Learn from... Shell

Getting your employees to make suggestions about how to improve the business can be invaluable.

At car manufacturer Toyota, for example, the average employee contributes more than 100 improvement ideas each year.

However, oil giant Shell has gone even further, extending its employee-ideas programme, GameChanger, to people outside the organisation.

Originally, the company conducted workshops around the world to help staff turn ideas into innovations.

The return on investment was so good that it has opened up the process to outsiders, who can submit ideas through www.shell.com/gamechanger