Why good ideas often go under in companies

Dusseldorf Many company leaders had feared it, now there is evidence: The pandemic has left a creativity gap in German companies. Working from home, short-time work, the equalization of shifts – all of this served one goal: avoiding contacts. But ideas do not thrive without contacts. The current ideas management report 2022, which is available exclusively to the Handelsblatt, shows that the number of ideas fell by almost 43 percent in 2021 compared to 2019.

In the current situation of climate crisis, inflation, digitization and war in Ukraine, companies are dependent on more employees thinking for themselves – in order to save costs and resources and to make business models future-proof. But how do companies manage to turn employees into thinkers? Does good idea management promote corporate culture, or is it the other way around?

The Handelsblatt asked around at companies that have already reorganized their ideas management. With surprising discoveries.