Abstract:  Creative adaption of existing business processes to address new customer needs defines the way forward for today’s business leaders. Bellwether technology firms like Amazon and Google continuously mine available systems and data to generate new customer solutions. This article concludes that new sources of value emerge when competencies of an organization are matched with customer requirements within key business processes.

An IT Innovation platform constitutes of these three forms of adaption -

   •  Customer Focus,

   •  Nurturing Individual Creativity

   •  Process Focus.

The article concludes by offering many prescriptive guidelines for managers, one of them being that the customer may not always be aware about what they want. A successful manager understands customer’s business well enough to anticipate emerging business challenge and offer solutions that are yet to be recognized.

Published: Communications of the ACM, August 2009

Authors: Rajiv Kohli, and Nigel P. Melville

Link: Build IT Innovation Platform