Companies should redesign management strategies to allow multi-generational employees to unleash their innovation potential

In a commentary, SMU Academic Director (MSc in Innovation) and Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources (Education) Thomas Menkhoff commented that the prospect of a shrinking citizen population and ageing workforce has significant implications for the workplace, one of which is the trend towards the co-existence of at least four generations of employees. He said that local firms are well advised to re-engineer their innovation management strategy and systems to embrace all generations at work. He also shared that companies can fully harness the innovation potential of its workforce throughout the innovation process on the basis of (i) team-based research efforts (e.g. in a lab) during the strategic concept and idea development phase, (ii) by forming a truly age-diverse design team in order to develop innovative products or services, (iii) by integrating customer needs into a profitable business model during the commercialisation stage and (iv) by awarding royalties to inventive teams of employees during the value extraction phase.