local idea hero in organization

Main roles for the person selected as innovation-driver in organization:

1. well-known in organization as innovation-driver and open for any kind of questions

2. running innovation system and improving it

3. be sure that everyone knows about idea process(how to submit idea)

4. taking care for ideas that waits for any decision for long time

5. knows about each submitted idea and keep an eye on innovation metrics, such as no. of submitted ideas, no. of realized ideas and other metrics + creating new inno.metrics if needed

Other roles such as connecting intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs with innovators, can be the part of innovation system and be managed by other persons.

big and small companies & innovation

As I work in the big company with it's own innovation process and climate I often think how this process and specially climate, can be established in small enterprises.
First, the contact person for innovations has to be known by everyone - Innovation Manager or simply one 'special' person who will know how to handle each proposal. If the firm is close to technology changes, this person must be sent to special patent(intellectual property) training.
Next thing is establishing of innovation metrics, which must be transparent so that employees will know what they can expect, if their idea will be accepted.

It is important to establish a process for talk about successful innovations in the company. This can be half an hour in the meeting, or a news in the company intranet site or wiki-pages. If the company is technology leader, news about recent technologies and newest inventions also has to be present.

In the small enterprise all mentioned topics, can be the job of only one person - so it's important to select the right person and to give him/her all the needed support.