• A young woman selling sewing machines for Sears noticed a worrisome trend--more and more customers were returning recently purchased machines. Perplexed, she began calling her dissatisfied customers and quickly learned that many had been stymied by the sheer complexity of the feature-laden machines. Her solution was to invite these frustrated customers into the store for sewing classes. As the flood of returns began to recede, it occurred to this enterprising employee that hers might not be the only Sears store facing such a challenge. Yet to her frustration, she discovered that Sears, like most companies, had no systematic way of encouraging and propagating grass-roots innovation like her own.

To keep up in today's ever-changing marketplace, companies would be foolish to ignore the wealth of innovation and knowledge available from employees. To take advantage of these opportunities, companies can institute systems to encourage input from employees internally, or they can hire Bureau West Research Group to conduct interviews with employees and to serve as an outside contact for employees to call without fear of internal politics or repercussions.