Professor Burt Swanson serves as the area chair for UCLA Anderson's Information Systems area and is the director of the Information Systems Research Program. He recently published an article in MIT Sloan's Management Review magazine called "The Manager’s Guide to IT Innovation Waves."
The piece delves into a dilemma that had faced IT executives for decades: What IT innovations should be adopted? How does a company implement the newest technological innovations?
In the essay, Swanson summarizes some of the best practices he's come across through research conducted at UCLA Anderson and from others. Swanson notes that the spread of innovation has often been likened to an organic response, like a wave or a virus. He writes "Once an individual is infected with an idea, he may in turn, after some period of time, transmit it to others. Such a process can result in an intellectual ‘epidemic.’” Later in the piece, Swanson introduces the concept of the "IT innovation wave machine." He writes:
Think of the IT innovation wave machine as a kind of institutional apparatus that serves to produce waves of innovations as just described. Many largely “invisible hands” are busily at work inside the IT innovation wave machine, and their work has a lot to do with the eventual success or failure of the innovation. From the outside, the wave machine produces waves that carry the innovation through five stages: 1) breaking the surface, 2) sending out ripples, 3) causing a squawk, 4) building the swell and 5) riding the crest.
Swanson's article also poses the question: How can executives evaluate IT innovations effectively? He writes:
- Distinguish between the attention wave around an IT innovation and the actual implementation and value gained from its use.
- Ask: Is there a gap between the number of companies that have announced they will adopt a technology and the number successfully implementing it?
- IT fashion bubbles often form, and distinguishing hype from reality is challenging.
And in conclusion he notes:
A considerable amount of mindlessness in innovating with IT accompanies the workings of the wave machine. The mindful executive can achieve advantage for his or her business, not only by attending to the unique circumstances of his or her company, but by seeing the mindlessness of others for what it is. When one’s peers adopt a new IT, do their reasons for doing so make sense? Do they reflect well-considered circumstances of their own, beyond the boilerplate benefits promised by vendors and consultants seeking a piece of the action? Asking such questions can be an important exercise. Where innovating with IT is concerned, fashion bubbles form with some regularity, and distinguishing mere hype from reality remains an especially challenging task. But those executives who manage their IT innovation mindfully will be best positioned to meet the challenge successfully.
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