Idea Stock Exchange

Retrospeak writes to tell us The New York Times has an interesting article on an interesting business strategy used by a company called Rite-Solutions. The system recognizes the need for harvesting ideas from the entire company instead of just one or two "idea-men" in a stock-market-esque idea exchange. From the article: "We're the founders, but we're far from the smartest people here," Mr. Lavoie, the chief executive, said during an interview at Rite-Solutions' headquarters outside Newport, R.I. "At most companies, especially technology companies, the most brilliant insights tend to come from people other than senior management. So we created a marketplace to harvest collective genius."

Comments

Re:Japanese methods?

[tomhath]

My experience with employee suggestion systems or quality circles is exactly what the executives at this company are trying to avoid. An idea comes in, some big shot decides it's not worth pursuing, and the whole suggestion system/quality circle/whatever falls apart because employees get discouraged. These guys are willing to let their decisions be driven by internal market forces (the employees). Sounds like a pretty good process to me.