereby visually highlighted.
 User profiles and Clear, simple platform
administration management
Especially when it comes to innovation, employees In the development of Innolytics® Ideas, we paid
need different skills than in their day-to-day business. attention to the easy operation of the platform from
Innolytics® Ideas makes it possible for employees the outset. The backend, i. e. the administration of the
to define their own job and experience profiles. For contents and functions of a platform, is laid out in clear
example, they can enter methodological knowledge tiles. Platform administrators quickly find their way
such as process optimization, Lean Start-up or around. With just a few mouse clicks you can change
creativity techniques into their profiles, or they can the appearance of the platform, create new campaigns
add experience from previous innovation projects. or change evaluation criteria. Innolytics® Ideas is
Technical know-how, which is particularly important designed so that employees can concentrate on ideas
for innovation, can also be recorded here. Intelligent and innovations - without having to spend weeks in the
user administration makes it possible for you to complex operation of a software.
invite participants with a certain experience profile
to specific campaigns or to comment on ideas. With
just a few clicks you can identify the employees who
have the right skills for your project.

Users can indicate specific knowledge in their profile The clearly arranged administration area of Innolytics® Ideas
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