Top Line Idea Management

According to the 2001 Survey of the Employee Involvement Association (EIA), almost 75% of all suggestion programs focus on cost reduction. This focus pays off handsomely for companies. Cost reductions average $5,538 per implemented idea, and some companies count many thousands of implemented ideas every year.

The same organizations tend to restrict their efforts to cost reduction, though, and forget that companies can grow only through new revenue streams and product concepts. Cost savings can add to the bottom line, but companies need to add to the top line to be truly effective with Idea Management.

Top line ideas are suggestions that focus on inventing and developing new revenue streams, products and services. They can also be ideas to redesign core processes, changing the rules of the game in areas such as supply chain management, inventory management, and in product development itself.

Cost reduction programs struggle to process top line ideas. Often they are called 'intangibles', and conferences are dedicated to trying to work out how to give employees a fair reward for these intangible ideas. Many top line ideas cannot be properly evaluated until they move towards implementation. This runs counter to cost reduction programs, which demand in-depth calculations to assess the potential impact to the nearest ten dollars.

Today's Idea Management programs need to have explicit goals and processes to handle top line ideas. This is already true of industries that focus more on revenue growth, such as the pharmaceutical industry. However, it is also a great opportunity for other firms - an extra string to their bow.

For more information on the EIA, please go to www.eia.com.

You may also contact research@imaginatik.com to get additional information or collaborate in our research activities.

Reference: Top Line Idea Management - RN-0602-1