In what now seems a distant past, company research facilities like Xerox PARC and Bell Labs fueled innovation and growth for dominant American manufacturing firms. As the pace of technological change has quickened and the costs of R&D have grown, that model has ceased to work. Meanwhile, global competition has intensified the imperative to innovate; even long-standing manufacturing companies, such as Parker Hannifin, Timken, Kennametal, and United Technologies, strive to have 20% or more of their products be new or substantially revamped each year. …

Innovation is an indispensable force that turns ideas into money. It is the lifeblood of any organization. In order to implement sustainable innovation in 2012, you need to define innovation in a manner that makes strategic sense for your organization, and have the know-how to properly construct and use a process, plus the will to keep the process on course.

Companies don't need a ton of money to do innovative things. What they need is a willingness to listen to good ideas from their employees. Here are seven ways to innovate from the bottom up.