Bottom-Up Ideation Process

As is often the case in such companies, the low-level hierarchy alone leads to a lot of coordination and thus slows down decision-making. In addition, a low level of acceptance of responsibility led to interrupted or stuck processes.

The core element was the planning and implementation of a company-wide bottom-up ideation process in which all employees could contribute ideas on how Evonik could become faster and more open. The ideation process included the submission of ideas, voting via social intranet, four international speed-up conferences in 4 regions (Asia/Pacific, Americas, Europe, Germany), 3-month agile development processes in action teams, a pitch to the Executive Board, and the roll-out.

The speed-up conferences not only strengthened employees' motivation and identification with the company, but also led to 20 concrete ideas, such as "Speed up Innovation" or "Speed-Up Selling", which were developed and implemented by the project team.