What business wouldn’t want to start over with a clean slate? In a perfect world where finances aren’t a concern, there are no physical limits to growth and no legacy of old ways or systems, every business could act like a startup — freely focused on innovation, sustainability, growth and customer needs.

However, most CIOs will tell you they don’t live in a fantasy world of unbridled innovation. The challenging economic climate, stringent regulatory regime and mounting security threats preclude the type of lofty thinking (remember transformation, disruption and reengineering?) popular in previous decades. These are times for practical management.

Nevertheless, the most successful CIOs don’t stand still and wait for turnarounds or macroeconomic shifts to lead them along. At our recent Live Exchange in Boston, State Street Executive Vice President and CIO Christopher Perretta claimed that an organization is “broken” if it doesn’t carry out its goals and keep innovating. He is leading his Boston financial services firm into the future by eliminating organizational roadblocks to IT implementation. Among his latest efforts are virtual PCs and accelerated time-to-market services.

So perhaps there is an important role for innovation even in tough times — innovation that solves real problems and meets real business needs. We call that “Practical Innovation,” and for the next several months, we’ll look at how these efforts are making a difference in organizations today. Innovative CIOs like Perretta are always thinking of ways for IT to reshape the business. He views innovation as an organizational responsibility, not one that IT can address in a silo. Perretta advises CIOs to work with their business peers to determine what a service-driven company will look like in terms of staffing, organization and infrastructure, for example. They should ask what new business models and corporate culture need to be in place, and how IT can make the business more agile and green. And then they need to make it happen.

At our Live Exchange events in the U.S. and in Europe recently, CIOs did express frustration with limited resources — the imperfect world they inhabit. But they also discussed incremental process changes, Web-based technologies and revamped operations that are taking the business forward with more gain than pain. (For more details on the Boston event, read my blog and download these slides.)

Also note that Dave Willmer, Executive Director of Robert Half Technology, led a Professional Development virtual discussion on October 13 during which members got advice about their careers and staffing issues. We hope you took advantage of this unique opportunity and joined the discussion without leaving your desk! Please let me know what other topics you’d like to discuss in the future.

Paula Klein
Editor and Community Manager
Smart Enterprise Exchange