How can the CIO source innovation?

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Businesses need to move at lightning speed in the digital age, says Mark Samuels. So how can you keep pace with innovation?

Business in the digital age is moving so quickly and CIOs must be open to new opportunities. Find people who can help you to help your business and its customers. If you can learn to fail quickly, you will create a long-term success story.

It is the demands of the customer that matter and it is these requirements that should drive business innovation. As you attempt to meet these demands, your portfolio of potential projects should include a balance of high and low risk initiatives.

As you search for entrepreneurial events, look carefully at what your competitors are trying, but do not be restricted to your current sector of operation. Take ideas from outside your industry back to the boardroom. Show executives how, for example, a new take on customer service from another sector could create big benefits.

Business in the digital age is moving so quickly and CIOs must be open to new opportunities. Find people who can help you to help your business and its customers. If you can learn to fail quickly, you will create a long-term success story.

Dr Mark Samuels, editor at advisory organisation CIO Connect.

Mark Samuels
Mark Samuels
Freelance journalist

Mark Samuels is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology. For the past two decades, he has produced extensive work on subjects such as the adoption of technology by C-suite executives.

At ITPro, Mark has provided long-form content on C-suite strategy, particularly relating to chief information officers (CIOs), as well as digital transformation case studies, and explainers on cloud computing architecture.

Mark has written for publications including Computing, The Guardian, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Times Higher Education, and CIONET. 

Before his career in journalism, Mark achieved a BA in geography and MSc in World Space Economy at the University of Birmingham, as well as a PhD in economic geography at the University of Sheffield.