I was lucky enough to go to the Forrester Research IT Forum this summer which I thoroughly enjoyed as it crystallized a lot of my thinking and shone a torch on some important issues. My immediate reaction was to look at the Industrialization of IT , and it’s impact on the workers within the industry.
I’ve found some Forrester videos on Youtube which focus on innovation that I think you will want to see.
CIOs: Don’t Wait to Innovate : Forrester Research Principal Analyst Bobby Cameron says IT can become an innovation leader by helping find, fund, and reward business innovation.
Enterprise Architecture and Innovation: Forrester Research Vice President Mike Gilpin says Enterprise Architecture professionals are in a unique position to drive innovation. In order to do so, they must manage the process via what Forrester calls an innovation pipeline. Great definition of Innovation!
Social Technologies: Your Customers Are Revolting: Forrester Research Vice President Charlene Li says emerging technologies don’t tell you much about the adoption of Social Computing; people do. Identifying people’s various levels of participation — why do people participate and how do they participate — give you a better understanding of how your audience is contributing to the Groundswell. A particlar favorite of mine as it demonstrates true innovation – customers challenging their suppliers.
Recommended Reading:
Innovation Management: Strategies, Concepts and Tools for Growth and Profit (Response Books)
I found Charlene’s presentation clip the most interesting of the 3 – not least because the marketing approaches she discussed apply in my own coaching business client profile to some extent. (Er, no I won’t be hiring Forrester in this budget cycle lol…
I was curious about the client targeting ‘alpha moms’ (yikes! And Christine is one herself) and how she wove the discussion neatly into novel marketing approaches by GM and ‘Go Daddy’.
In fact the concept of lowering the draw bridge and letting your customers into the inner marketing sanctum and heart of the company is a revolutionary act indeed.
When (if?) the smoke from the burning battlefield in Banking finally clears I wonder if any of the survivors will use such ideas to begin to rebuild trust and confidence in who and what they are about?
Maybe IT needs to see the same drawbridge being lowered within their organization because users are indeed revolting! (feels somehow painfully pleasant to write thosw words hoho!)
The times they are a-changing.
@Mark – I couldn’t agree more! I ranted in August about the IT/Business divide (http://www.simonstapleton.com/wordpress/2008/08/09/the-it-business-divide-still-wide-and-still-alive/) – basically IT are going to have to lower the drawbridge (to use your analogy!) rather than expect it to be lowered for them. Whether this is fair or just is not the point.