We are excited to kick this year’s RedBlue Innovations Program to harness the power of your ideas to accelerate innovation. We are rolling out Red Hackathon & Blue Innovation Accelerate Program 2021 (Red Blue 2021) on Oct 4th 12 am PST. If you have an innovative idea that leads to measurable differentiation for MetricStream and the broader cause of GRC, we encourage you to submit it either for a Red Box or a Blue Box challenge.
Employees from any function can participate individually or collectively as a team. The selection committee will shortlist the top 10 ideas and provide funding & support to develop the ideas. Once shortlisted you will be assigned a GRC expert within the company who will take your idea to the finish line of judging.
The Red-Blue 2021 program will run from Oct 4, 2021 to Jan 31, 2022, and the details are attached.
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Details: RED HACKATHON & BLUE INNOVATION PROGRAM (Based on the International Bestseller Strategy Book – Blue Ocean Strategy, 2015)
PURPOSE We believe our employees are the best source of ideas for innovation. We are introducing a program to encourage employees to share their ideas by submitting suggestions for accelerating innovation at MetricStream. This is an overt opportunity for employees to exchange ideas, foster collaborative learning, and directly influence the trajectory of the company.
SCOPE The program is open to all MetricStream employees. The program will cover all innovation ideas that have the potential for us to improve the customer experience, boost profitability, build our brand, improve marketing, improve quality, grow customer base, reduce costs or one that is simply more creative but also viable.
EFFECTIVE DATE The program will run from October 4th 2020 through January 31st 2021.
RED AND BLUE BOX IDEAS An innovation is a market-differentiating change that generates a sustainable competitive advantage in a product, service or business model and that leads to measurable value creation for our company.
Such ideas for innovation can be split into two categories based on whether they focus on improving what we do today or on something altogether new and different. Employees should endeavor to focus on high potential viable ideas that fall into either of these two categories:
Red Box Ideas – Focus on existing products, strategy and market.
Blue Box Ideas – Derived from the phrase “Blue-sky thinking” focus on trying to find completely new ideas. Employees will need to target something new or different to our existing way of doing business that will provide opportunities and growth potential outside of our current customer segments or revenue stream.
An example of a Red Box Idea would be introduction of a product enhancement that would enable us to attract new customers or add additional value to current customers.
An example of a Blue Box Idea would be introduction of a new product or a modified existing product that would enable us to attract a new customer persona.
CONSTRUCTIVE COLLABORATION Although employees can submit ideas that will be developed individually, we encourage employees to come together as small teams to collaborate, grow and develop holistic ideas. We all know how to use Microsoft Teams so we should definitely leverage that.
We encourage you to spend adequate time and effort to brainstorm “outside the box” and constructive ideas with your team members. Teams should view this as an exciting challenge to come up with the freshest, newest and most exciting ideas to accelerate innovation at MetricStream.
SUBMISSION OF IDEAS Employees should make well-thought and clear submissions of their ideas. The ideas submitted should include, to the extent possible:
- A name for your idea with Red or Blue Box category
- An exact description that explains concept and outcome
- An explanation on how you believe the idea will add value for the company in the short and/or long run
- Benefits and opportunities
- A broad action plan or feasible steps for implementation
- An estimate or best guess of the timescale needed to implement
- Any suggested partnership with any external party including rationale
- Names of all the team members
All ideas and suggestions must be submitted as a Word or PowerPoint document with a recommended use of 1,000 – 2,000 words excluding any appendix, diagrams or infographics. Suggestions should be submitted to a platform that we will publish shortly by the due date.
SELECTION OF IDEAS The company will set up a selection committee made up of 4 - 6 business leaders. The committee will review and judge all employee suggestions received by the due date.
Selection of the best ideas will be based on the quality, creativity, and feasibility of the suggestion and the magnitude of potential benefit to the company upon implementation. The idea may be either a Red Box or a Blue Box Idea.
The review and selection will be completed by the published date and the selected teams will be informed over email.
DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS Over the next couple of months leading up to January 3, 2021, the selected teams will be asked to develop their ideas. Thereafter, teams will be required to make a demo presentation to the selection committee. Employees need to take time out of their normal routine to work on the idea, and this will not be considered a separate role or a job. An employee is expected to ensure that their regular work does not suffer.
The teams will be asked to report to the relevant subject matter experts on the status on a regular basis and use this opportunity to ask questions and for help. The IP developed will belong with MetricStream. However, if the company decides to apply for a patent, the employee will have the opportunity to have the patent to their name.
FUNDING FOR SELECTED IDEAS For the ideas selected, the company will provide funding up to a maximum of $1,000 to develop the idea. We expect employees to exercise prudence and ensure that the funds are spent directly towards development of their idea, for example, to purchase a book, software license etc.
Employees may seek reimbursement for their expenses through their usual expense reimbursement process.
TEAM MENTOR & PROJECT MANAGER We understand that teams find it useful to have a mentor [and a project manager] to support them in developing their idea. We have agreed with our product managers, R&D managers and marketing managers to make themselves available as mentors to engage with teams and serve as coaches. Based on the ideas selected, mentors will be identified to support the team.
Each team will need to liaise with their respective mentor directly to seek their support and agree on the degree and extent of his or her involvement in developing the idea. However, since discussion with mentors is encouraged, the company will allow employees reasonable time to foster meaningful connections with other team members and their mentors. We encourage employees to consult with their team mentor on prudent use of the company-sponsored $1,000 funding.
EXCLUSIONS Ideas that would normally be expected in the performance of the employee's job and those that are already under active consideration by the leadership team will not be considered under this program. Similarly, we discourage employees from building an idea that will require changes to the remuneration or job level of any existing MetricStream employee, including themselves.
FINAL RESULTS & PRIZES During the last two weeks of January 2021, management will review all the selected Red and Blue Box ideas and demo presentations and select the top 2 best-developed ideas. This will be a huge celebration for the company and the employees. The winning teams will each be given $1,000 cash as a prize award and a certificate for each team member titled “The Best Employee Innovation Idea - 2020”, along with a possible Patent.
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