There is a useful recent article in the IBM Systems Journal, A model for CIO-led innovation, that looks at how an organization can implement the principles of enterprise 2.0 to involve more employees in the innovation process. Specifically, they wanted to support a “perspective on innovation that required transparent, open collaboration and global accessibility.” The approach “reflected the patterns emerging on the Web: of open enterprise data reuse, capture of the contributions of employees everywhere, change to simple and powerful Web-based tools, support for customization, reward sharing through increased visibility and enhanced reputation of contributors, and sharing results with partners and clients. This strategy relies on implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA), adopting Web 2.0 patterns that fit our enterprise culture…”

There have been many posts here about bottom up support for enterprise 2.0. Here is an example of official top down sanction by a CIO that better enabled the bottom up generation and testing of ideas. The article offers a seven-step model that includes:

1. Business synthesis—the integration of business requirements and technological opportunity.

2. Idea—reforms innovation from “a sole inventor who “throws ideas over the wall” to a system of collaborative “evangelism” (advocacy) in which the innovator needs to seek support and recognition from a community”

3. Collaborate—through a variety of web 2.0 tools and other applications to refine the idea
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4. Prototype—CIO provides open hosting for applications, and helps with technical execution.

5. Early deployment—CIO provides services for innovators from hosting to evaluations.

6. Evaluation—both informal and formal through CIO and other means

7. Result—ranges from quick failure to production of a new customer offering.

The article four case examples, including the well known dogear social book marking tool, a means for managing remote meetings, enterprise directory application that involves a number of mashups to provide better expertise location, and an advanced IM tool. I think there are useful lessons for any organization on how the CIO office can support collaborative innovation without getting in the way. Thanks to Tomoaki Sawada for pointing to this work.

BTW – there was an interesting somewhat parallel article in the NYT this Sunday, The Unsung Heroes Who Move Products Forward, on the importance of process innovation. It did not get into web 2.0 or collaborative innovation but it did stress the importance of how companies develop products as a key differentiator, vs. other parts of the product process. The approach outlined above is a great way to involve far more unsung heroes in the enterprise to make products more useful and thus competitive.