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Richard Platt knows innovation. According to Richard, the former corporate innovation manager and senior instructor for innovation methods at Intel Corporation, business is Darwinian and the rate of change and adaptability might be determines who sails and who sinks. Survivors constantly look for growth opportunities, and non-survivors compete with outdated business models that miss opportunities to add value.

IT's Role in Business Innovation

The idea that technology innovation would thrive within pockets of an IT organization is naive, says Richard. He points to a recent entry in Information Week's CIOs uncensored blog, which wrote that innovations are a partnership among IT, marketing, sales, product development, and business stake holders.

Richard asserts that IT can be turned into a profit center, and that business could learn a thing or two from the animal kingdom, where animals engage in cooperative hunting with different species helping each other to achieve a common goal.

Achieving Cooperation to Further Business Innovation

By using a six-step process, says Richard, IT persons can position themselves to be connected with key partners in the rest of the organization -- which can be crucial in keeping the influx of dollars into the departmental budget and avoiding outsourcing of IT functions.

1. Use fear but combined with vision, such as following mandates to turn cost centers into revenue centers.
2. Take stock of business unit operational partners.
3. Determine core IT competencies and understand them.
4. Find key innovation elements and understand their level within the company.
5. Team up and pilot with one or two business units.
6. Repeat the process with other organizational units in the company.

Should Everyone Innovate?

How extensive should an innovation movement be in scope? Richardsays it's context-dependent and varies by the needs of the organization. Elements like innovation management, strategy, metrics, infrastucture, methods, tools and incentives, management, prototyping capabilities, and training are key elements that enable the enterprise as a whole, but you start off small and grow organically.

"I would actually argue for a requirements-driven approach, from an idea management, product development management standpoint, environmental innovation management, enterprise-wide innovation management and innovation life cycle management," Richard asserts.

And enterprises can't afford not to have everyone trained in aspects of innovation, and IT can begin the discussion if they ask the questions that force a larger conversation. For example, if you look at the need to minimize risk of uncertainty, shorten time to market, and manage the innovation life cycle, IT can directly help with this by facilitating the ability to rapidly prototype innovative concepts.

Examples of IT Facilitating Innovation

Virtual prototyping models are a key means in which IT innovation can further innovation across a company. One example was the development of a fly-through tool, an extension off CATIA at Boeing on the 777 programs -- the first aircraft ever designed virtually before any metal to bolt. Boeing used an IT tool to enable the product design teams, which minimized risk, shortened the product life cycle, and reduced cost.

Richard also cites the Valor DFM tool from Intel. Richard was faced with a complex number of boards and a complex server design. The DFM (Design for Manufacturability) tool allowed the manufacturing and operations team to advocate back to the design community and also to gauge the possibility of fitting any particular design into the manufacturing envelope as a way to sanity-check and reduce risks. The tool also allows for rapid prototyping, which is a key point.

Two Tasks for IT

Richard suggests the following two tasks for IT departments:

1. Support and enable your business unit or operations partner
2. Develop a profit center focus and mentality in IT.

"I think this is critical for IT’s next level of evolvement as a part of the infrastructure," Richard says.

Executive Summary by Krissi Danielsson

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