Guest Blogger: Taking stock in imagination
Patia McGrath is the global director of innovation and strategic connections at GE Corporate.
For the past few weeks, I have been delighted by the stock market’s returns…really! No, I am not referring to the stock market of the NYSE variety. I am talking about GE’s very own Imagination Market.
The GE Imagination Market is a virtual stock exchange, where the securities being traded represent ideas for growth. (The cognoscenti call this a “prediction market.”) We just completed the market that allowed GE employees to submit ideas to be considered for trading, and by trading, grow their portfolios of “imagination bucks.”
Not only did GE’s Imagination Market leverage GE employees’ collective brainpower to come up with great ideas for securities, but also we learned what ideas are believed to be most promising through their trading activity.
Our Imagination Market was focused on business model innovation. At GE, we see business model innovation as having huge potential for creating value for our customers and for providing a new avenue of growth for GE. And for those of you naysayers who may think that it is tough to be creative and take some swings in a large company, keep in mind that this market was a grand experiment.
The response was amazing! We had hundreds of ideas submitted, and 1,500 traders from 43 countries. The most promising ideas will continue to get the attention they need to in order to take root and eventually contribute to our company’s growth.
We will keep you updated on the ideas and commercialization of innovations coming out of the Imagination Market. We are looking forward to running our second company-wide Imagination Market soon!
* Learn more about the technology driving the Imagination Markets.
Maam, I like the fact that there is one person overseeing the employee ideas. More than credit, employees like to see their ideas grow to fruition even if takes time. It’s the simple perspective that’s worth the million imagination bucks. I was trained in lateral thinking (term coined by Edward de Bono) by one Ms. Kate (don’t remember the last name) at DVIR (www.dvirc.org) in PA.
I am predicting that if you lead the continuous training of GE employees in lateral thinking, you will receive innovative and strategic ideas. Six sigma, lean, and management leadership training may not be enough to sustain our imagination markets. Thank you.
Wow enjoyed reading your post. I added your rss to my google reader!!