Comments on: Bigger Ideas, Superbig Participation Part 2

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:51:45 +0000

Jake,
I work in contracts at HQ. I love this idea and would love to learn more about it. Please e-mail me. I think this can be a great tool for the contract division.
Awesome idea.

By: Floyd

Floyd — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:30:57 +0000

Been fighting this battle in my own shop for some time. Coming up with the ideas is not an issue. Getting folks to look at your idea and declare it nifty is not too difficult either. The trick is getting people to care enough to give their effort and time for implementing and adopting the idea.

By: Puneet Thapliyal

Puneet Thapliyal — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:25:25 +0000

I wanted to second Paul Gallagher.

Ideas are worthless, says Paul Graham, the startup guru of sorts.

http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

Here is a quick note from the article in the above link:

“Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here’s an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there’s no market for startup ideas suggests there’s no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.”

Try selling your idea to the market/angel investors/VC’s. Or in case of IdeaFactory, try selling it to the Oracle Executives. If you truly believe in it, you should rather go ahead and implement it.

Execution is king.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:17:21 +0000

Yeah, I figured as much, and as I said, execution is not in the DNA, in that new ideas have trouble finding traction.

Not sure I agree with the “ideas are useless” bit though entirely. What it takes sometimes is will and determination. We’re hoping provide more than just an idea board. So, stay tuned and participate.
Jake

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:57:27 +0000

Hi Jake, I actually had this quote in mind regarding “innovation in the DNA” …

‘A powerful new idea can kick around unused in a company for years, not because its merits are not recognized, but because nobody has assumed the responsibility for converting it from words into action. Ideas are useless unless used. The proof of their value is only in their implementation.’ (Theodore Levitt)
http://topten.org/public/CY/CY146.html

i.e. its all about execution!

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:44:35 +0000

Paul,
You make a valid point that others have also made about where do the ideas go. This is one reason why I like to see idea-overlap and refinement, especially across divisions b/c it builds the consensus in advance.

Some ideas will be rolled into what AppsLab is doing, others will find homes elsewhere. Others will fester and require that tenacity to get them done. I have a couple that have festered since before we acquired PSFT and are only now getting done. It will take willpower in some cases b/c Oracle is a big company.

I have to disagree about “innovation in the DNA”. We have it; it’s out there. I think your point is that execution is not in the DNA, with which I agree.

Thanks for reading,
Jake

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:45:37 +0000

Hi Jake, congratulations on getting the idea factory off to a great start.

Lots of ideas and comments is a good indicator of creative flow. However now comes the true test of innovation - turning ideas into reality - before we can claim “Innovation is in our DNA”.

I’ve worked in research before, and I think its fair to say that generating ideas was never really a very hard problem to crack. We found however that we needed to most of the effort into the subsequent phases of the innovation process. How do you ensure that the best ideas get to float to the top? How do you counter the impact of conventionalism and personality to ensure that even the most unlikely ideas are given a chance to prove themselves?

I’d suggest that this aspect of the IdeasFactory is worth a few ideas itself!

Paul