Fri, Dec 21, 2007 15:26 EST

IT Analysis Paralysis

Topic: Enterprise Management

Current Rating: Comments: 3

Do IT leaders struggle with innovation because they're too analytical? A new study suggests that leading too much with one's head might have something to do with why many companies struggle with innovation.

I've been thinking about this question since I talked with innovation consultant Gary Hamel in the fall. He observes that modern management is designed to optimize efficiency rather than the execution of new ideas. Last week, I got a copy of a study by Oliver Wyman-Delta Organization & Leadership which in part asked executives to define the leadership skills that were most critical to innovation.

The top three:

Establishing clarity of purpose for their organization
Cultivating an open and supportive environment
Facilitating idea generation.

The study define these skills as encompassing leadership by the "head, heart and guts," It concludes that innovative companies need leaders who can function at all three levels-making decisions using information when it's available, but being open to new ideas and willing to take calculated risks when data is scarce. In general, respondents believed they were failing at innovation, and said their biggest obstacle was creating the right climate for it.

CIO Magazine had the opportunity to ask a question as part of this study: To what extent the IT department at the respondent's company was involved in supporting innovation. Slightly more than half of the respondents (53 percent) said their IT departments were only "somewhat" involved. Barely one-third (35 percent), said IT was very involved. Ten percent said IT wasn't involved, and 2 percent didn't know.

Here's what I think this means:

It's been drilled into most IT leaders that they can't provide enough metrics to show how technology contributes to the bottom line. IT decisions hinge on having enough data to prove that an investment is worthwhile, or that it doesn't cost too much (however much that is).

Managers, schooled to focus on efficiency, have become champions of business process improvement, and favor IT projects that support such improvements.

Therefore, IT leaders are stuck in a box-hostage to data, and without support or encouragement to take risks with technology.

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Sun, Dec 23, 2007 2:52 EST

I think that the lack of

Posted by: PierG
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I think that the lack of control (= numbers) is a sore in the culture of IT managers.
And I don't think business lines are not involving IT in innovation for the lack of showing how much value does IT give. I think it's above all a matter of trust.
Not always is a matter or ROI and not always calculating the economic impact given by IT to innovation can be a meaningful number.
IT managers need to become more accountable and more trustable ...
PierG
http://pierg.wordpress.com

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Thu, Dec 27, 2007 14:23 EST

Somewhat harsh, don't you think?

Posted by: Revisionist
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Experienced IT managers know exactly how the enterprise will respond to the prospect of high profile, significant innovations (characterized as radical and disruptive)...

The natural executive reflex is 'risk management mode' and the innovative manager is moved to position where their 'enthusiasm' can be better controlled.

In the real world, managers are innovating with non-disruptive, incremental innovations. This is seen (rightly so in my view) as a less threatening, more mature approach to enterprise IT innovation.

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Fri, Dec 28, 2007 16:01 EST

Several types of innovation

Posted by: lbrito
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I also agree with this comment. Having taught innovation workshops in the past, I believe one needs to provide a better context to "innovation" and how it relates to IT.

The primary role of IT is to provide automation aids to business processes that can vary from communications infrastructure to decision making tools.
For the most part, IT is an operational activity, ie, it needs to run constantly, reliably and within parameters expected for the business to conduct its other functions. As with any production environment this requirement emphasizes risk mitigation and thus lead naturally to incremental, non-disruptive changes resulting from innovative ideas and continuous improvement. And there is nothing wrong with it, as noted above. Ad it may be simply that IT leaders do it without labeling it "innovation".

IT can also provide automation support for many activities used in innovation management and thus becoming an active player and supporter of such culture in a company.

On the other hand, when other functions prompt the business to introduce some disruptive innovations, mostly related to business processes, IT tend to play a catch-up game (aka alignment) to properly support the new concepts while not jeopardizing operations. It is in this area that IT leaders could become more active IMHO. By seeking out what disruptive changes resulting from innovative ideas from their internal clients, they can preempt the required changes, become more aware of the business strategies and market requirements and perhaps even contribute with own thoughts where technology may be not be exploited to its full potential.

In summary, while IT has the constraints of any production function, it seems that IT leaders are actively supporting and fostering meaningful innovation.

Best regards,

Luciano

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