This morning I woke up with a thought, “how do I start this day in a way that will brighten up the day for a few stranger?” I decided to do what i do once in a while – offer a free hug to everybody who passes me by while i am jogging. 

So I got plenty of very warm, fully embracing hugs and laughs today, and while doing so I struck a conversation with a young woman that was walking her dog. She seemed to be concern with something. As I sit next to her on a bench, she shared that her life seems to be defined by someone else – she is stuck in a bottom of a corporate ladder and doesn’t see a way out. In this economy changing a job might not be a good idea for her, but she feels as she outgrew her job, and her boss doesn’t help with her promotion no matter how well she performs. She feels that she makes no difference and lost her passion to what she has to spend 8-9 hours a day.

I offered her some ideas, and she left smiling. I hope you too feel encouraged to think outside of your cubicle after reading this article with a , inspired by my morning encounter. I welcome other bloggers to repost this article to a link to its original destination – this blog.

It is not a secret for anybody that with higher hierarchical position within a corporation you get a better compensation packages (higher base, higher bonus structure), but what is more important – you get more freedom of choices and ability to make decisions that affect both – your company future as well as your personal lifestyle.

So, weather to strive for promotion or not, is rarely a question for those who are driven and ambitious, and who aspire for personal and career development.

The real question is how, if your boss is not leaving his job and not fired (hopefully). You want to live accordingly to your morale codex, with integrity and respect to your colleagues. At the same time you want to create a better place for yourself under a corporate sun.

A lot of people have a hard time influencing decision of upper management and therefore destined to stay on the bottom of the ladder for years, uninspired and with unrealized potentials. A lot of great professionals do. But you don’t have to.

One flawed thinking pattern that many professionals seem to adopt is that in order to be promoted they need to get rid of their boss; and unless [s]he leaves there is no place to be moved to.

Do you realize what nonsense it is?! This mental concept not only creates unnecessary sense of competition with your own supervisor and relationship full of resistance, but also reduces your choices and makes you blind to see abundance of opportunities.

Just think about it. Companies expand. Your company can grow not only vertically but also horizontally; new projects get introduced to a market and the beauty of it – you don’t need to wait for someone to select you for a leadership role to manage one of them.

All you need to do is to step outside of your daily routine and look at your company with fresh eyes. See where it is now and where is could be only if…

Then open your notebook and list all potential steps that your company can make to get to the next level. Write few paragraphs for a new strategy. If you lack ideas, study news releases and press coverage of your competitors; look at reports, statistics, industry analysis and anything that can give you more ideas unrelated to your current responsibilities, but in area that you have enough expertise to create both strategy and execution plan, select suppliers and manage implementation of the new project.

If after all that exercise you still didn’t come up with your promotion strategy, here is one that has 90% of success rate. You might even try it first and then leave the rest for plan B.

Your Action Plan:

Take the proposal that I am briefly drafting for you below, polish it (don’t copy my great English please, my accent is copyrighted   ), add some meat (company related information) and send it to your Director with CC to VP of Marketing, VP of Business development and CEO. In your email tell that you feel that you came up with a project for which you see great potentials and that you could manage this project; that when it needs more human resources you has all it takes to manage the new department. Request a meeting-presentation with participation of all parties. After the meeting walk in to the office of your VP and give a hint that you would like a separate department to be formed for this project and you are ready to act as a head of the department.

Here is a very raw draft of your proposal:

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Proposal for utilizing social media, collective intelligence and crowdsourcing.
Introducing new approaches to product innovation and marketing – launch of a Virtual Innovation Lab for _________________ (company name)

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Our company was built upon innovation which continues to be an integral part of the _________________ (company name) culture and business strategy.

I believe our commitment to innovation has to propel the development of more ideas, more new profitable products and services [that empower our customers to grow their businesses around the world]. (for B2B company).

In the current economy where competing for customer dollar becomes harder and harder, innovation has to be a part of the DNA at _________________ (company name). By utilizing social media / Web 2.0 in a new way and by developing high-technology around various processes for collaborative innovation I see how innovation can become a strategic business practice that should be continuously enhanced and encouraged.

