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| Innovation
Market Day |
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| Mr
Teo inspiring PSD officers to innovate. |
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What has marketing
got to do with ideas? Everything it seems, judging
from the overwhelming response of enthusiastic
marketers and participants at the inaugural Innovation
Market Day (IMD) organised by the Public Service
Division (PSD) and Civil Service College (CSC).
About 400 PSD and CSC officers turned up at the
Institute of Public Administration and
Management (IPAM) on 18 July 2003 to witness
colleagues marketing 19 departmental ideas and
showcasing 21 innovations.
The theme of the event was “Where People
and Ideas Meet”. The IPAM foyer was transformed
into an “Ideas Town” where ideas,
conversations and laughter flowed freely along
the rows of booths. These booths were set up
by enterprising PSD and CSC officers bent on
marketing and showcasing their “products” to
colleagues or “Ideas Town’s townspeople”.
“Ideas
Town” was divided into the following
three sections.
Innovation Market
At the Innovation Market, groups of enthusiastic
officers “sold” their ideas to their
colleagues through creative displays, dynamic
presentations, quizzes and freebies. Any PSD
officer could request for a space to market his/her
new idea on any topic relevant to PSD’s
mission.
The Innovation Panel, a team in charge of innovation
funding in PSD, would then “buy” any
number of ideas and award the selected projects
with a sum of money for further development and
trial testing. The chosen projects would be implemented
when they have been successfully developed or
tested.
For example, the Personnel Policy Department
marketed their “eFficient retrIeval of
Shared know-How” or “FISH” system,
which is a one-stop human resource (HR) knowledge
depository and FAQ engine available on the intranet.
The knowledge repository contains FAQs on everything
to do with HR — from appointments to exit
mechanisms. This project was voted for the Top
People’s Award by PSD and CSC staff. (See
this story for
another winning project.)
Innovation Showcase
In this section, PSD and CSC officers presented
innovations which had been developed and implemented
within their departments during the past two
to three years. All kinds of innovations were
showcased. The innovations were related to policies,
systems, projects, processes and even initiatives.
The Innovation Showcase encouraged departments
to share with others how their innovations came
about, how they made it happen and what the results
were.
For example, the Public Service Commission showcased
an online magazine called the Quick Brown Fox.
This attractive e-magazine offers information
on PSC scholarships, national and international
affairs and more.
PS21 Office showcased their efforts to raise
funds for charity in 2002. Their Happy Package
consisted of a goodie bag, a live song performance
and a 10-minute shoulder massage. The package
could be purchased by officers for their colleagues
who needed cheering up.
Also on display was CSC’s Integrated Financial
Systems, which won the Best Innovation Award.
This innovation incorporated existing training,
claims and procurement processes in an efficient
operational system at minimal cost. So instead
of using a completely new system, CSC integrated
available systems to run the college. By doing
so, they save the college over $1 million annually.
Innovation Exchange
Besides interacting and exchanging ideas with
the “sellers” of ideas and innovations
at the Innovation Market and Showcase sections,
PSD and CSC officers played fun-filled games
at booths set up to test their creativity and
imagination.
Finally, all the participants voted for their
Favourite Market Idea and the Most Creative Showcase,
and the winners won attractive prizes.
At the end of the day, all the teams who marketed
and showcased their ideas walked away as winners
knowing that they did not let anything deter
them from making more improvements through their
creative ideas and innovations. Indeed, the IMD
showed that everyone can be innovative! |
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By
See Eng Kiat & Leong Shih Yeng, PSD
Next: A tale of three towns
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| Related
Articles |
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Innovation
Movement
PSD’s Innovation Movement was
launched in 2001. Its comprehensive
strategy covers leadership, structure,
processes, people and recognition systems.
Progress to date has been encouraging: Two projects approved by the I-Panel have
undergone trial testing, three new projects are being nurtured by the I-Panel,
all PSD officers know the importance
of innovation and their potential to innovate, and four training courses have
been held so far. |
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“Innovation
Market Day is for us in PSD to see for
ourselves that we have been innovative
before and that we can be even more innovative
in future. That innovation is appreciated
and valued and will be noticed and not
ignored. That it is not a waste of time
or effort, but something your colleagues
are interested in, want to learn from,
make suggestions on and perhaps even
join you to implement. ”
Mr Eddie Teo,
Permanent Secretary, Prime
Minister’s
Office |
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