There was an article in Harvard Business Review called, Funding Growth in an Age of Austerity which talked about different ways to increase innovation within your organization;

1. Increase the ratio of innovators to the total number of employees.
2. Increase the ratio  of radical innovation to incremental innovation.
3. Increase the ratio of externally sourced innovation to internally sourced innovation.
4. Increase the ratio of learning over investment in innovation.
5. Increase the ratio of commitment over the number of key innovation priorities.

I thought these principals mapped remarkably well to the Salesforce Ideas product.

1. With Salesforce Ideas you can give every employee an opportunity to contribute innovative ideas. This is exactly what Dell has done with EmployeeStorm.
2. Salesforce Ideas provides a forum where people feel safe expressing their ideas, so you might be more likely to source radical innovation.
3. You can also increase externally sourced innovation by creating a community for your customers and partners, similar to IdeaStorm or IdeaExchange.
4. Salesforce Ideas are great for generating ideas from customers, but they can also be used to test concepts out new concepts. By getting lots of feedback early you increase the ratio of learning over investment.
5. This principal really speaks to management focus, but Salesforce Ideas does help the community speak with one voice.