Innovation is a key success factor for companies. Only those companies that continue to improve processes, products, and services will be able to maintain their competitive edge in the long term. That is why we encourage and reward our staff to come up with ideas. Our staff are experts in their fields, and are therefore an abundant source of innovation – ranging from small improvement suggestions, through to patentable inventions. The creativity of our employees offers huge untapped potential that we can leverage systematically with the aid of our Idea Management program. The aim is to enhance the value of our company in the long term.
The cultural diversity and the varied experience of our staff provide a major advantage in this regard. We encourage our employees to question conventional approaches and to chart new courses. In doing so, we are laying the foundations for creative freedom and a breeding ground for innovation.
Increasingly international
The quality of Idea Management at Deutsche Post AG has reached a very high standard. We came in first among service companies in Germany in the “Idea Management” category in a ranking undertaken by the business periodical Wirtschaftswoche. We intend to embed our Idea Management system even more firmly within the Group worldwide. Globally, our long-term goal is to receive an average of at least one idea per employee per year.
Selling stamps via cell phones, an employee’s idea, won the 2008 best national idea award from the German Institute for Business Management (dib) .
Award winning ideas
In 2008, our Idea Management program was presented with an award by the Deutsche Institut für Betriebswirtschaft (dib). An idea mentioned in our Sustainability Report 2008 to recall air freight straps won an award in the “International” category. This suggestion for improvement has now been implemented at other aviation hubs and dispatch centers in Europe. In the “National” category, the “Handyporto” postage idea won. The idea of allowing people to purchase stamps from their cell phones was introduced in Germany in late 2008.