Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Full Throttle Innovation

Motivated by business needs and the conviction that technology-enabled change can create new value, CIOs are embracing IT innovation as a tool for transformation
Page:

Although Cesare Tizi's perspective on innovation has matured mightily during the course of a long and successful career, he says that is only to be expected. Tizi, who over his 30-year career has headed up IT at such diverse organizations as Motorola, Australian Wool Association, Transurban and most recently AGL, believes most CIOs go through a similar progression as their views on the role of IT in advancing innovation mature, as their stature within their business grows, and especially if and when the business itself finally ripens into recognition that the most fundamental tool of its trade in the 21st century is IT.

"Early in your career you are about good IT; it's about doing things well and being innovative within a technological space — that very traditional type of approach," Tizi says. "As you go forward you say: 'Gee, why did the business make that decision? It could be made better if they understood that they could have done this or they could have done that from a technological point of view.' And then you begin to realize what's happening is that from a business point of view their fundamental tool of trade isn't the brochure any more, or the marketing stand, it is IT. Their call centre runs on IT. Their whole distribution network runs on IT. Their supply chain systems are all IT. Now, IT is becoming the biggest significant tool of trade of the business."

IT is successful when the business has those early strategic meetings and the head of the business unit says: 'We'd better invite the CIO because without him, we can't progress this meeting'
Cesare Tizi, ex-CIO Australian Wool Association, Transurban and AGL

Yet as the State of the CIO 2007 survey makes clear, many Australian organizations have still to truly internalize that reality, seriously limiting their prospects of achieving innovative solutions to stubborn problems. Underlying the research findings seems to be a level of frustration among Australian CIOs at the many roadblocks their organizations keep putting in the way — intentionally or unintentionally — of IT's involvement in innovation. Lack of resources. Lack of time. Lack of understanding by the senior management team of IT possibilities and benefits. Not being privy to executive strategic planning. Getting buy-in from regional offices. Old processes. The list goes on in a similar vein.

Page:

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: ACT, AGL, AUSTRALIAN INNOVATION, Boss, Boston Consulting, Boston Consulting Group, Corporate Express, Creative, Deloitte Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, Exposure, IBM, IEEE, Leader, Leader Computers, Motorola, Roche, Sony, Speed, Systems Thinking

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • IDC Forecast: Worldwide Purpose - Built Backup Appliance 2011 – 2015, Forecast Update: Explosive Growth in 2011
    This IDC Forecast Update provides share positions for revenue and raw capacity for nine named PBBA vendors for the first half of 2011. In addition, this study provides the market size and a five-year forecast for the worldwide PBBA market as part of IDC's Storage Solutions coverage. The five-year forecast includes total factory revenue and raw capacity in terabytes through 2012. The worldwide PBBA market covers both open system-and mainframe-attached products.
    Learn more »
  • Case Study: Svenska Kraftnät safeguards web and ensures communication security with Clearswift
    Energy producers from surrounding countries load power onto the Swedish National Grid’s network, with energy suppliers then paying the Swedish National Grid to load onto their grids for them to sell-on to customers. Using Clearswift’s Email Appliance, and MIMEsweeper for SMTP means that the organisation has safe and resilient email helping them to meet their goal of providing a safe, robust, cost-effective and environmentally sound energy transmission system.
    Learn more »
  • BPM Basics for Dummies
    This book helps you understand what BPM is really all about. We wrote it because BPM is so useful and so powerful — and because it is also very accessible. We wrote this book for you — the individual. You may be a business manager, or an Information Technology practitioner, or maybe an ambitious career individual who wants to know what BPM is all about and how to apply it.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments