"Flop of the month"

Innovation and risk taking are the 2 tenets on which success always depends! However the rhetoric of innovation - the favourite buzz word at the moment is the claim to be a lifelong learner - is all too often nullified by fear and being averse to changes. This error terror often stifles creativity ultimately genuine efforts for innovation.

Well, BMW takes a different approach than most organizations. The BMW factory in Regensburg, Germany has demonstrated that by rewarding genuine mistakes in the quest for innovation, prople are further encouraged to take sensible and calculated risks. BMW believes that those who depart from the conventional and innovate with a calculated risk, should not, if things go wrong, be mocked or derided, but encouraged to take further sensible risks in the spirit of optimism. I believe this is what will fuel constant innovation in its true sense.

In precisely this spirit, Gerhard Bihl, head of personnel and social services at BMW Regensburg, started an initiative with an original title - "Flop of the month" or more elegantly known as "Creative error of the month". The workshop was a success so much so that besides the successful ideas selected for innovation awards, there were an equal no of unsuccessful ideas that bombed being selected for awards, as well.

Gerhard Bihl piloted the project for more than 3 years, during which time 12 awards were given away. Sadly, after Bihl left BMW, the scheme seems to have petered away.

However, its good to see one of the best innovators in the auto industry, coming up with yet another innovative idea for rewarding bombed innovations!



Jaydeep Deshpande