Monday, December 23, 2019

Running IT as Glue of Digital Innovation

Digital organizations must manage information effectively, and run IT as the super glue to weave all important business elements seamlessly for building the unique innovation competency.

With rapid change and overwhelming growth of information, IT has to shift from bits, bytes, and lights to information, intelligence, integration, improvement, interface, and innovation. The challenge is about getting out from the daily burden and spending more resources and time on innovation-related activities and running IT as the glue of digital innovation.



Running IT as the innovation glue so that CIOs have greater opportunities to stand out and take a lead in driving innovation across their companies: IT is the only entity in the organization supposed to understand business entirely, be able to connect the wider dots for sparking creativity; and function as the super glue to integrate all important business elements seamlessly into innovation competency. In reality though, most traditional IT organizations spend more than two-thirds of their total IT budget to keep the lights on, only leave very little for innovation.

To keep IT relevant, forward-looking IT leaders need to ask themselves and others: Does our IT budgeting match the level of IT-driven innovation? Can we manage a balanced innovation portfolio which includes different flavors of innovation? Are we accepting risks for potential rewards? Etc. It is essential for the business to define what are the key foundational elements that require the utmost rigor and discipline for IT to play an active role in driving and encouraging innovation through the organization. Innovative organizations naturally have closer connections between functions and all functions and levels are more intimately involved with the market and each other on a regular basis, IT is the glue and thus, a critical success factor of innovation management.

Running IT as an innovation glue enables the business to manage innovation in a systematic way and improve the success rate of innovation: IT is more like glue than a tool for integrating all important business elements into the business innovation capability. Innovation processes need to be rigorous, not too rigid; have a lightweight process which allows creativity and innovation to flow, get protected, channeled and nurtured. By empowering IT and leveraging digital platforms and technologies, businesses can be more effective in executing innovative ideas, relying less on silo functions, and more on cross-functional collaboration and innovation.

It's a matter of co-creating with people outside your current customers, and design community that shares a common interest, using a consistent process while maintaining momentum. Companies can leverage information technology to enable local innovation experimentation/quick learning experiences that are local, then scale up innovation best and next practices, and foster innovation at the organizational scope.


Innovation metrics is part of transparent visual management allowing pulling: Innovation is a process and management discipline to transform novel ideas and achieve its business value. The goal of innovation measurement is to create new revenue and drive early success to create a positive spiral. 

You choose related KPIs by deciding which are seen as critical to making progress in order to deliver more business results from innovations. The measures should be oriented to justify innovation the organization needs. 

Keep in mind, metrics are not the end-all solutions to innovation management, but simply another set of tools and information. Keep the measures simple and understandable. The evaluation process needs to be done regularly, as some of the capabilities developed through the organization may become foundational, and thus require further hardening at that time.

It’s a natural evolution as most innovation initiatives involve IT. The highly innovative organizations depend more heavily on its technological knowledge and IT-enabled capabilities to develop and commercialize innovation. Digital organizations must manage information effectively, and run IT as the super glue to weave all important business elements seamlessly for building the unique innovation competency.

1 comments:

Nice articles and your informatin valuable and good artices thank for the sharing information Digital innovation

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