Innovation through Social Networking: Implementing Idea Networks

At Launch we have always considered innovation a social function. Ideas are shared, critiqued, built upon and realized through the interaction and collaboration of individuals. Often organizations bring people together to share insights, brainstorm ideas and delve into deeper concept development and implementation planning and work. At Launch we have facilitated Market Sensing activities to gain new insights into customer needs and new business opportunities, Innovation Summits where groups share these insights and brainstorm ideas for new products, services and business models, Design Bursts to further develop concepts from selected ideas, and Deep Dives where concepts are realized and commercialization plans developed.

But these activities are episodic; they take place at a pre-determined time and place. This type of episodic activity is essential but not sufficient to develop a sustainable innovation capability and culture. Interactions between individuals are ongoing and a natural aspect of work in the most innovative companies and at Launch we have added to our work the concept to Social Networking to support ongoing interaction between individuals focused on idea generation and development; a phenomenon we have termed “Idea Networks”. We have found that Idea Networks are supported through Social Networking in three ways; individual employees meeting face to face, individual employees meeting virtually, and individual employees meeting with individuals from outside the company meeting face to face and virtually.

Let’s describe how some companies have harnessed these three forms of Idea Networking.

Bringing individual employees together outside of scheduled meetings and events happens regardless of what we do. The image of the “water cooler” as a point of what we call “coincidental interaction” is an image that easily comes to mind. Employee A goes to get a cup of water and encounters Employee B and while hydrating discuss a potential new product idea for some time and then return to their work spaces. The idea germinates and the two agree that at the next staff meeting they will present the idea for consideration.

The water cooler as point of Idea Networking is great, but what if we increased the chances for coincidental interactions and made these interactions a main stay in our company’s innovation process? Take the example of Borg Warner http://www.bwauto.com who when they built there state of the art Power Train Technology and Design Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, they built community kitchens at the end of each floor that became inviting spaces for individuals to make a coffee, prepare a meal and interact with colleagues. Or the example of Printpack Corporation http://www.printpack.com/ where each floor of their new headquarters and innovation complex has a “Town Center” complete with Café, tables and comfortable lounge areas for people to interact, which is an expected part of work, collaboration and idea generation.

Probably the best example for bringing individuals together specifically for Idea Networking is BMW’s Idea Cafe in their design and technical innovation Zentrum (Center) in Munich, Germany www.bmwgroup.com . At the BMW Idea Café you can grab a meal, a coffee or beer and interact with individuals from the various technical and design areas. But to use the Idea Café means you are committing to collaboration. It is expected that you will work on an opportunity or issue while you are there. In fact, around the room are screens with questions, thoughts and ideas to which you are expected to add your two cents. The walls are electronic and your input can be “penned” directly on the walls. The content of the walls can be seen at any workstation in the center, and the questions, thoughts and ideas can be entered from any workstation in the center allowing for an idea “give and take” to occur on an ongoing basis.

This leads us then from face to face interactions to more virtual forms of Idea Networking. Many companies have implemented software to support idea exchange and development, but few have actually taken the precepts of Social Networking into consideration. Most often these software applications are implemented to solicit ideas and allow individuals to share ideas on-line through some sort of portal. These ideas are then collected and a team of people sort through, prioritize and assign actions to the better ideas.

In Social Networking the precept would be that individuals, not only the company management, know which ideas are the most needed (eliminating the need for “idea solicitation”) and these individuals are also the best to generate and select ideas to be further developed. The key is to create the Social Networking platform that allows for this more organic and less directed approach. The team responsible for innovation and new business development would monitor conversations for new ideas, subtly interject thoughts to stimulate idea generation and to quickly move strong ideas to action.

An example of this approach to Idea Networking is being used in the company Hot Topic, a retail chain of 690 stores for teens in all 50 states http://www.hottopic.com/ . On the company’s internal Social Networking site 6000 employees share data and create ideas. The site was custom developed by Socialcast http://www.socialcast.com/, a company specializing in developing Social Networks for companies. eWeek magazine has said “Socialcast is like a secure Twitter for the enterprise.”

Finally the third form of enterprise Social Networking for ideas has employees interacting with individuals and institutions outside the company. This usually is a portal on the company’s website that invites non-employees to interact on topics of interest and concern to the company. In this approach companies tend to be very careful with what can and cannot be shared by employees, and the companies also tend to be very explicit about expectations and limitations of the interactions.

Take for instance Choice Hotels http://www.choicehotels.com/ use of IdeaScale. “In the competitive world of hospitality lodging, it’s not just enough to simply solicit customer feedback — there needs to be a mechanism to turn that feedback into real business intelligence that can be quickly incorporated into our various properties,” said John Thompson, Director of Hotel Performance Training for Choice Hotels. Vivek Bhaskaran, CEO and Founder of Survey Analytics, the company that developed IdeaScale http://www.ideascale.com/ , puts it this way, “Our goal with IdeaScale is to help facilitate an authentic conversation between companies and their most important constituency - their customers,” says No company can succeed in the long term without actively listening to what their customers want and now with IdeaScale, any company can put the power of real-time feedback to work for them.”

Another classic example for Idea Networking outside the company walls is BMW’s Virtual Innovation Agency or VIA, a portal that solicits and interacts with selected ideas. http://www.bmwgroup.com/via . Via has been intricately constructed to ensure ideas of relevance to BMW’s business strategy are selected through a series of screening and IP protection (both for BMW and individuals from the outside) filters.

So there are a variety of approaches to using Social Networking to create a powerful Idea Network. The key is to start by setting your technology strategy to best support your business objectives. After this, a few considerations are essential.

Do you have specific business growth targets/areas you see a form of Social Networking supporting?
Have you mapped your Idea Network, or the individuals and institutions you might want to support with Social Networking?
Have you determined if your Idea Network should include just internal employees or should it include individuals external to your company as well?
If the network you want to create includes externals, can you protect sensitive information and IP flowing to and from the network?
Do you have the innovation management capability to monitor the Idea Network you create to ensure you can “manage” the conversation and to ensure top ideas get the attention they need?

All in all, the technology exists to build powerful Idea Networks; the only thing holding you back is some planning and the will to try something very new! And, as usual, let me know thoughts, ideas and experiences.