BQF Innovation

If you hold a brainstorm meeting and generate 90 ideas then the chances are that you whittle those down to a dozen promising ideas and then action the two or three best.  What happens to the other promising ideas that don’t make it onto the to-do list?  Ideally you should capture them in a database of good ideas and then take a look through that list from time to time. 

Many great ideas are cast aside because the time is not right for them.  An energy saving initiative which is not justifiable when oil is $50 a barrel can be a real winner when oil is $150 a barrel.  The post-it note glue that did not stick was an invention that had to wait until Art Fry found a use for it.

Many of the ideas that you need for new products or services may have surfaced in earlier meetings and been shelved for all sorts of reasons.  Don’t waste all the creativity that goes into idea generation.  Recycle and re-use ideas.  When you need some inspiration just browse through your database of ideas that were promising but not actioned.  The solution you need may be sitting in there now.

Paul Sloane