The true value of company idea competitions
Idea competitions are a powerful tool in the corporate open innovation arsenal, generating high levels of excitement and engagement. But all too often management and participant goals are misaligned, and these programs get cancelled, leaving leaders, competition organizers and participants dissatisfied.
I’ve seen all sides of idea competitions having designed, led, coached, participated and even won. The process of building the business case for Burts Bees Natural Launchpad and bringing it to market was a career highlight. If you run idea competitions at your company here are 5 things to consider:
1. Don’t make revenue the goal. In my experience there is no way that idea competitions can (or should) directly compete with the standard innovation process. Company product pipeline processes are highly optimized and structured with end-to-end business support. Ideas from competitions struggle to enter that pipeline process and compete for that business support.
2. Use idea competitions to develop a culture of creative speed in which employees are skilled in proposing and strengthening ideas through rapid testing of hypotheses to develop holistic business propositions.
3. It’s all about the training. Competitions allow employees to develop relevant skills at speed. They are highly engaged because they are working on an idea they are passionate about, and they learn at speed because they must apply the training in real time.
4. Keep participation fresh. Competitions tend to draw a certain profile. At Clorox, Open Innovation employees were perennial winners. Because the goal should be diffusion of innovation skills then former winners should not be allowed to re-enter. Companies should deploy/ rotate those winners to businesses that are struggling to generate innovation.
5. Don’t constrain ideas. I’ve observed that having businesses declare specific problems reduces idea quality. It’s ok to have broad guardrails (e.g. should fit or complement the company strategy). The goal is to generate fresh perspectives that absorb into the organization. This shifts the mindset and broadens thinking thereby driving systemic long-term value.
