Microsoft is developing a wiki-like internal communications system to let its employees contribute ideas about the future direction of the company. Employees will be able to make suggestions and collectively debate and refine ideas.
It’s part of Microsoft’s effort to make the company less dependent on any particular individuals, including Bill Gates as he continues to draw back from running the company.
I’m not convinced this tool will be the cultural change agent Microsoft needs to accomplish that purpose.
But if the goal is innovation, there is a need to think collaboratively. Depending on how Microsoft changes its culture, the tool has some potential.
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It would be interesting to see how Microsoft’s internal innovation portal compares to other idea submission portals.
Robert, thanks for your post. As another example, IBM (who I used to work for) built an open innovation portal called “ThinkPlace” for employees to discuss new business ideas. They launched it about a year ago.
Here is a link about what IBM is doing:
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/www_innovate.nsf/pages/ourselves.thinkplace.html