Innovation and Knowledge Management

RUNNING HEAD: Innovation and Knowledge Management
Innovation and
Knowledge
Management

Innovation and Knowledge Management 1
Businesses are facing constant pressure these days for creating new and better products and
services. For doing so, an innovative culture is required to be cultivated by businesses and it can
be done in the best way with the help of idea management. On the basis of the knowledge
acquired from the Innovation Management course, some best practices on idea management has
been highlighted in this essay which can be applied in this large company FedEx. The company
is known for its overnight delivery services and innovative package tracking system that provide
real time updates regarding the location of the package. Such features have now been copied by a
number of other carrier services (FedEx, 2018). FedEx requires innovation to be made at every
step in order to maintain its position in the market. This can be done by way of introducing idea
management in the organization.
Idea management can be defined as the systematic process through which new ideas coming
from customers, employees or other stakeholders can be managed (Blokdyk, 2017). In other
words, it is the ability of effectively capturing the insights or feedback from internal and external
stakeholders for the addition of this feedback into the future product releases. It consists of three
dimensions namely the recognition of need for ideas, generation and collection of ideas and
evaluation of ideas (Lasrado, 2014).
The best practices for idea management are required to be taken into consideration for its
effectiveness. For the purpose of justifying the time, efforts and money spent on programs
related to idea management, the company needs to ensure that certain practices are in place. Such
practices include a clearly- defined idea management program or system for the employees of the
organization so that they can easily submit their ideas (Vieira, Lima, Bermejo & de Souza,
2015). This will further allow easy tracking of ideas by the company. The idea management
system brings an ease to the process of idea management thereby making it open, collaborative
and effective. It enables structured capturing and assessment of ideas within an organization.
Increased revenues is enjoyed by the companies that effectively follows this process and have a
more engaged and productive employees (Walton, Glassman & Sandall, 2016).
The Innovation Management theory provides the capability frameworks and allows the company
to plan the introduction, delivery and evolution of new technologies in the market by way of
creating an innovation strategy (Bouwer, 2017). It can assist FedEx in improving its services as it
will come across its capabilities and will be able to provide innovative services.

Innovation and Knowledge Management 2
The engagement of an idea manager or idea champion for overseeing the entire program,
organizing campaigns or workshops and for motivating the employees and encouraging
collaboration plays an important role in idea management. Such idea manager ensures that entire
program progresses without any hurdles. It will help FedEx as the idea manager will ensure the
circulation of information related to the idea management programs and systems and will take
necessary steps for the purpose of encouraging the employees of the organization to effectively
contribute towards the program (Robinson & Schroeder, 2014). The task of such champion will
be to plan, enthuse, direct and control the process by which ideas are encouraged and developed.
For example, Vodafone significantly managed to redevelop its headquarters and areas for
relaxation of employees with the help of an idea manager (Newenham, 2013).
Idea management should also include an open system for the employees at all the levels for the
purpose of creating a vast pool of ideas from a diverse workforce. Such practice will benefit the
organization as the employees working at the lower levels may also have talent of offering
tremendous ideas which have the capability of resulting in the success of the organization
(Sadriev & Pratchenko, 2014). When employees belonging to all the levels in the organization
will be offered an opportunity for providing their ideas, they will realize their importance in the
organization. This will encourage them to make further efforts for its success. Google accept
ideas from all the employees by offering an open system. However, this idea is not the backup of
the idea champion program since the idea champion will be required for the effective progress of
the program.
Moreover, a process is required which constantly ensures that an idea is acknowledged and is not
dismissed without providing any satisfactory reasons. With the introduction of the idea
management systems, the employees will be able of witnessing the progress of their ideas in
terms of selection, comments of other employees on their ideas, etc. Therefore, for effective idea
management, the management should involve the practice of acknowledging all the ideas by
commenting the factors which were innovative in the idea. The acknowledgement is also
required to be made regarding the overview of management on the idea and providing
satisfactory reasons for its dismissal. It will not lower down the confidence of employees and
they will not get disheartened for providing further ideas (Menon, 2017).