The Dual Challenges of Innovation Management

A number of years ago, a manager in charge of implementing a balanced scorecard system shared his organization’s strategy map with us. One of the organization’s “learning and growth” goals was “to become a more innovative organization.” We asked how he was going to do that. He had no idea.

This was one of the catalysts that got us interested in the field of innovation. We actually did a research project where we interviewed Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) in American companies. The project, in late 2006, was one of the earliest research projects of this group. We did it because we were curious about the people taking on this task. We were also trying to understand the intersection between innovation and intangible capital. Read more

Who’s In Charge of Your Intangbiles?

We have talked a lot about the knowledge factory and management to this point. But we have never really addressed the unspoken question. Who should be in charge of the intangible side of your business (your “knowledge factory”)? The dynamism of the layers of networks that make up the knowledge factory is leading to changing roles and the emergence of new roles. Should there be a C-level person in charge of intangible capital? If so, what should that person’s title be? Read more

CIO’s–and CFO’s–Need to “Get Real”

There is an interesting report at CFO.com called CFOs to CIOs: Get Real.

My response is that CFO’s need to “get real” too.

One of the biggest barriers between CFO’s and CIO’s is how they view the cost of projects. CFO’s are trapped inside an accounting model that expenses a lot of investments. Recent macro data suggested that US businesses spent $1.7 trillion on intangibles versus $1.2 on tangibles. For the most part, intangibles get expensed, tangibles get capitalized. Many  of these intangibles are related to IT-enabled systems and/or processes. Read more

Who is in Charge of IP and IC?

I have really enjoyed getting to know Andrew Watson and Jordan Hatcher at ipVA over the last few months. I met with Jordan on my recent trip to London and he sent me a new article that he and Andrew wrote called Fix Your Broken IP Structures from www.managingip.com.

The article makes a case for a position called the Chief Intellectual Property Officer (CIPO) who is outside the legal department. They use color-based Insights Discovery Learning System to look at the personalities of different departments. Legal departments, they assert, are blue (accurate, ordered and cautious), not the red traits that are needed to exploit IP (decisive, risk taking and results driven). This means that the CIPO would need to be in the sales or strategy areas. It’s a compelling case. Read more

The Right C’s

An article just came out on CFO.com entitled “Who Needs a COO?” Reading it, I couldn’t help but think about the many articles I see all the time in Information Week about the changing role of the CIO. And it all makes me think that there is something that is still missing Read more