Brightidea is a company built on the principles of making innovation practical. It's not surprising, then, that we use our own software as a system of record for internal communications on everything from process improvements to customer enhancement requests via our public IdeaSpace. Targeted campaigns are also common, from the Marketing Department seeking ideas for our innovation newsletter to our most recent annual internal campaign called Limitless, inspired by the feature film, looking for the latest breakthrough ideas for Brightidea technology.

We recently chatted with Jason Hardy-Smith, Vice President of Product Management at Brightidea, about spearheading Limitless. The reason for the annual campaign, "we weren't sure we had the right ideas and we thought that if we opened it up to the company we'd get a greater variety of ideas from different perspectives." The entire process of tapping the wealth of knowledge and expertise spread across the organization is proving to have a powerful impact on the Product team's work and vision for the future. "I think it's quite enlightening. The different perspectives that people bring to the table are what is going to make our solution really unique. I'm really proud of it. I'm really proud that across the country everybody has taken the time to participate."

And people did participate. In the first few days 80% of the company logged-in to the campaign, and there has since been 100% login rate. The quality of participation and the collaboration post-submission has been truly impressive. "People aren't just sitting there for 10 minutes and thinking about an idea, they're actually hours and days putting together complex diagrams, long explanations and doing research on technologies to bring things to be really well thought out and polished," says Jason.

Limitless is also representative of the Brightidea philosophy and "this company belongs to everybody that works in it," said Jason, meaning that employees are encouraged to be active contributors in deciding what the roadmap for the company should be. He also added, "in running a company in that way I think you get more buy-in and collaboration and you have happier employees, it's just generally a better place to work."

When asked what it was like using Brightidea's own software, Jason responded that it's "humbling in a way because you think you know everything about your product and you think you know what's best for it all the time, but when you're actually using your product in a real-life scenario you realize that you're missing something and you come up with things that you never would have imagined would be in the product."

Overall, as a VP of Product, sourcing ideas and developing concepts that truly are unique and make a difference is paying off as Jason signs off saying, "I don't think there's another software that meet the product manager's needs as much as this does."

You can follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonHardySmith

Here at Brightidea we are constantly working to provide the best experience for our customers to innovate more efficiently.

We understand that hiccups happen and support issues emerge. With our Brightidea Support Portal, administrators have access to an unparalleled on-demand resource for interactive support along with numerous tips, best practice docs, and video tutorials. We continually provide customers with the most up-to-date knowledge and support that facilitates innovation success. Over the years, the Brightidea Support Portal has quickly and effectively handled a range of customer support tickets with a 96% customer satisfaction rate.

Brightidea serves Fortune 2000 innovation leaders that offer a wealth of knowledge and experience. Within the Support Portal, the ability to facilitate peer-to-peer discussion is easy. The Brightidea Innovation Community is a forum where administrators can ask questions, post comments, share insights, and connect with some of the most experienced innovation practitioners in the world. Questions like 'how to promote participation' or 'what are the best practices for idea evaluation' are responded by innovation experts at companies like Emerson, etc. Customers get the most out of the Brightidea experience by having in-depth discussions and best practices tips while connecting with like-minded professional in a private setting.

Anthony Madama, Technical Support Manager at Brightidea, said, "Utilizing the Brightidea Innovation Community forum will allow the conversation to take place among our innovators at anytime. Bridging these innovative minds together could spruce great plethora of new methods and ideas to include in their social innovation programs."

Customers can feel secure in discussing and sharing anything from workflow details to design suggestions and configuration tips and tricks in confidence with community peers. Brightidea customers can join immediately here!

This post is part of the Innovation Management Practitioners Blog series.

The "green" message is clear: use less energy and leverage renewable energy sources. From the use less perspective, the concept seems simple, however population growth and income increase due to globalization are causing a swell in energy consumption, mainly in the form of coal, gas, and oil. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published their Annual Energy Outlook 2011 looking at the state of energy by 2035 and projected a growing reliance on liquid fuels of 44% by 2030 – a trend that is not sustainable. The way we consume energy needs to change as the world is facing a major crossroad in consumption and supply. But the biggest opportunity for innovation may not just be in new sources and delivery optimization but in the way companies seek to source and collaborate on building those breakthrough innovations. This in fact, maybe the biggest opportunity that will shift the way we consume and source energy in the future.

