InformationWeek

September 14, 1998

Executive Report: Innovation Dictates Technology's Rise

By Bob Evans

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ometimes it feels as if all of us in this world of managing technology in business would benefit greatly from some kind of industrywide and all-knowing global-positioning system. Imagine a tool that could tell us where our company is relative to others, where the center is forming on critical IT and business issues, where our competitors-old, new, and as-yet unborn-might be massing, and where new opportunities might lie. Where are we headed? How fast are we moving? And what will we find when we get there?

A great paradox of our time is that many of these vexing issues become more complex as we develop more powerful and sophisticated IT tools and solutions to help us solve them. As we uncover one answer, we find that it comes interlaced with five more questions, each more challenging-but also potentially more rewarding-than the first. And over time, we find that the most valuable answers and those at the true center of the issue we're exploring are to be found not within some report or other output from the dazzling technologies with which we've surrounded ourselves, but rather within the human mind: our imaginations, our experiences, our intuitions, and our hunches. Indeed, they can be found in our abilities to perceive things as they are and then to envision them as they might be: our unique ability to innovate, and to transform the world around us. In that context, let's look at some recent trends in the world of business and IT to see how they're shaping our collective future:

The old and highly stratified tradition of businesspeople over here and technologists over there is being shattered. Experts from each background are spreading across all levels of progressive organizations.

Electronic business as a strategic and enterprisewide philosophy is here to stay. One direct consequence is that while IT will touch all parts of the enterprise more deeply, it will also be driven more relentlessly by pure business issues.

Speed kills. It will help you identify and overtake competitors if you have it, and it might kill your organization's plans if you don't. As dizzying as it already is, the pace of change in business and IT is only going to increase.

The economy is global. Most new businesses, products and services must be predicated on global competitiveness, and IT planning and strategy must reflect this.

The common theme is change-it's here to stay, and in ways more profound than we can imagine. The key to harnessing the power of change is innovation: in our cultures; our organizational structures; in our thinking; in our relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners; and in what we expect from ourselves. Our brilliant IT tools can help give us the information and perspective to make decisions, but they can't make those decisions for us. They can't innovate-that is a uniquely human trait. It's also the key to success in this incredibly exciting time.

Editor-in-chief Bob Evans is also a VP at InformationWeek's parent company, CMP Media Inc.

"Executive Report: IT Innovators"

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