Philip -- Introduction -- Innovation Budget

I think I'll spend the first half of my first blog posting introducing myself. My name is Philip Brocoum and I work in the professional services department of Brightidea. If you are one of my clients, you probably already know who I am! If you're not, you may still recognize my voice because I do many of the Brightidea Online University videos. I'll often act as the liaison between you and our technical team if or when any problems arise. In general, I make sure that your system runs smoothly, that you are trained and up to speed in its operation, and that innovation in your company is a success.

Now that the introduction is over with, I'd like to share with you an interesting article that I came across on the Internet at the URL below about having annual innovation budgets for every employee in your company.

http://thenonbillablehour.typepad.com/nonbillable_hour/2004/10/what_is_your_in.html

The general idea is that people just flat-out get innovation budgets every year. They don't have to ask for it, they don't have to get approval, they don't have to draft proposals, they just have money to spend on innovation. And it's not just departments, but every single person. I can't even begin to express how great an idea I think this is.

How often do you think someone has an idea, goes to their boss and says, "I have a great idea," and then their boss says, "Interesting. Write up a 50 page proposal and we'll see where it goes," and then that someone thinks to himself, "Oh, nevermind." I bet it happens constantly. The bureaucracy and level upon level of management at large companies is famous for stifling innovation. Giving people annual innovation budgets will allow them to innovate without the red tape.

The idea even goes beyond that. Suppose I get $2000 (a number I pulled out of my hat) a year for innovation. I could spend a couple weeks on my little pet project, no problem. However, if five of us band together and form a team we now have $10,000 to spend. Maybe five other people like the idea but don't want to enter into any time commitment. They can simply give my team their budget and suddenly we have $20,000 to spend. If our idea ends up being a success and managers and higher ups start paying attention to it they might start to donate their money as well. You can see how it could easily start adding up.

Think how much money is normally spent managing ideas and evaluating ideas. Think how much time is normally spent sorting through ideas and getting approval for the good ones. Giving people a small budget of $2000 a year (and encouraging them to form teams) may well pay for itself many times over.

Besides, when given the option of either spending $2000 on a cool idea, or NOT spending $2000 on a cool idea, who's going to refuse?

Anyway, I'd love to hear your feedback on this idea. Clearly, it isn't for everyone, but when do you think it would work best? Have you ever tried something like this before? If so, please let us know how it went!