Spotless: An Innovation Roadmap

Spotless, the largest integrated facilities management services provider in Australia and New Zealand, underwent a transformation to reinvent and revitalize their innovation process. Bridie Scott, the company's Innovation Manager, realized that the culture of innovation wasn't present throughout the organization. She planned a system that would invite participation from all and also deliver on the promise of implementation. Scott focused on developing a decision-making structure and process for collecting and developing ideas. This system was going to be used company-wide and had to be repeatable. Once she knew how she would roll out this program, she launched a series of Innovation Leadership Workshops to make a case for how important it was to innovate with the help of their full workforce and to find resources and allies that would make it easier to deliver on ideas in the future. With leadership backing, software in place, and executive sponsorship, Scott invited all of Spotless’s employees to start sharing some of their biggest problems and potential solutions. As she identified good ideas, she also identified potential talent from within the company and created a mentoring program that would reward the innovators not just with recognition but meaningful professional development.