When companies look to innovate, more frequently than not it's the CIO who gets the call. Why? Because IT is the only function that touches every aspect of an organization—from the back office to the front-end customer-facing systems and technologies. The trend among organizations to place the responsibility for innovation on IT's shoulders is borne out in CIO's 2007 "State of the CIO" research report.
For 2007, respondents predict that their primary impact on the business will be "enabling innovation," which is up from number three on the IT impact list from the 2006 survey. However, only 10 percent of CIOs said that "bringing ideas for IT-enabled business innovation to the table" is a dominant part of their role. Similarly, many CIO Executive Council members are eager to crack the innovation nut and are struggling with ways to institutionalize innovation. Members report that for IT-led innovation to occur consistently, they must advance a multipronged strategy that includes gaining support and tolerance for risk at the senior leadership level, cultivating a new attitude and culture among IT staff, building supportive organizational structures, aligning and partnering with the business, and establishing formal innovation processes. In this Forum, we'll focus on cultivating a culture for innovation. Next time, we'll tackle those processes.
See full Article.
Posts
