MIT Sloan Management Review

innovation process,” as one participant put it.

Direct involvement of IT specialists in project teams ensures awareness of innovators’ needs on the part of IT and greater leverage in the use of formal project-management methodologies and practices. IT specialists can therefore work on “pull” rather than “push” modes and fruitfully participate in project decisions, thereby speeding up experimentation, collaboration, prototyping and documentation.

As an enabler, the IT department should provide and support tools required by the innovators, and it should be directly involved in developing new tools as the need arises. We found, however, that IT departments often fail to assume this role. Apart from what it ought to do, what the IT department should avoid doing is mandating standardization, which acts to prevent a “bottom up” emergence of IT tools inspired by the innovators. As one DuPont participant noted, “It is important for IT people to position themselves as credible research partners — to create the sense that their work can bring value to the research.”

Lessons for CEOs

Because innovation capabilities reflect the overall organization, the CEO is ultimately responsible for ensuring their continuous development. This company leader may delegate that responsibility to some extent, but ultimately he or she must keep a firm hand on the tiller. In doing so, the CEO can:

■ Actively participate in deciding what innovation initiatives are funded and ensure that the appropriate controls and information are in place for making those decisions.

■ Recognize and reward collaborative work, insist on cross-functional and cross-disciplinary projects and support funding for the technological infrastructures that enable collaborative activities.

■ Play a key role in creating the business-IT linkage capability by appointing to the IT leadership position someone who has a strong knowledge of company processes, goals and strategy and who is trusted by other business leaders — as opposed to someone whose primary attribute is experience with technology.

■ Enhance this capability by ensuring that IT leadership has a role in the executive “cabinet” and is consulted on key decisions.

■ Encourage ambidexterity in the IT department

by insisting on strong operational performance goals in conjunction with a compelling R&D-fo-cused strategic vision.

■ Help ensure that innovators have adequate control over the computing resources that they need to be most efficient. Although issues of control play out between departments, the CEO is the ultimate arbitrator of these governance conflicts.

■ Recognize that innovation is not simply a matter of R&D but a socially complex process engaging other corporate functions such as manufacturing, legal, marketing and sales. Because information systems are critical to coordinating and increasing the effectiveness of these functions’ interactions, they are also critical to facilitating the innovation process.

When R&D managers, innovation leaders, IT managers and senior leadership all understand the role that information technology can play in streamlining and accelerating the innovation process, a company will be well on its way toward producing more innovations, and better innovations, with the resources at its disposal.

Steven R. Gordon is a professor of information systems and technology management at Babson College in Babson Park, Massachusetts. Monideepa Tarafdar is an associate professor of information, operations and technology management at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. Comment on this article or contact the authors at smrfeedback@mit.edu.

REFERENCES

1. The concept of a “capability” or “competency” (a collection of routines and processes that direct company resources toward unique and valuable outcomes) has evolved from the strategy literature on the resource-based view of the company. See D.J. Teece, G. Pisano and A. Shuen, “Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management,” Strategic Management Journal 18, no. 7 (1997): 509-533. 2. The structure and process have been simplified for presentation purposes. 3. O.M. Bjelland and R.C. Wood, “An Inside View of IBM’s ‘Innovation Jam,’” MIT Sloan Management Review 50, no. 1 (2008): 32-40. 4. K.J. Sharma and B. Bowonder, “The Making of Boeing 777: A Case Study in Concurrent Engineering,” International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 6, no. 3/4 (2004): 254-264.