IT is known as an industry working on the frontiers of
knowledge, thriving on fresh ideas and running at a different speed
to other, more plodding, business sectors.
But is it really that sharp when it comes to recognising and
backing ideas? The sector lends itself to constant innovation, but
that does not mean it is doing it well.
As part of a government-backed campaign to promote the East of
England as a good place to do business, I have carried out a series
of audits across business sectors looking at the realities of the
ideas process in companies. Where do they come from? How are they
developed? What stops them from happening? And there are particular
lessons here for IT departments.
Think about how the hierarchy in your department might be the enemy
of the free flow of ideas. The Japanese originally resolved the
problem by the "ringi" idea. There, the sales team, for example,
comes up with an idea which passes up the hierarchy for approval.
At each stage a higher manager puts their seal on the plan before
final approval at the top. The Japanese approach creates a culture
in which ideas can flourish at all levels. You see it in the
internal trade show at which Sony's people display their latest
technological advances, not to customers, but to each other.
One idea is the creation of independent departments. These are
known as "skunk-works", a small select group who need to work
outside the usual rules to get results. They handle innovative
ideas, with clear leadership and freedom to create their own
timetables, budgets and cultures. This strategy is entirely
logical, but seldom as effective as it could and should be.
The reasons are clear from the ultimate failure of the two greatest
(and originally most successful) skunk-works, Xerox in Palo Alto
and IBM at Boca Raton. Both cases make it clear that radical
innovations can only succeed under an open-minded regime that
itself has a skunk-works mentality.
Do not expect to have it all your own way. You need to get the
balance right between discipline and creativity - an area where
some high-tech firms have struggled. For example, when the memory
business slumped into heavy losses, Intel was saved by the
microprocessor. But this was not created by an internal research
and development project.
An engineer charged with producing a chipset for a Japanese
calculator company wondered why all the transistors couldn't be
placed on a single chip of silicon. Nobody in Intel's marketing
group thought there was a market for what emerged, the
computer-on-a-chip. It took an arduous internal battle before
everyone in management either accepted the new Intel order or
left.
You must have consensus around ideas if they are to achieve their
full potential. That does not necessarily mean compromise or
"making the best of a bad job". It means adopting a disciplined
approach to generating a proposal which everybody, whatever their
starting point, recognises.
That will not be achieved at meetings unless a sufficient number of
ideas are placed on the table; alternative ideas are given a full
and fair hearing; and those present come from a sufficient range of
talents and interests. That may well mean mixing different
departments and functions - adding outsiders to the mix.
Robert Heller is a management writer and contributor to the
Space for Ideas
campaign