Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
to Developing an
Innovation Strategy
for the Digital Age
November 2015
Executive Summary
There are many companies today who are pursuing digital or mobile products, or capitalizing the
efficiencies these technologies can bring to their operations, but few who have a strategy for their
approach. As digitally innovative disruptors threaten business models and market share, CIOs
must take an active role in crafting the strategy for digital innovation, but with a strategy framework
and approach that fits todays business environment.
Key Takeaways
CIOs need to develop an innovation strategy that fits their culture and companyand not rely
on traditional strategy development methods.
Leaders and organizations evolve their posture toward the role of information technology,
which is essential to consider as the context for innovation strategy development.
CIOs must not solely rely on user feedback for driving innovation for products and business lines
and instead augment user feedback with ethnographic research.
Only one in four software projects is successful.[1] CIOs need to make triaging their current process
and strategy a top priority.
Introduction
We must remember that technology
and innovation are at the heart of this
companys future, a future we will
never allow to be jeopardized, CEO
and Chairman James R. Houghton told
shareholders at the annual meeting
on April 25, 2002. He also noted that
the company faced a serious
challenge.[5] In late 2002, stock traded
at $1.10 per share and massive layoffs
made many question if the company
would survive that challenge. [4]
Demystifying Digital
Innovation Strategy
Consumers now expect this level of innovation and
the firms who stay ahead of customers needs for
mobile and digital interactions will gain strategic
competitive advantagebut the focus on consumer
needs must be present at all levels of leadership.
Blockbuster CEO John Antioch illustrated how
a leader can lose sight of anticipating customer
needs in 2000 when he turned down Netflix CEO
Reed Hastings offer of partnership for $50 million.
Blockbuster betted heavily on its brick-and-mortar
locations and the spontaneity of the video rental
customer purchase, dismissing Netflixs idea that
people would browse for movies online and not in
a store and receive the DVD within days, not
minutes. Netflixs digital-only model disrupted
the industry, allowing them to lower costs with a
subscription service that also eschewed late fees.
Blockbuster did make a play at altering its business
model to compete after Netflix threatened market
share, but it was too little, too late. [11]
Gartner estimates
that a lack of
digital business
competence will
cause 25% of
businesses to
lose competitive
ranking by 2017.
[15]
[18]
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Conclusion
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Authors
Rachel Nitschke
Rachel Nitschke is the Content Marketing Specialist at ChaiOne.
After graduating with a degree in journalism, she worked in
nonprofit communications before landing at ChaiOne to focus
on demand generation and content marketing.
Kevin Ong
Kevin Ong is an Interaction Designer at ChaiOne. He graduated
from the University of Texas in Austin with a BFA in Design where
he participated in the GAMMA Program as a video game artist
and a member of the Core77 award winning team that published
the zine 512stew.
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References
1.
Hartson, R., & Pyla, P. (2012). The UX book: Process and guidelines for ensuring a quality user experience. Waltham:
Elsevier
2.
Kinetz, Erika. (2000, December 16). 2 to-buy lists endorse Nortel. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.
com/2000/12/16/your-money/16iht-mlist.t.html
3.
Starr, Paul. (2002, September 8). The Great Telecom Implosion. The American Prospect. http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/
articles/articles02/Starr-TelecomImplosion-9-02.htm
4.
Symonds, William C. (2004, October 17). Corning: Back from the brink. Bloomberg Business. http://www.bloomberg.com/
bw/stories/2004-10-17/corning-back-from-the-brink
5.
Corning chairman tells shareholders: We will succeed, reaffirms commitment to technology and telecommunications. (2002, April 25). Retrieved on 4 October 2015 from http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/
data/24741/000002474102000022/april258k.txt
6.
Arthur, Charles. (2011, July 1). Nortel patents sold for $4.5 bn. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/01/nortel-patents-sold-apple-sony-microsoft
7.
Gardiner, Bryan. (2012, September 24). Glass works: How Corning created the ultrathin, ultrastrong glass of the future.
Wired. http://www.wired.com/2012/09/ff-corning-gorilla-glass/
8.
Cable, Josh. (2012, April 13). Innovation keeps Corning in a glass by itself. Industry Week. http://www.industryweek.com/
articles/innovation_keeps_corning_in_a_glass_by_itself_27100.aspx
9.
Calof, Jonathan et. al. An Overview of the Demise of Nortel Networks and Key Lessons Learned: Systemic effects in environment, resilience and black-cloud formation. Retrieved 2015, October 2 from http://sites.telfer.uottawa.ca/nortelstudy/
files/2014/02/nortel-summary-report-and-executive-summary.pdf
10. Brown, John Seely et al. (2013, November 11). The burdens of the past: Report 4 of the 2013 Shift Index series. Deloitte
University Press. Retrieved 1 October 2015 from http://dupress.com/articles/the-burdens-of-the-past/
11. Satell, Greg. (2014, September 5). A look at why Blockbuster really failed and why it didnt have to. Forbes. http://www.
forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/09/05/a-look-back-at-why-blockbuster-really-failed-and-why-it-didnt-have-to/
12. Surowiecki, James. (2013, September 3). Where Nokia went wrong. The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/business/
currency/where-nokia-went-wrong
13. Hartson, R., & Pyla, P. (2012). The UX book: Process and guidelines for ensuring a quality user experience. Waltham:
Elsevier
14. Adapted from Edwards, Chris et al. Clarifying the ambiguous role of the CIO. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/dinamic-content/media/ISRC/Clarifying%20the%20Ambiguous%20Role%20of%20the%20CIO.pdf
15. Gartner identifies six key steps to build a successful digital business. (2014, May 21). Retrieved from http://www.gartner.
com/newsroom/id/2745517
16. Stern, Stefan. (2011, February 28). A co-creation primer. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/02/co-creation/
17. Whirlpool: redefining innovation. (n.d.) Retrieved 2 October 2015 from http://docslide.us/documents/whirlpool-case.
html
18. Stecklein, Jonette M. et. al. Error Cost Escalation through the Project Life Cycle. NASA Johnson Space Center. Retrieved 1
October 2015 fromhttp://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20100036670.pdf
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