The New Book “The Change Agent CIO” Introduction Chapter V IT Innovation and Intrapreneurship ~ Future of CIO

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

The New Book “The Change Agent CIO” Introduction Chapter V IT Innovation and Intrapreneurship

11:16 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

The ultimate innovation isn’t what you do; it’s what you deliver for results, and how being innovative becomes the state of mind.

Nowadays, IT is the business in the business and the digital engine of the entire organization. The role of CIO continues to evolve rapidly in the midset of the change and digital transformation. Forward-thinking IT organizations should practice intrapreneurship for running IT as a software startup, promoting and sustaining organizational performance, renewal and corporate competitiveness.

Work on the business and in the business, not just for the business: The heart of entrepreneurship is about changes; organizations large or small, all face the unprecedented changes, uncertainty, velocity, and accelerated business dynamic. IT needs to shift its role from a support function to the change agent that works both on the business and in the business, not just for the business. Today’s organizations are at a crossroads where the segregation or silo of business units is at a need to reach across the aisles and respectively work with each other. Practicing IT intrapreneurship means to harness changes, cultivate innovative cultures, and learn to generate more novel ideas in diverse teams. To run an innovative IT organization, the more difficult challenge is not just about launching successful teams, but maintaining their motivation and focus, cultivating the positive attitude and building a culture of risk tolerance and doing more with innovation. The success of IT is based on both operational excellence and innovation competence. Not every change is innovation, but innovation is always the most wanted change for either driving business growth or delighting people.

Structure creative processes and boost creative performance: Digital IT needs to spend more time and resource on innovation-related activities. An organization that has a lightweight process and collaborative culture allows ideas to flow, get protected, channeled and nurtured will succeed more often than an organization that has overly rigid processes and functional silos. Not only should IT play an active role in designing, developing, and producing innovative products or services, but also IT is in a unique position to influence the business’s “personality.” In practice, innovation in the corporate world has a lot to do with fostering a creative environment, building heterogeneous teams to boost creative performance. You have to live it and breathe it, otherwise, you will feel stuck. By leveraging powerful digital platforms and technologies, organizations can be more effective in executing innovative ideas. Generally speaking, an organization that has a lightweight process which allows creativity and innovation to flow, get protected, channeled and nurtured will succeed more often than an organization that does not have such a process.