“THE BRIGHT IDEA BOX” WINS SILVER MEDAL IN AXIOM BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS

Silicon Valley executive Jag Randhawa’s newly published book “The Bright Idea Box” has won the Silver Medal in the 7^th Annual Axiom Business Book Awards. The step-by-step book teaches readers how to create a bottom-up innovation program, in which employees generate ideas to improve business processes, increase customer satisfaction, reduce operational costs, and raise the top line.

Published this past winter, “The Bright Idea Box” was entered into the Axiom Business Book Awards and tied for the Silver Medal in the “Operations Management/Lean/Continuous Improvement” category.

Randhawa was delighted with the news and saw this win as not only for him but for businesses and employees everywhere.

“My book highlights how businesses can use the simple idea of a suggestion box to give employees a feeling of ownership for their jobs and the company, thus empowering them and providing the company with increased employee and customer satisfaction,” said Randhawa. “When employees are happy, they make customers happy. Winning this award shows that the judges—and hopefully the world of business itself—is open to the message of innovation from the bottom-up in a company.”

The thesis of “The Bright Idea Box” draws on something Randhawa realized early in his career: All employees have an innate desire to contribute to something bigger than themselves, beyond their everyday job activities. When companies create a platform for employees to contribute, it can generate new ideas to benefit the business and everyone involved. In the book, Randhawa introduces a six-step MASTER innovation program that businesses can use to assist employees in submitting, developing, and implementing their ideas.

Nor is the book all theory. Randhawa successfully implemented this program and cites examples of how some of the world’s most innovative and successful companies actively engage their employees to partner in generating ideas for business growth. Companies highlighted in “The Bright Idea Box” include Apple, Brasilata, Google, P&G, 3M, Toyota, Whole Foods, Zappos, and Zara. Randhawa remarked, “My winning this book award is a win for every company that cares about its employees.”

Randhawa knows what it is to start at the bottom and work your way up. Born and raised on a farm in rural India, Randhawa developed a sense of appreciation for doing the best with what you have, which he successfully applied to business when he entered the corporate world. He started programming in his early teens and began working full-time as an engineer at age seventeen. Randhawa immigrated to the United States in the late ’90s as part of the Y2K demand for software programmers and worked his way up to top management in under a decade. Randhawa attributes his success to building great teams and bringing the best out in of others.