The need for a chief innovation officer

I was reading the innovation part of businessweek.com and the following title grabbed my attention:

"Obama Needs a Secretary of Innovation"

After one phrase about how innovation should be merged into the new government of the USA, the writer of the article, Thomas D. Kuczmarski, continues with some very interesting thoughts about how innovation is a must for companies in the present crisis-situation.

"I often debate with chief executives about the importance of hiring a chief innovation officer. They often don't see the need. They argue that innovation is everybody's job. Or they confuse it with research and development and say it already is being done. My point—and it applies to economic recovery as much as it does to product development—is that innovation is a multidisciplinary and disciplined process that needs to be managed and led. If everybody is in charge, then nobody is, and little gets accomplished, if anything at all. Or worse—and this may sound familiar to anyone who has followed Washington—there is a lot of action based only on guesswork, not on a careful exploration of what really is needed."

"Now, in the midst of recession, companies need to innovate more than ever. Yet too many are choosing instead to hunker down, postpone investments in R&D, and avoid risk-taking until the market has stabilized. The companies that continue to build an innovation culture and make modest investments to keep the innovation pipeline full will be the ones that enjoy a big competitive advantage a few years from now."

Read the whole story here