Creating and Sustaining Innovation to Support Institutional Excellence

1. Creating and Sustaining Innovation to Support Institutional Excellence Joanne Kossuth, CIO Franklin W Olin College of Engineering Seminars on Academic Computing August 8/2005

2. What Is Innovation? • How would you define innovation within the context of your organization? • Is innovation low or high on the priority scale at your institution? • How do you think this impacts your work? • How do you think it impacts the reputation of your organization?

3. What Do Others have to Say About Innovation? • Embrace change • Growth through innovation • Innovation and emerging technologies payoff • End user generated innovation • Creativity for the long haul

4. Embrace Change • “Embrace Change or Perish” Rob Preston in Network Computing 6/23/2005, http://www.nwc.com p. 10 • From Friedman, when the world is flat you can innovate without having to emigrate • Why is that important, can anyone supply examples? • What do we need to do?

5. Friedman’s View • Friedman says we need to invest in education, training and infrastructure that will empower US entities to exploit their competitive advantage • His bottom line is: Adapt, learn, innovate or be doomed • Is higher education looking to this model?

6. Growth Through Innovation • “The Search for Growth through Innovation”, Lior Arussy, Customer Relationship Management, July 2005 p. 22, www.destinationcrm.com • Efficiency based efforts have prevailed, damaging customer relationships and reducing entity’s ability to grow • Does this paradigm sound familiar? • Have you seen it on campus?

7. GE Case • Hired people who conformed and were less creative that fit efficiency driven culture • To innovate: tying pay to customer satisfaction, customer longevity, number of unprofitable customers kept • Start for a revolution but GE will need to report results of initiatives to investors and find metrics to understand innovation

8. Innovation and Emerging Technologies Payoff • CIO Insight Research Study • “Innovation Makes Emerging Technologies Payoff” CIOInsight 6/2005 p. 64 • 5.4% corporate budgets spent specifically on innovation • 73% of IT depts. Involved in new product and service innovation

9. Emerging Technologies and Payoff,Cont. • 28% of companies are early adopters of IT • 68% of companies receive significant payoffs from adopting emerging technology • 64% say emerging technologies play an integral role in supporting corporate innovation • Must keep the learning going

10. End User Generated Innovation • Eric Von Hippel, CIOInsight 6/2005 p. 56-60 • “Major innovations companies find to create new product lines are coming from outside, from lead users, but they come in by unacknowledged pathways” • e.g. video games designed with proprietary engines that they can make money from and let users build and modify games • Complementary to manufacturers since manufacturers are not good at sensing markets

11. Where Do “We” Stand? • “The Innovations Arms Race” CIOInsight Analysis p. 37 6/2005,Michael Fitzgerald • High schools cannot teach our students what they need to know so they are obsolete (a Bill Gates statement) • 2005 National Science Foundation budget cut in R&D for first time since 1996 and 2006 budget includes 1/10th percent increase in R&D funding, most for homeland security.

12. Where do “We” Stand, Cont. • More than 68% of countries R&D funded by private companies versus 20 years ago when the majority was financed by the federal government • When money is tight, R&D budgets get slashed • R&D now seen as a percentage of sales

13. Where Do “We” Stand, Cont. • Foreign countries such as India invest in universities to help fill gaps and to leverage the innovation infrastructure of the US • Sponsoring chairs and research centers at MIT,CMU • Walking away with the intellectual property that is created

14. Where Do “We” Stand,cont. • Europe and Asia are graduating record numbers of students in science and engineering • Asian universities accounted for 1.2million science and engineering degrees compared to 850,000 in Europe and 500,000 in the US

15. Creativity for the Long Haul • “Creativity for the Long Haul” Warren Bennis, CIOInsight 6/2005, p.31 32 • Question is how to make creativity stay? Recognize and encourage on an ongoing basis • Everyone is creative but anything that interferes with intrinsic motivation is a creativity killer e.g. money, depression, pressure, fear of negative consequences,

16. Creativity for the Long Haul • Organizations are most creative when taking on external enemies or competitors • It is our own job to stay creative and keep your staff the same through educational opportunities built into the normal workplace environment. • Survival means looking forward and not back

17. A Different Take • IT department as purveyor of tool kits for innovation on the part of users rather than end solutions • Avalanche web site where companies are crosslisting and cross licensing their software to one another • Wikis? People that do not damage vending machines will not damage corporate documents

18. IT Matters • “IT Matters Today and Tomorrow” Dave Molta, Networkcomputing 6/23/2005 • Enrollment in computer science is down because of a culture that views an IT degree as a ticket to nowhere

19. IT Matters • Transformational power of technology will continue to be felt in new ways and organizations that leverage information using the tools of technology will continue to enjoy competitive advantage • What will it take to create and sustain the innovation to support our institutions?

20. Contact Information • Joanne Kossuth • 781-292-2431 • Joanne.kossuth@olin.edu