CIOS: Make Innovation Part Of The Enterprise Portfolio

What starts out as an innovative concept, if successful, becomes a budgeted project like any other. CIOs can help ensure the future success and sustainability of their firm's innovation by driving the effort to track and communicate progress in the context of an enterprise portfolio. This is best done by laying a foundation of sponsorship, process, and participation, then folding the innovations into the enterprise portfolio. Firms should include the easy-to-accomplish efforts as well as the "wow!" factor initiatives. They should also use the portfolio to map efforts to enterprise objectives, identify potential investment duplication, and see if there are opportunities for re-use of great ideas or new tools elsewhere in the firm. An enterprise portfolio that incorporates innovation initiatives as well as the "same old, same old" project work injects discipline into what might otherwise be unsustainable.