Staff ideas welcome
Bayer AG has launched the global "Triple-i" initiative to take advantage of ideas from its 110,200 employees.
Werner Wenning, chairman of the board of management of Bayer, said Triple-i stood for "Inspiration, Ideas and Innovation". The firm set aside ¤50 million (Bt2.35 billion) for the new initiative in 2006 alone. "We want to awaken the creative potential of all our staff around the world in order to boost our innovative capability," said Wenning. Since April, the firm has encouraged all Bayer employees to send new ideas direct to the group's headquarters as part of the initiative. If an idea has a reasonable chance of success, the necessary professional assistance may be called in to develop it into a marketable product. In the first six months, more than 1,600 Bayer employees from around the world contributed ideas. Six of these have already passed the first hurdle in the innovation process. In the next step, the innovation managers are working with the ideas' originators to develop business plans for their products. "If just one idea can be turned into a marketable product, then the initiative will have been worthwhile for us," said Wenning.
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