The Context

With respect to renewable resources, alternative energy sources, such as wind, biomass and solar power continue to increase in funding and capacity, but in 2011 only made up 16% of the global energy consumption. The energy industry is indeed different from other industries in that constant innovation is highly necessary to keep up with overall growth and build a sustainable future. But how exactly are big energy companies innovating? Looking further, a few unique challenges are faced by big energy, and unique ways in which companies are refactoring their approach to innovation to meet growing demands.

Cost drives the energy market, as corporations and governments are constantly on the search for the cheapest form of energy, which may not necessarily be the most sustainable. Although there may be an ample supply of coal in the United States, the environmental cost of burning such fuels is quite high as toxins and greenhouse gases are emitted, while extraction is becoming increasingly expensive and difficult. Oil carries many of the same problems as coal with the added risk of environmental disasters, such as the infamous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

With regards to the US, the country's high demand for energy has brought about numerous challenges, such as dependence on foreign fuel in nations. When looking energy challenges in America, CAN, a non-profit research organization, stated, "without stable and predictable energy prices, business leaders, farmers, and especially large industries cannot effectively plan, hire, and remain competitive in a global market." Dependence on energy affects all parts of the country, from government policy to small businesses.

The recent high-profile bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy, highlights some of the challenges with energy innovation. Innovating in the energy market is risky and may require millions of dollars towards a project or company that could easily fail.

New Approaches To Innovation

China Light and Power (CLP), a leading power company in the Asia-Pacific region, focuses their innovation initiatives on the foundation of the company, employees and corporate culture. Engages employees spread across continents, an innovation program called innov8, powered by Brightidea seeks to tap the intelligence of employees to find efficiencies and sustainability in day to day operations, but on a large strategic scale as well. Targeted campaigns encourage employee involvement with support from top management and creative branding and marketing for each campaign. "innov8 gives us the platform to connect, collaborate and innovate across geographic boundaries," Joe Locandro, CIO of CLP has stated. One campaign, Earth Heroes, looked to its employees for ideas on eliminating waste that could be contributed to Hong Kong's Energy Efficiency & Conservation program. It utilized Brightidea's iPhone app and spurred interest through a variety of marketing mediums including posters featuring the company's top management as action heroes. CLP donated HK$5 to green initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region for every idea submitted. Another campaign, Sustainability Jukebox, expands the range of people involved by bringing employees from Hong Kong, Australia, and India to collaborate within a dual-language interface on various sustainability strategies for the organization. CLP has been recognized as a leader for its various efforts, and to learn more about their innovation program, a full case study is available here.

 Protecting, sourcing, and executing on innovation is essential to every business. Despite numerous technological advancements that have fundamentally changed the way patents are granted and companies secure capital, past legislation regarding these two key areas have failed to address new realities. Recently, two new bills have passed that aim to alter that perception and address a broader challenge, job creation and innovation in the US. The first-to-file law and a recently passed bill that changes regulations on funding may  have significant impacts on innovation.

FIRST TO FILE LAW

 In an effort to minimize the complexities and costs associated with protecting intellectual property, on September 16, 2011 President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, overhauling the patent system that had not been changed for the past 60 years. According to the Committee on the Judiciary, "Our outdated patent system has been a barrier to innovation, unnecessarily delaying American inventors from marketing new products and creating jobs for American workers." President Obama saw this as an opportunity a speed up the patent process to new inventions can develop into businesses, provide employment, and therefore stimulate the economy.

This post is part of our One-on-One at BOF video series featuring interviews from innovation leaders at Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event.

Peter Neumann, Innovation Manager at Bosch, a leading power tool and accessories corporation based in Germany, talks with Brightidea about the open innovation. When asked how he defines success, Peter stated, "Well one way is we have an open innovation from one of our Dremel Link group members and we're going to release this product in about another month." 

Bosch is clearly demonstrating the power of open innovation through implemented product ideas and increased customer collaboration where unmet needs and wants intuitively inform the product roadmap.

Find below Peter's full interview.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

This is part of our One-on-One at BOF video series, featuring interviews from innovation leaders who presented at Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event.

EllisDon, one of the largest building contractors in Canada, was present with their Web Application Manager, Christine Zakrajsek, to discuss the company's innovation strategies. After her presentation we had a chance to catch up with Christine for a quick interview and when asked about how the company defines success, she responded, "We define success at EllisDon about engagement because we believe that engaged employees are happy employees and happy employees are successful business." Christine continued by saying, "once you get the sharing and the engagement, the innovation almost happens naturally, and once you have that natural organic innovation the ROI bubbles up."

