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7 Lessons From Intel's Innovation Effort
ITI has also built tools, processes and infrastructure to support innovation activities. One example of how ITI helped to deliver on the innovation promise is the "innovation pipeline process" it created. The process involves six parallel steps: the opportunity identified by an employer or customer, the IT-enabled solution, the business case, the business process change, the organizational change, and the customer adoption plan. This pipeline process is enabled by a set of tools and methods implemented by ITI and others. One of these tools is the "innovation engine"-an online tool that allows Intel employees to suggest and enhance new ideas. This tool taps into the collective intelligence of a large base of employees, unlike previous ideas that tended to come from a small number of experts. ITI also launched "innovation assignments," a process that enables an employee to take time away from his or her day job to turn an innovation idea into reality. This is funded by the host organization and the Innovation Center. advertisement
In addition to building tools, ITI also worked on changing the culture of the IT function to be more open to innovation. One offshoot of this goal was the creation of an "innovation self-assessment tool" that helps IT and business unit managers understand and diagnose the innovation capabilities of their teams. The assessment has about 40 questions and takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Incentives and awards were also seen as instrumental in changing the culture and driving innovation. People who create the innovation as well as those who are catalysts for enabling it receive awards.
There are many other steps that Intel took in the last five years to further their IT innovation initiative, and I suggest reading the article to explore them all. And it's worth remembering the seven lessons that IT executives can takeaway from Intel's efforts:
1. Take the lead in innovation, don't wait to be asked
2. Build momentum early and use it to expand scope
3. Measure and publicize progress
4. Understand that culture is not a prerequisite, it can be changed
5. Build an enabling environment and infrastructure for innovation
6. Obtain participation from external people and funding from business units—don't
innovate alone
7. Gain and maintain executive support.
Reprinted from MIS Quarterly Executive. Excerpted from Building IT-Enabled Innovation Capabilities at Intel, Copyright © 2008 by the Management Information Systems Research Center (MISRC) of the University of Minnesota; All Rights Reserved.
Also of interest:
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