To stay ahead of the competition it's vital you improve
existing products and services and develop new ones -
according to Simon Hill, the founder of Wazoku, idea management is
key to that process.
Idea management is the process of generating and capturing ideas
from people inside or outside your organisation. This provides a
central place where ideas are collected and stored and then
evaluated before the best ones are selected and taken forward for
development. There are many reasons why small businesses should pay
attention to idea management, including:
-
Allows businesses to unearth the best ideas in the
organisation
-
Helps you stay ahead of the competition
-
Gets feedback from your employees
-
Offers a way crowdsource answers to business
problems
-
Helps develop a culture of open innovation
Getting feedback and ideas for improvement is especially
important in the early stages of any business. Your team and
advisors will have loads of great ideas for developing your product
or service as well as ideas for getting your business up and
running.
Traditionally the process of capturing ideas may have been done
via an ideas suggestion box where ideas were submitted, a few may
have been chosen for further development but rarely was there any
feedback given on the outcome of the ideas. This type of system
also left no room for wider collaboration or involvement of other
employees.
These days there is specific idea software to make the job
easier, more open, more collaborative - and more effective. Idea
software enables the structured capture and evaluation of ideas
within an organisation. The benefit for companies of any size lies
in the ability to select and refine ideas that offer the greatest
potential business value. Companies that manage this process
effectively enjoy increased revenue and a more engaged, productive
workforce.
If you are looking for idea software for your business, make
sure you choose a tool that allows others in your organisation to
feed back and collaborate on submitted ideas. This will help the
ideas develop and will help you to start evaluating them. Having a
central place that captures and stores ideas submitted by employees
means that ideas can be discussed, shared, developed and signed off
all in one place.
Whichever route you choose for your business, remember the right
ideas can transform your business.
Simon
Hill is CEO and co-founder of Wazoku, an idea software
company, an Associate Director with the Venture Capital Firm
FindInvestGrow and an active member of the London technology and
entrepreneurial community.