The Idea Bank- creating a dynamic flow of ideas

After a considerable hiatus, we’re back into blogging! We’ve been busy concluding our very first project with VILLA, Inc and planning our company’s direction.

Today, the first finalist will be presenting his action plan to VILLA for the Social Marketing Challenge. We’re excited to see how this turns out and how VILLA would perceive it.

Organizing and executing this case challenge has taught us a lot about our model. We still believe it’s a compelling offering, both for companies and for students. For companies, they not only get multiple solutions from students, but also use their proposals as a way to assess them for employment. Students on the other hand get to work on a real world problem and stand a chance to win cash or get hired. Mutual benefits result, as is the case with the VILLA challenge.

However, to generate a constant stream of ideas is not possible with the one-time ad hoc nature of case challenges. Companies need to have a problem substantial enough at hand to get multiple students competing to solve it. While it’s a great platform to tap into the wisdom of crowds, it doesn’t collect ideas that are not directly addressing the challenge.

So that’s why, we decided to build another component: The Idea Bank.

This is a collector of open ended-company-specific ideas that students can submit to any company listed on our site. They can be anything, from a suggestion to place targeted ads on a new website, to a proposal for improving the pricing strategy of a product. These ideas will be voted and commented on, ultimately creating a robust intellectual discussion. Companies will get the top rated ideas in weekly emails and may choose to hire the greatest thinkers or engage them to further develop their ideas.

Using the idea bank, a company doesn’t necessarily have to have a problem to solve, but just a thirst of fresh ideas from the student population.

We believe the idea bank and case challenges supplement each other excellently. One is close-ended and definite; it’s extremely useful when there’s an immediate problem to solve. The other is open and thrives on active feedback from other users of the portal.

Both offerings are a great way to find the right talent. In a survey we’ve put together, many companies have expressed that they often have difficulty in assessing if a job seeker is the right fit for their company. This addresses the problem in that it gives companies an opportunty to test a candidate’s creative thinking ability.

Thoughts? Please share them by leaving a comment!