Do you have a Chief Innovation Officer?

Usually the best way to get something done is to put someone in charge. Businesses figured this out a long time ago which is why most of them have someone in charge of sales, production, IT, finance etc. So if you want to make innovation happen in your business a good starting point is to appoint a Chief Innovation Officer. Yet while most businesses would agree that innovation is essential to their long term growth very few actually have anyone formally in charge of innovation. At best they might have someone in charge of new product development, R&D or selling into new markets – but even these roles only address a part of innovation management.

So what would a Chief Innovation Officer actually do and how would their performance be measured? Here’s an outline role description:

Chief Innovation Officer: (a.k.a. Chief Creator of Pleasant Surprises and Avoider of Unpleasant Surprises)

Objective:
To identify and drive pursuit of new sources of revenue and profit whether from new or expanded markets, new or enhanced products/services or new ways of working. .

Responsibilities:
• Primary source for collective market and business intelligence
• Point of entry for all new “ideas”
• Owner of the end to end innovation process

Success Measures:
• Percentage of revenue and income generated from new sources
• Ratio of pleasant to unpleasant surprises
• Amount of investment wrestled away from old products, services and business practices

To fund this new role and activities I’d suggest slashing the budget of the sales and marketing department and channelling those funds into the development of better intelligence, better products, better service, better design, better customer engagement, better customer experience, better processes, better trained, empowered and motivated employees. “Insanely great”/”Purple Cow” products and service will eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the need to waste money on advertising and spurious marketing campaigns as customers beat a path to your door. And if you can’t find someone to fill the role, how about asking what the CEO’s been working on recently?