Idea Management in a training organisation

February 12, 2019

By Inesa Stockunaite

My organisation is an aviation related training academy with headquarters in Malmö and 5 training sites in Europe.  It is an employer of more than 120 multinational staff from 20 countries.  

In the academy we unfortunately do not have formally described an Idea Management process. Ideas can be generated in all departments and functions but also even at our customers. Ideas normally come from single individuals, project teams, as well in departments or cross-department or management meetings or company kick-offs. Often there are various solutions to new challenges and problems within the organisation or response to changes in the market. I believe it is a closed innovation in our company.  In practice it would mean that, for example, the idea for a new training course to be developed often comes either from a customer or because of the industry regulatory requirements.  The idea for a new way of delivering training often comes from teachers or even students and can be quickly implemented if the functional manager thinks it is a good idea. The ideas that require financial investment would normally go into a strategic cost-benefit analysis.

There are no rules or guidelines on how and which ideas come to the realization phase. It could be that managers- and/or directors formally (in management meetings) or informally pre-screen the ideas and initiate different project groups to further investigate the ideas.  

It is important to emphasize that there are no guidelines, routines or rules when it comes to Idea Management. Different scenarios exist, and some decisions can be made by single individuals depending on the importance/value of the idea.

 

 

We live in rapidly changing times, in your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing society within the next five years?

In these rapidly changing times the biggest challenge facing society within the next five years is the climate change – global warming. We have been using our natural resources without serious environmental consideration and the implications are coming back to us with rising temperature, melting polar ice and an increased amount of natural disasters. The real challenge will be to convince and lead the politicians and the society in the right direction to reach a higher level of environmental awareness. Companies worldwide need to increase their environmental sustainability in order to save the planet for the future generations. I believe that the next five years are essential in terms of taking the real actions globally.

3 responses to “Idea Management in a training organisation

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience!

    One thing that struck me when reading is that it seems to me that your organization reacts more to changes than actively trying to lead the market. It would be interesting to learn more about the overall vision/strategy to see if that can explain the current situation.

  2. Great observation! The specifics of our business is that our biggest customers are also our shareholders/owners securing the continiuous income (around 80%). Therefore our strategy is to keep owners satisfied by providing training according their needs in a cost efficient way.

  3. I find it interesting that basically one person determines what ‘flies’ and what does’t 🙂 To me this signals the importance of the person (functional manager) and their predispositions regarding certain views/values, which may hinder certain ideas to be implemented.

    We did a study on this, where we saw that people’s values influence not only how they view ideas, but also how they act during screening.
    Summary:
    https://www.kau.se/en/ctf/news/popular-wisdom-innovative-individuals?fbclid=IwAR0MGOLSy7Dg6yJyfxC9v381NRplFg1pWQwxq1NIF9IvmTLWo3X3dY3nqOw

    Article:
    https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1363919618400091

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