Last week, I read a research paper on IT innovation, discussing how it can produce lasting results for the business: new markets, reduction of costs, and improving the alignment with the business strategy. Influencing the culture is the IT leaders’ first step towards in IT innovation, said Info-Tech Research Group’s paper. It is interesting to see how their findings could also apply to innovation in publishing — with potentially the same results.
Info-Tech Research identified six key preconditions for bringing about a culture of innovation in the IT department. The first one is business buy-in. In general business environments, IT should work with the business to have a real impact on the organization. If not, IT is working inside a black box. It seems like IT is always working inside a black box when it comes to publishing.
The second precondition is that time and resources for innovation must be provided to employees. Except for the time and resources publishers should really provide their content creators with for creating content that sells, they should also allow them time and resources to come up with innovative ideas. The content creator in the most important asset in a publishing business, so it’s pretty logical to get them involved and give them a voice.
The third is IT awareness of business strategies, which means that IT workers understand the objectives of the organization, and be allowed to figure out how to get there.
The fourth is diversity of experience; innovation thrives on diverse backgrounds and experiences. To involve as many different experiences as possible, is a good idea.
The fifth is idea exchange; innovation is a collaborative activity. Collaboration in journalistic environments is usually limited to what a publishing system like WoodWing Software’s or Quark’s will allow — it will be centered around the authoring and publishing process or workflow. I have yet to see a collaboration environment or Content Management System (CMS) in use at a publisher that goes broader.
The last one is recognition of IT innovators, where individual recognition promotes innovation.
Info-Tech Research’s information research targets departments in general enterprises. These businesses can include publishing houses, but this research paper was not specifically targeting them. However, many of the ideas in the paper can be applied to publishing as well as to general IT.
For example, Info-Tech recommends providing a forum for idea generation and refinement. They say an exchange of ideas allows IT workers to quickly gather the information they need to decide whether an innovation idea is feasible, and to proceed with the necessary steps to develop the idea.
In most publishing environments, such as newspapers, magazines, and book publishing, there is a strict borderline between how the business should be run and innovated and content creation, with content creators, designers, and editors usually not involved in this process. While this guarantees journalistic objectivity in newspaper and magazine publishing, there is nothing that prevents publishers to listen to ideas spit out by their content creators that could innovate the business well beyond what they — far away from spreadsheets and profit scenarios — could possibly imagine.
The reason why certainly publishers should do that is simply because there are many journalists who are running a very successful online presence.
