Editor’s Note: This article is the fourth in a series of six installments. Please find links to the other installments below.
A carrier’s IT strategy, IT operating model and innovation execution are each based on different frameworks. A well-defined strategy identifies goals and how to achieve them. It is fairly precise and has a finite and clear end. Working without a strategy can jeopardize the future of the organization.
The IT operating model should not be confused with the strategy or innovation either. The model represents a set of organizational structures, established processes, procedures and methodologies, financial means and the interaction between all the above with the aim to deliver consistent and sustainable value.
However, innovation should not be identified as a strategy nor it should be considered part of the normal operating model. Innovation is a way of thinking – it is a management attitude, an organizational culture shift, a set of operations working outside the norm. Innovation is about exploration, research and discovery of new products, processes, new structures that break the current mold of doing business and enables the organization to enter new markets, serve in a better way to the customers and provide a springboard for bold – and potentially highly profitable – ideas to take flight.
The strategy, the model and innovation need to accommodate each other but they should be operating on separate frameworks. As IT develops its long-term strategic goals, innovation should be oriented towards those goals. Otherwise, it risks becoming disruptive to the organization itself rather than competently delivering disruptive ideas in the market place.
The strategy on the other hand must accommodate innovative culture and research and development activities by allocating adequate resources – human, financial and technological.
The IT operating model should be adjusted accordingly to accommodate for the innovative solutions to become part of the IT factory. Only then will new ideas be able to deliver sustained value. The sooner the new ideas go into the factory mode, the sooner the organization will break through barriers into new markets.
Editor’s Note: Click the links below for the other installments in this series:
Part II: Match Innovation to Market Level
Part III: Cross the Seven Frontiers of Innovation Capability
Part V: Apply 5 Key Steps to the Execution of Innovative Ideas