No idea is a stupid idea, and that's what has prompted Rallis to devise 'Innogate', a unique process that seeks to harness the intellectual capital of its employees

The intellectual capital of the employees is considered an important asset for any company. To tap this intellect reservoir and capture the innovative streak in its employees, Rallis India devised a unique process called Innogate to capture and implement new ideas submitted by its employees. It is believed in the organisation that no idea is a stupid idea and this formed the basis for launching, in 2001, the user-friendly Innogate.

Ideas have been generated by the employees through the Innogate process across all locations and have thus helped in the development of new products and formulations, helped in cost reduction, improved delivery systems and also tackled many HR issues.

The core components of the Innogate process are as follows:

• Ideator: A person who generates ideas.
• Process champion: The owner of the Innogate process.
• Innogate manager: A person who coordinates the functioning of the Innogate process.
• Decision board: Members who rate and decide the validity of an idea.
• Innogate Black belts: Provides continuous feedback to the core team on process up gradation and are located at various sites.

Innogate works through a simple process of online registering of ideas through a computer or by submission of ideas in a prescribed format by ideators across various locations of the company. Each idea is assigned a unique identification number. The ideas are filtered through the Innogate manager before being presented to the decision board. The board members rate the ideas on a scale of 1 to 10 on the basis of intellectual content, utility, novelty and relevance to the organisation.

If the idea rated attains an average score of four, it is sent to the process champion for further action. The process champion, in turn, takes further action on its implementation in consultation with the different business unit heads. The ideator is informed about the progress of the idea and, if implemented, is duly recognised and rewarded by the organization for his or her contribution.

Ideas that are viable but of no current interest to the company are kept in a knowledge repository. In the process, Rallis builds up a database of ideas, which can be of use to it in future. Unviable ideas are rejected and the ideator is duly informed.

The Innogate process has acted as a catalyst in facilitating conversion of knowledge to implementation. The people in Rallis can take pride that their out of the box creative thoughts and ideas are improving the company's business.