CIO Forum: UK businesses - 'innovate or die'

Innovation in IT is key to running a successful businesses - though the UK lags behind other countries in encouraging it.

Speaking during a panel discussion at today's silicon.com CIO Forum, Allan Timpany, CEO of Vanco, said: "[IT innovation] is about more than just making sure there are successful projects. It's about growth and driving growth in your business."

Innovation can come from the top down - say, when a CEO dictates a business strategy that necessitates technological change.

According to Timpany, this is essential: "[Innovation] has to be led by the most senior levels of business."

CIOs working with bosses who don't see IT as a key to success have "got to galvanise and inspire them to take advantage of the opportunities" innovative IT offers, he added.

Advancements can also come from the bottom up - when IT workers improve a process they've observed first hand, for example.

One advantage of this approach, said Frank Coyle, IT director, John Menzies Distribution, is that the projects can be implemented quickly "because the groundwork has been done".

But this doesn't mean slacking off on regular duties. "The best innovations, the most successful ones, come from people doing their day jobs well and the innovations come as something extra," he added.

UK businesses, however, are too often seen as lacking when it comes to innovation.

This is partly due to a risk-averse culture, the panel agreed.

Coyle said: "In the UK, especially in IT, we have a culture of constant cost justification and ROI. Our culture has gone too far that way... it gives us a culture that's averse to risk."

JP Rangaswami, global CIO, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, also pointed to a lack of consumerism in the UK as opposed to the US: "In the UK... there's an acceptance culture. But if innovation is going to take place, it needs to be customer-driven."

Corporate culture also contributes to encouraging or dampening enthusiasm and new ideas from workers. In the UK, there's less support for these than there should be, according to John Menzies' Coyle.

Coyle said: "I don't know anywhere where there isn't an attempt to stamp out individualism - in the UK there isn't anywhere that doesn't have some aspect of this."

So what can be done to encourage innovation?

First, argued Rangaswami, corporate leaders must get involved: "The role of leadership is to enable innovation to take place... For [this idea] to get traction an entire organisation must believe in it."

Hiring can also play a role, with Coyle suggesting that hiring individuals from small dot-com companies can bring ideas into a larger organisation.

To encourage innovation, you must also allow for failures. Rangaswami said: "You must learn to celebrate failures gloriously - as long as learning has taken place."

It's not hopeless in the UK, though, with mentions for innovative UK businesses such as Lastminute.com and Betfair.com as well as giants such as Vodafone.

Vanco's Timpany said: "There's a lot to be proud of in UK. But what can we do to make it even better?... We're already growing faster than the rest of Europe. With more passionate adoption of IT, we really can take off as a country - we've just got to have the pride and ambition to do that."