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Up to date the innovation for _________________ (company name) happens mostly within the company. Customer and supplier feedback is utilized only 5%. By increasing participation of all members of our ecosystem 90% and engaging them in product and marketing innovation we increase company product, diversify our product line, increase market penetration and adoption of new product/service offering – all with reduced costs.

Technological change is one of vital influencers of corporate growth. Investments in research and development are closely linked to rising productivity levels. As a truly innovative company we would most probably exhibit the following characteristics:

higher rate of growth greater job growth higher productivity greater investment in people and capital greater capacity to attract and retain highly qualified people.

Innovation has become key to improved global competitiveness for many enterprises that have reduced geographic and other trade barriers – barriers that previously protected domestic companies  from international competition. The new reality for business is that local and international firms must continually innovate, adapt and create new products and services to compete beyond regional borders.

The obstacle for greater capacity to innovate for many companies is limited R&D budgets. In my proposal I will address this challenge to better position our company to successfully compete in the coming decade.

I propose us to create a  that will become a center of gravity for our company innovation.

We can take Web 2.0 and the power of online interaction to the next level and build a solution that will turn our website into a collaboration portal between management, investors, customers, suppliers, employees and fans. It’s a collaborative intelligence and crowd sourcing at their best.

We will engage our stakeholders in all company processes which will save costs while increasing the productivity of all functional units.

Our Virtual Innovation Laboratory will help us to find product innovation talents, offer new ways of building channel partnerships, source new technologies, and conduct market research; it will also help with supply chain management.

Today companies only start learning the benefits of social media but none of them fully utilizes the power of collective intelligence.

So far our social media initiatives at best aim to:

Increase Customer Loyalty — Draw users back to a corporate site again and again.
Enhance Brand Awareness — Give them a forum to express themselves and share opinions.

Our Virtual Innovation Laboratory can offer all the above, but it will be designed to offer many more benefits that can be acquired from Web 2.0.

While social media solution providers make it possible for to enhance our Web presence and enable user-generated content with common Web 2.0 features such as blogs, wikis, forums, ratings, reviews, and tags, we will take our social media initiatives much further.

Our Virtual Innovation Laboratory will automate business process around product marketing innovation.

I have made an in-depth research on available solutions and technologies and came to the conclusion that in-house or outsourced development will be extremely costly initiative. Instead we can integrate an off-shelf solution and customize it accordingly to our requirements. It will reduce project cost and time-to-market 90%.

I have located a suitable technology partner and have found the supplier with a product IR Web 3.0 that is unique, has a great framework for innovation, and rich functionality. See www.IRweb30.com. Also download the power point presentation at the link below.

See video brochure for IR Web 3.0 on the original blog where this article is posted:

http://ideamamaadnetwork.com/blog/2009/09/23/how-to-get-promoted-job-promotion-marketing-coordinator-manager-director-level-fortune-1000-company/

Functionality of the product can be found on www.IdeaMamaClub.com, a consumer application of the product. (Functionality preview requires user registration).

IR Web 3.0 revolutionizes investor / customer / vendor / partner relations by making it easy to provide a two-way communication and collaboration platform for interactions between management and stakeholders, leading to greater efficiency in the areas of operations and business development. It results in cost reduction and higher profit margins. It also provides full transparency which helps to create and maintain accountability while fostering innovation.

This “socio-innovation” offers unique ways for company executives to interact with their existing and potential investors, customers, employees, suppliers and channel partners; it enables action-driven interactions that develop communities around corporate initiatives; it engages the investment community in the innovation process — in product development, business development, and marketing.

Included in the suite are two key packages: the Innovation Fostering Collaborative Platform (IFCP) that utilizes social media, and Instant Transparent Reporting Capabilities (ITRC).

