IT innovation at Sprint Nextel occurs across infrastructure, processes, and products/services. Some recent examples include streamlining testing procedures and project management processes. For IT departments, 5-10% of efforts should go towards innovative solutions, but these must be linked to corporate goals and deliver value quickly. For IT leaders to facilitate innovation, they must transform their department's role from order-fillers to business partners generating innovation. This involves understanding business needs and proactively offering solutions.
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Exec Blueprints The Heart Of The Matter 27151
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Action Points Current and former IT leaders from Sprint Nextel, Bright
I. What Are Recent Examples of IT Innovation?
Horizons, and Oakwood Worldwide on:
Increasingly, the IT function is evolving from managers
of systems to managers of information, which means
“innovation” now is occurring in collaboration with
top-level company leaders. In this report, authors
discuss new IT initiatives in the areas of testing
procedures, project management processes, and
The Heart of the Matter:
global enterprise portals.
II. The Bottom Line
IT departments at larger companies today are
devoting 5 to 10 percent of IT efforts to bringing
Placing Innovation at
innovative solutions and processes to the table.
However, in today’s competitive world, these new
initiatives cannot be “science-fair”-type projects, but
rather must be linked with corporate goals and
the Center of Your
scrutinized to deliver value as soon as possible.
III. Must-Have Approaches for Collaborating
with Company Leadership
For IT to truly earn a seat at the leadership table, the
IT Strategy
CTO/CIO must transform the role of his/her
department from order-filling technologists to Dick LeFave
innovation-generating business partners. IT leaders Former CIO, Sprint Nextel
can accomplish this by learning the needs and
challenges of the business and proactively offering
value-laden solutions.
Tim Young
IV. The Golden Rules for Fostering an Vice President, Information Technology, Bright Horizons
Innovative IT Team
The impulse to innovate must necessarily originate
with the “chief innovation officer,” but then it must
percolate to every member of the department. The
Ric Villarreal
first step is to hire creative people, acquaint them with Senior Vice President and CIO, Oakwood Worldwide
the needs of the business, and then encourage them
to adopt an open approach to system design that is
allowed to take measured risks.
I
V. Essential Take-Aways “ T innovation” used to either refer to developing the latest techie tool
Only when IT is willing to step out of its box and view that no one else in the company used or understood — or following orders
its role and contribution to the company from a
broadened perspective can true, useful innovation to design a specific product or service. Today, as the IT function is increas-
begin. While IT’s creativity must first be informed by ingly expected to develop creative strategies that deliver direct value to the
the needs of the rest of the company, it should not be
limited solely to products, but should also extend to company and its customers, innovation means not only being able to meet
technology platforms and processes. today’s immediate needs, but also to proactively develop platforms, processes,
and products that will ensure the company’s competitive standing in the
future. In order to creatively meet the challenges and opportunities presented
Contents by this new level of IT engagement in company strategy, this ExecBlueprint
focuses on how CTOs/CIOs can facilitate a shift in the company’s perspective
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.2 of IT from a “cost” center to an “investment and growth” center. The
Dick LeFave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.3 process, according to the authors, must be initiated within IT: each team
Tim Young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.7 member must be encouraged to view the company from a 360-degree
Ric Villarreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.12 perspective, seek alternative solutions to system design and process analy-
Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points . . . p.14 sis, and fully embrace his/her evolution from “technologist” to “business
partner.” ■
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