As a result of the dramatic business successes of firms like Google, Apple, and Facebook, almost everyone has become aware of the tremendous economic value that comes from continuous corporate innovation. But unfortunately executives at most firms have failed to realize that they can dramatically increase their corporate innovation rate by simply focusing on hiring and retaining more “idea people.”

Ideas Start the Innovation Process

Increasing corporate innovation starts with fully understanding that there are three steps or phases in the innovation process. These three steps include:

Step 1 – Idea generation; innovation starts with an idea from an employee.

Step 2 – Collaboration; the raw idea is shared, vetted, and improved and a shared ownership is developed through collaboration with other employees.

SOURCE: ere.net