Idea Stock Exchange

Retrospeak writes to tell us The New York Times has an interesting article on an interesting business strategy used by a company called Rite-Solutions. The system recognizes the need for harvesting ideas from the entire company instead of just one or two "idea-men" in a stock-market-esque idea exchange. From the article: "We're the founders, but we're far from the smartest people here," Mr. Lavoie, the chief executive, said during an interview at Rite-Solutions' headquarters outside Newport, R.I. "At most companies, especially technology companies, the most brilliant insights tend to come from people other than senior management. So we created a marketplace to harvest collective genius."

Hey

[smvp6459]

Can I sell ideas short?

I got great ideas

[fputs(shit, slashdot]

My ideas most involve inflatable sex toy, small rodent and chocolate spread. Where do I sign up?

It's a trap!

[Jester998]

We're the founders, but we're far from the smartest people here

Anyone who submits an idea gets labelled "not a team player" for not backing management's ludicrous schemes.

It's a trap!

[/end Dilbert-esque paranoia]

Idea Stock Exchange

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to short neoconservatism.

Re:Hey

[B3ryllium]

They call that "marketing".

Oh great

[Oldsmobile]

Oh great, a ponzi scheme but with ideas.

Yes, even the general public could brainstorm

[GuyMannDude]

Yes, in fact, the Japanese used this method to allow the general populace to brainstorm creative solutions to the country's most vexing problem. Unfortunately for them, the demographics of the country were such that the votes of children aged 5-12 largely determined the resulting solution [wikipedia.org].

GMD

You can already share your ideas on the Web

[walnut_tree]

There are a number of "idea banks" already on the Web such as Should Exist [shouldexist.org] and Halfbakery [halfbakery.com]. These sites are a bit diffrent from the approach described in the NYT article though.

Linux as a role model

[zpeterz63]

That's a key lesson behind the rise of open source technology, most notably Linux. A ragtag army of programmers organized into groups, wrote computer code, made the code available for anyone to revise and, by competing and cooperating in a global community, reshaped the market for software. The brilliance of Linux as a model of innovation is that it is powered by the grass-roots brilliance of the thousands of programmers who created it.

Just in case anyone might wonder why this on /. ...

Re:Idea Stock Exchange

[Stiletto]

I wouldn't. If history has taught us anything, it's that old, rich, white conservatives never get what's coming to them. They just end up older, richer, whiter, and more conservative.

We tried to get HP to do this...

[Baldrson]

But it was shot down by management.

I'm not kidding.