...management that thinks the ideas are either too far out...
My brother works for the major telecom provider here in Calgary. He is constantly submitting ideas that he believes might be 'the next big thing'. Generally speaking, they are neat ideas, but more suited to a smaller, more dynamic, niche-type company than a major conglomerate.
I've heard a handful of his better ideas, and I can see where they would make money - if you already have the infrastructure of the conglomerate.
A catch-22.
The big company isn't small enough to realize a significant return. The small company isn't big enough to invest. In the end, his ideas are discarded and the customer misses out on yet another feature.
Ideally, great ideas would be encouraged in a round-table environment, recorded, and then at least cursorily investigated. I'd recommend separating the round-table discussions into useful themes. One for state-of-the-art tech stuff, one for "where do you see us in 3 years" stuff, one for "the work environment", etc.