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CIO innovation is about getting ahead of the problems

My colleagues and I in the CIO/IT Strategy Media Group have spent much of the first half of 2011 talking with CIOs about innovation. So much time that I think I might go crazy asking another question about CIO innovation. But happily, I’m always surprised by the answers we hear.

The latest sampling came from the CIOsynergy Chicago 2011 conference I attended last week.

One CIO, Paul Cottey of Accretive Health, talked about innovation not as something that has to be forced but something that will happen naturally, given the right environment. “Expect innovation to occur,” despite a bad economy or fewer people doing more work, he said. Not everybody can be an innovator, but it may be enough to enable others to be innovative. “I got out of the way,” he said.

Others said that innovation may simply be a matter of recognizing an opportunity and seizing when it comes along. “One person’s ceiling is another’s floor,” said Greg Goluska, CIO of DSC Logistics.

What keeps coming through for me is that to be truly innovative, solutions need to be put in place and be ready before the occurrence of the problem for which the solution was designed. In other words, IT innovation isn’t about keeping up with the business; it’s getting ahead of it. That does not have to be accomplished through some magic trick or guessing game. It comes from developing an understanding of the business as well as anyone else in the company.

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