You may have heard of Shark Tank, a TV show where entrepreneurs pitch products to venture capitalists who use their shark-like tendencies to make discussions of profit margins and SKUs into drama.
People with brand new ideas for wheels, sunscreen, dog biscuits, and golf putters bring their prototypes or products into a studio where half a dozen successful VCs lounge in comfortable chairs asking questions like, “How many units have you sold?” and “Which message boards are you using to market this?”
Rexroth’s North Carolina plant is taking on the idea, encouraging workers to present their ideas for continuous improvement following a morning workshop in which company leadership works with the team to generate ideas that align with the company goals.
In the afternoon, Rexroth workers pitch their ideas. By the end of the day, some of the ideas are “in” and some are “out.”
The procedure was described by Industry Week as being more of a dolphin interaction than a shark tank, but the goal is not to create drama for viewers, but to encourage innovation and collaboration.