Four

companies and organisations rely on good idea management to learn about their success and failures. there are four major areas of failure:

1. on-time delivery
successful project implementations rely on each team member delivering his or her assignments on time. through the records that we kept the design team can review a previous project and learn what error(s) occured at what stage(s) and what / who's unit was or were responsible. before starting a project, team leaders must have a clear time line for the project and deadlines for each stage. reviewing precious records will assist the team members to get a sense of what they will face and help them deliver assignments on time for the project.

2. productivity
through the use of records the design team also can identify which unit(s) failed to produce assigned work and experienced low performance. the design team must carefully define the meaning of "productivity", which varies from organisation to organisation. for example productivity may mean revenue at for-profit organisations, where it may be measured by the output of each employee, e. g. the volume of product for factory workers, articles for writers, etc.

3. employee turnover
"xy would know how to do this if (s)he were still here." perhaps, you may have heard something like this at work. companies need to use idea management to maintain knowledge contributed by employees. each employee makes unique contributions to an organisation and that wisdom is accumulated over years of work. idea management is even more important when companies have a high turnover of employees.

4. cost saving and revenue generating
as a result of good idea management companies and organisations can review their records to examine the cost effects of previous projects. the purpose of the review is to eliminate redundant steps and personnel, to increase organizational efficiency, and to spend the necessary budgets in all areas. on the other hand, companies can bring in more revenue through successful asset management by repurposing products. for example, film and music companies often release new versions of old movies and sound recordings, especially those enhanced by digital technologies. another example is the auto industry's relaunching of vintage automobiles. through assett management, companies can rediscover the value of their long-forgotten products.

/ scenarios and information design by mary lynn rice-lively & hsin-liang chen.