Squeezing out a few more?

Lauchlan Mackinnon writes about idea management systems and also provides a handy presentation.

As Lauchlan notes, an IMS is predicated on senior execs within an organisation taking the ideas of employees seriously and putting place opportunities to develop some of those ideas into reality.

The approach Lauchlan outlines is process-based - which I think is necessary but not sufficient. The thing that concerns me is that you have to have the right people at the stage gates - people who can spot ideas that will work and ones that won't.

An alternative approach would be an idea market - where "sellers" & "buyers" would identify each other. IBM didn't just do InnovationJam but also ThinkPlace - where IBMers could work on ideas collaboratively.

Depending on the nature of the organisation, a pipeline approach vs. a market approach could be more effective. For many organisations, a combination of both might be preferable. And presumably you could also incorporate things like prediction markets into the idea evaluation process.

Presumably pipelines/process & markets are only two models. What are some of the others?