Boeing has developed the
capability to manage the
collaboration of some
240 design/build teams
concurrently.
could miss learning about IT-based tools that
might help them better execute their projects and
realize their goals.
One way to develop this capability is to hold
periodic conferences and focus groups at which IT
specialists and researchers share their expertise.
Another way is to require IT specialists to sit in on
important R&D meetings to help them gain a better understanding of innovation processes and to
facilitate team building. Yet another way is to hold
IT specialists responsible for innovation-success
metrics such as ease of collaboration and effectiveness of accessible knowledge. An innovator from
Archer Daniels Midland Co. told us, “Things like
simulation are half IT, half R&D. We have encouraged IT to understand more of what we do and
come up with their own ideas regarding what R&D
can use.” At one of the other companies we studied,
the VP of innovation had dotted-line reporting
from the CIO.
5. Ambidexterity. This capability of the IT staff
allows it to achieve excellence in operations while
maintaining a clear strategic vision, balancing the
attention to each as warranted by the environment.
If the IT function lacks operational excellence, the
quality of its support will be inferior. Its networks,
servers, databases, intranets and portals — components that form the infrastructural and support
backbone for companywide knowledge management
and collaboration systems — will lack adequate functionality. Collaboration technologies such as wikis
and social networking will also be compromised, or
unavailable.
However, if the IT function lacks strategic vision, it could be driven by standardization zeal and
fail to appreciate the need for acquiring and supporting the kinds of nonstandard applications and
processes often required by innovators. Further, IT
could be unwilling to explore ways to facilitate innovation. One company we studied demonstrated
strategic vision by granting resources to IT for innovation activities based on the need to stay at the
cutting edge rather than on detailed ROI/cost/stan-dardization criteria.
6. Competitive Intelligence. This capability
facilitates learning what competitors are doing,
what they are failing to do and thus where innovation opportunities might lie. For example, in
recent years companies have found that blogs and
wikis are effective for publishing and circulating
information about their own and competitors’
products and services. But while responses to a
blog posting often result in a long and hard-to-read trail of opinions and counter-opinions, a
wiki page on a given subject will appear as a well-conceived and organized article. Through frequent
editing, wiki pages converge into a coherent presentation, where alternative views can be presented
with their pros and cons. Companies are also
monitoring social networking sites to learn how
customers are responding to their products and
competitors’ products. For such online competitive intelligence to be user-friendly and productive,
a solid working relationship between IT staff and
innovators is essential.
II. Tools Innovators who routinely make effective
use of IT employ a robust set of tools that are easy
to learn and that address users’ specific technical
needs. By contrast, tools that have long learning
curves relative to the frequency or length of tool
usage are less likely to “stick.”
One way to increase the stickiness, or sustain-
ability, of tools is to let the R&D department choose
its own, based on the tools’ perceived value. An-
other approach, which has been adopted at The
Clorox Co. and elsewhere, is for R&D to work
jointly with the IT department to identify, acquire
and implement specific tools. As an innovator from
Corning Inc. told us, “letting the users drive the de-
sign of the tools,” even though they are developed
by IT, leads to tools that stick. This approach en-
sures alignment with R&D needs and tool
characteristics, leading to better and more sustain-
able solutions. In fact, the approach often creates
R&D “superusers” who become expert in the use of
the tool and can be resources for deploying and
training, which further increases its stickiness.
Conversely, as one of our study participants said,
“IT should not dictate” what tools should and
should not be used. When IT departments select
the tools, innovators may not understand their
value or may simply find the tools unsuited to their
needs. It is wishful thinking that IT specialists can
use their expertise in software to purchase a toolbox containing a relevant and appropriate set of