Our Virtual Innovation Laboratory powered by IR Web 3.0 will:

• Create our own branded innovation incubator with your own visual content; benefit from transparent collaboration between our management, investors, suppliers, customers, and partners.
• Post new product development projects and view all projects.
• Launch new projects for brainstorming and execution — invent new products and build new businesses with your contributors, expand your existing business and market our products.
• Let innovative users submit their patented ideas to you for licensing consideration or IP acquisition through a built-in Virtual Innovation Agent.
• Bid on new product / technology licensing opportunities.
• Express interest in borrowing for the most attractive strategic investment opportunities.

• Save our marketing budget. Post our Creative Marketing Briefs and gather free ideas volunteered by members; hire the most creative talent by announcing tenders.
• View a list of previously posted out-of-the-box marketing campaigns. Learn from previous successes and failures.
• Let our volunteers take part in designing and testing our marketing campaigns and collect credits or virtual currency for their ideas.
• Let our volunteers suggest new initiatives and participate in their development.
• Let them post their ideas and get them rated to expose their talent to our team, associates, and business partners to find career placement within our ecosystem.
• Let our potential job candidates and independent consultants volunteer their ideas, while at the same time promoting their skills to you by uploading their CV, references, personality profile, company profile, company brochure, new product releases, press releases, video news, audio news, Infomercials, 3D office, and client lists. They can also upload portfolio images to showcase their work, or market their inventions, designs, artwork, and ideas.

• Let our management team and other members specify their wish list to attract referrals and provide an opportunity to match “haves” and “wants.”
• Let our contributors browse member profiles — use our advanced search to find new partners, new clients, new suppliers, and new investors, as well as new strategic investment opportunities.
• Let members grow our contributor base by downloading their address books and inviting new users.
• View testimonials posted by members about other members’ contributions.
• Let the members of our ecosystem publicize their added value to our business by posting their detailed business profiles.
• Reward the most active contributors by adding them to a favorites list as “People To Admire.”
• Make selected projects viewable under NDA only, or make them available for all users. />• Search for related projects to existing initiatives to locate strategic partnerships.
• Invite users to join our new business units or in-house initiatives as stockholders, contractors, or employees.
• Upload and download legal, financial, and other documents related for particular projects.
• Build electronic action plans for each project; assign tasks for our team and track deadlines.
• Benefit from a Virtual Dispute Resolution room.
• Let our users search opportunity postings and apply to collect fees, stock, virtual currency, portion of profit, or other reward items.
• Search new ideas and projects by location, development stage, and other parameters
• Post and distribute an unlimited number of press releases using our PR database and Virtual News Courier with bulk mailing facilities designed to comply with the CanSpam Act.
• Create regional or vertical chapters and invite users to the appropriate chapter.
• Benefit from an electronic event calendar.
• Post events and send invitations to other members to increase attendance.
• Barter our products and services — save our cash.
• Let our portal users freely communicate with others by sending an unlimited number of teasers and messages.
• Let users search for contacts, knowledge, and deals.

IR Web 3.0 is designed by , a leading provider of innovative consumer and enterprise solutions. The company is known for its groundbreaking innovation and thought leadership in the areas of product development, online advertising, media monetization, and other segments in which IdeaMama develops new product categories. The two main companies that constitute the IdeaMama brand are IdeaMama Ad Network and IdeaMamaClub.com.

The portal customization might take 3-4 months. The exact delivery date would depend on our functionality requirements. Portal maintenance and administration could be done by the supplier.

Product price will be comprised of one time license fee, portal customization and monthly maintenance costs. The expenses for project execution will be fully justified by its effect on company growth, productivity and R&D cost reduction.

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Prepared by ________ (your name)
Date: ________________________

To make your case stronger in your email-presentation you can point to some supporting materials about importance of using collective intelligence, getting more benefits from social media and crowdsourcing.

Videos posted in the blog will give you good perspectives and will help you to tailor your pitch.

Also find more educational materials  Also find more educational materials on the subject in this blog entry: What your IP will be worth tomorrow? Process automation for truly innovative companies. The system for building Innovation Pipeline and tools for creating a Culture of Innovation.

If the trick works, call me, share your success story. If doesn’t still call me, may be I can help you to revisit your approach and turn it around for your personal benefit and benefits of your employer.

Good luck!