Suggestion schemes have a whiff of 1960s cartoonery about them – think of the image of a suggestions box opening into a wastepaper basket underneath. Yet in the 21st century the suggestion scheme is alive and well. Indeed, if you sign up to some of today’s fashionable managerial ideas – creating a culture of recognition, staff empowerment and looking everywhere for innovation – company suggestion schemes are more relevant than ever.

BAE Systems’ site at Barrow-in-Furness has a popular scheme where a proportion of the fruits of the ideas are paid into a fund that is shared among non-executive employees at the UK defence contractor. The ideas fall into three categories. The first are those that are small, simple and easy to implement. For each idea adopted here, the company pays £25 into the fund.