InformationWeek

I have been reading your "Secret CIO" column in InformationWeek for some time. Some of the issues you raise are very insightful and thought-provoking. And now I have an issue that I wish to bring to your attention.

We read about technical innovation all the time, about how such-and-such a company made use of emerging technologies and managed to provide an added level of customer satisfaction, etc. However, my experience has proved that very few companies in the real world want to innovate or break out of the shell. Why is it so?

Take my personal example. A colleague of mine and I came up with an innovative E-commerce solution designed to provide an added level of customer satisfaction to hospital patients and their families. We decided to approach the hospital in Colorado Springs. This hospital had a good cash flow and a budget surplus and could afford to innovate. I contacted the deputy director of information systems and sent an executive summary of the idea we were proposing. The reply I got was typically bureaucratic, stating that the hospital did not want to use ideas from outside.

On talking with a few professors in school and with others, I got the strong feeling that this attitude was more the norm than the exception. Any thought or suggestions?

Thanks and regards,
Mohan B.

Dear Mohan:
Your professors should have pointed out that it is always best to broach a new idea to those most likely to profit by it, not those to whom it might constitute either extra work or a problem. I suspect you would have fared better had you approached the public relations department of the hospital, since it probably would have been more interested in the benefits of your concept than the IT department.

It is sad to say, however, that your experience in trying to advance an idea is not unusual. When it comes to accepting new ways of doing things, many professionals (especially those in middle management) suffer from the not-invented-here syndrome. NIHS is a malady that afflicts both lesser talented people and those gifted individuals whose egos would be injured to think that someone other than they could come up with a meaningful suggestion. One of the executives at the place where I work has this affliction. He is messing up, big-time, his organization's drive into the E-business world because he is constitutionally unable to accept suggestions from anyone not within his own department or to profit from the experience of business units not within his control. It's a shame; the guy is bright, but he is going to crater his function, and, within a few years, my guess is that he will be so far behind the times that he and his group will be sidelined as hopelessly inadequate to the tasks at hand.

Sometimes, the NIHS becomes DRTB (don't rock the boat). While most companies would be greatly offended if you were to tell them that they are unwilling to innovate, the fact is that frequently too many of the people who actually make the decisions in an organization are afraid of taking a chance on adopting new ideas. Some time ago, I wrote "The Unbelievable Promotion" in which I said that we tend to promote executives primarily for not making mistakes. The basic problem, I think, is that companies--or hospitals--can muddle along for quite some time without destroying themselves if they take the safe path and avoid risky ventures. As a result, the fostering of the play-it-too-safe mentality is institutionalized until it is too late to change without drastic action.

Ultimately, however, it catches up with most organizations. In another article, "The Law Of Corporate Failure," I said that a company is doomed to failure if it punishes people more for their mistakes than it rewards them for their successes. I suspect that we have all seen people who kill good ideas because they are afraid of the flak they will get if the idea turns out to be a poor one. It takes exceptional employees to lobby for potentially important, but risky, proposals if they know they risk their own professional demise if they are on the wrong side of the results.

So, I think your professors are correct, but that doesn't mean I suggest going with the flow. Keep pushing or the new way of doing things. Listen to the criticisms of the naysayers. Adjust your ideas (the one you sent me on the hospital is a really good one) to correct for flaws. Remember that the people that have succeeded with their out-of-the-box proposals do very well if they find the right playing field.

Internet companies go to great expense to develop Web sites for the advertisement and sale of products, but end up partnered with a delivery company (the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service, FedEx, etc.) for that very critical detail--product delivery.

What about all the current problems with package delivery to residences?

Are people willing to have packages left on their doorsteps, exposed to theft and the elements if they aren't home, or are they willing to stand in line to pick up packages that couldn't be delivered? Have you ever tried arranging a redelivery? Maybe U.S. commerce will depend on neighbors being home and being willing to hold a package.

What if the order is incorrect, doesn't fit, is broken or defective, etc. There is no "returns" slot on your PC. Take a number at the post office.

Most package delivery and return problems are solved if the package is picked up at a store, a great advantage for brick-and-mortar companies.

I have purchased many things through catalogs, but have also had many problems--usually with delivery or returns--that limit the amount of catalog shopping I am willing to do.

David

Dear David:
You have hit upon the great challenge for Web-based businesses: logistics. Except for information-based products--financial transactions, news, etc.--at some point the make-or-break element is delivering to the customer what was bought at an affordable price. Even Amazon, which controls some 80% of the online book market, is having to move quickly into building distribution warehouses so its costs or product delivery become reasonable, and then there is the problem you cite--getting the goods in the hands of the customer. At least one firm is installing lock boxes at homes so that redelivery is not an issue.

There is also another aspect of the logistics problem exacerbated by E-commerce. We are becoming used to shopping on the Web at all hours of the day and night. We get essentially instant gratification by ordering what we want, when we want to order it. Then we have to wait for it to be delivered. Rapidly getting the goods into the hands of the customer will, I think, become an even more important part of the E-commerce equation than it is now, especially when both customers and suppliers are global. The companies that figure out how to meet these challenges will be the major winners in the E-commerce wars.

I do have a specific question: In "Mission Inversible" you refer to your own "bungled" attempt outlined in your article of Feb. 24, 1997. Unfortunately our library only keeps the magazine back two years, and your work is not on ComputerSelect CDs, so I was wondering if you or InformationWeek had a copy of that article.

We are working on a strategic plan to produce a mission, a vision, core values, and business strategies that are then clarified via goals, objectives, initiatives, and metrics that are outlined using the Balanced Scorecard. (Did I miss any key buzzwords?) Really, I think we may actually have an interest in these things this time and in following through with the report cards. However, it is painful to get the executive team to have a common view at the high level. The wordsmithing is very painful.

I thank you in advance for any effort you put into finding and sending that article. It may contain the nugget that could break our work wide open.

Thanks very much, and keep up those great articles.

Greg F.

Dear Greg:
It's nice to know that my articles are of interest as source documents for serious work. It's also a little scary, considering some of the experiences I've undergone being involved in developing mission statements. I describe one such painful episode in the column which you are looking for, titled "A Mission Is Our Mission."

In general, the way to get to most of my previous utterances is dependent upon when they were published. If they are from within the last year or so, go to "TechSearch: Search For Secret CIO Print Columns" at the bottom of this page and click on the "Search" button You will find a list of the articles from the last year or so. I suggest you press the "sort by date" option.

If you are looking for an article written in 1998 or before, then use the "Columnists" button on the left-hand side of this page and click on my latest column under "IT Management" (by the way, although the other columnists actually belong under IT management, mine are usually more about IT mismanagement). At the bottom of the page you'll see another "TechSearch," this time with "Archived Columns." Click on this one and you are there. The "Archived Columns" contains most of the columns I have written for InformationWeek.

Got all of that?

Herbert W. Lovelace shares his experiences (changing most names, including his own, to protect the guilty) as CIO of a multibillion-dollar international company. Send him E-mail at lovelace@home.com.