Wanted: The Will to Innovate
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Forrester VP Bobby Cameron recently told CIO Insight online editor Brian Watson that while executives love to talk innovation, they don't do much to make it happen--and cited McKinsey to back him up. Accenture has just come out with a new study that says the same thing. (The study is entitled, "Overcoming Barriers to Innovation: Emerging Role of the Chief Innovation Executive.") |
While 62 percent of respondents to their survey "indicated that the organization's strategy depends "totally" or "largely" on innovation for long-term success" and 59 percent said their CEO's support for innovation was stronger than the competition, just 41 percent said their firm innovated with greater frequency than the competition and only 36 percent said the pace or frequency of innovation out sped their competitors. (The base is 601 C-level executives, managers and board members in North American and European companies with revenues over $750 million).
Accenture pushes for a "chief innovation officer" as a way to make innovation happen. Gartner has a different suggestion: set up formal tech innovation processes. Gartner claims two-thirds of Global 1000 companies will have them by 2010.
Me? I don't dispute that a chief innovation officer or a process-driven approach can be helpful, but neither are a sure path to innovation success.
At a minimum, not until CEOs get personally serious about innovation and (secondarily) more CIOs see it as one of the most important parts of their jobs (more on this soon, when our new CIO role survey is published) will we see a rise in IT-based innovation.
Comments (1)
I agree that a formalized innovation organization is not a sure path. Innovation runs deep in the culture of a company. EVERYONE, C-level and line workers, needs to buy in. Just because one day a company decided to be innovative, let's create something and call ourselves innovative.
Yes, companies need the top executives to get serious about the innovation. They also need to have or create the DNA throughout the organization as well.
Thanh
Posted by Thanh Nguyen | April 10, 2008 11:58 AM