Take a look at her exclusive interview below.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

This is part of our One-on-One at BOF video series, featuring interviews from innovation leaders who presented at Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), a leading multinational information technology company, brought their IP and Innovation Strategist, Silvi Steigerwald, to BOF where she talked to Brightidea about the company's innovation portal The Garage. We had a chance chat with Silvi directly about how the company utilizes Brightidea and she said, "We also use it to recognize our inventors and idea submitters too. We try to highlight news, hot ideas, so more than just gathering ideas and collaboration we use it as a communication vehicle."

Watch Silvi's full interview below.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

It's December, the holiday season is upon us and gift giving is in full swing. But, did you know giving a child the chance at a better life is possible this year by doing something other than opening up your wallet? World Vision, a global humanitarian organization, presents an alternative type of gift – one composed of your time, thoughtfulness, expertise and ideas. The organization has recently launched Sponsor a Solution, a Brightidea-powered challenge looking to the public to donate their software development skills to help solve vital technology challenges encountered while providing aid. Technology is critical to World Vision and its field workers around the world as they continually use it to properly communicate and better help disadvantaged children, families and communities around the world.

World Vision handles numerous challenges when facilitating aid and have chosen to focus on the two most crucial areas identified by field workers scattered across the globe: field data and collection and fixed asset and inventory tracking. Since launching, the platform has already received a series of ideas, such as a proposed offline capability to collect children's data and the creation of a mobile app. Sponsor a Solution is currently open for submissions.

Join World Vision and Brightidea in spreading the word and embracing the holiday spirit of generosity by donating invaluable time and ideas to those in need. Post a solution today!

Apart from the main presentations Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event in Chicago was buzzing with people, discussions and ideas. To give you look at the exciting and an innovative environment surrounding the event, we will be blogging our latest video series, One-on-One at BOF, featuring interviews from attendees.

Heidi Hattendorf, Director of Innovation Development at Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) came BOF event to discuss the company's recent use of Brightidea software and when asked in her interview about the challenges, she responded, "One of the things that we're looking at is, how do we provide the business context around some of the challenges, because you can ask people to innovate and create ideas, but we want them to have relevance, something that's going to be brought to market, something that's important to the company that we're going to invest in."

View the entire exclusive interview below.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

As Europe's largest economy and leader in patent registrations, Germany has been a hub of cutting-edge research and technologies. German businesses traditionally team up with academic institutions to drive technological progress. In recent years, more enterprises have opened their innovation processes to harness the collective wisdom of their workforces, customers, and partners.

Handelsblatt Open Innovation conference is Europe's flagship event on Open Innovation. This year's event in Berlin attracted participants from companies like Bayer, Cisco, Ford, Google, Nestlé and Procter&Gamble who discussed practical knowledge and best practices.

Among the keynote speakers was Matt Asman, Head of Innovation at Cisco Europe. Matt gave a fascinating insight into Cisco's innovation program that has driven impressive results.

As a core discipline, innovation at Cisco is embedded on all levels, from corporate vision to execution. In his presentation, Matt described how people, processes, and technology were taken into account when developing the comprehensive program. Talking about securing internal support and participation, he said: "For innovation managers it is dangerous to lean back. They need to be pro-active and constantly reach out to the company's stakeholders to stimulate collaboration."

Brightidea's software to power the I-Zone, an internal hub for employees to share and discuss ideas. "The I-Zone has been fundamental to the program's success," explained Matt. "It enables us to tap into our employees' knowledge and surface ideas that would otherwise remain unknown."

The results are impressive. The current innovation portfolio that has emerged from the hundreds of ideas submitted to the I-Zone is expected to generate over 360 million U.S. dollars in revenue over the next three years.

Other presentations at the conference included Procter & Gamble's Connect + Develop initiative and Nestle's Sharing is Winning Open Innovation program.

Frank Mattes, CEO of innovation-3, German Open Innovation thought-leader, and Premier Brightidea Partner, also spoke at the conference. In his presentation, he outlined the five key Open Innovation trends in Germany.

The Handelsblatt Open Innovation conference provided participants with hands-on insights from peers and confirmed the value of collaboration in driving – and managing – innovation processes.