Best-Kept Secrets of the World's Best Companies

From Business 2.0, here's an article on "Best-kept secrets of the world's best companies."

What a great list!:

1. Extreme Benchmarking. Compare everything you do against your rivals
2. Bad News Folders. Keep a constant eye out for trouble
3. Strategic Strategy Reviews. Turn going-through-the-motions meetings into no-holds-barred debates
4. A New Office Pool. Use prediction markets to tap hidden knowledge
5. The Tech Box. Create a lending library of ideas
6. Outside-In R&D. Bring in experts to help spark new ideas
7. Office Graffiti. Let workers speak their minds (brainstorm)
8. Surgical Visits. Seek brutally honest feedback from customers
9. The Contra Team. Appoint official devil's advocates to challenge the merits of deals
10. Equity as You Go. Take no stake until you earn it
11. The Chief Shareholder Officer. Head off shareholder trouble before it starts
12. Always-On Board Members. Get the directors out of the boardroom
13. The Corporate Beehive. Use office design to keep the queen in touch with the worker bees.
14. The Job Audition. Turn the interview process into an all-encompassing tryout
15. Peer-to-Peer Promotion. Let employees choose their leaders
16. The Shrink Shrinker. Reward workers for keeping their hands off the merchandise
17. The Anti-Star System. Determine pay using just two factors: Profits and seniority
18. The Pyramid Scheme. Use kickbacks--the legal kind--to attract executive talent
19. The Long Goodbye. Keep retirees in the labor pool
20. The Three-Minute Huddle. Start each day with a lightning-fast, all-hands briefing
21. Gainsharing. Pass cost savings on to those who achieved them
22. Open-Source Ad Campaigns. Let your customers do the marketing
23. Late-Night Recon. Turn employees into trendspotters
24. The "Just Looking" Badge. Neutralize your customers' worst fears
25. Phone Shopping. Become your own customer

BOTTOMLINE: Perhaps you've not heard of some of these practices -- but you may want to start implementing some - today.