5 Reasons Why You Need to Hire a Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) Right Now

There’s a lot of confusion around the role of a Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). 

While some companies advocate for its importance in innovation, critics say it’s just another useless addition to the C-suite with little or no real value to the company that implements it. 

We believe that those who say that Chief Innovation Officers are no more than the newest symptom of a raging C-level fever don’t fully grasp their role within an organization and how they help to drive innovation forward. 

In this article, we share with you why we think that a Chief Innovation Officer is a valuable asset in keeping organizations innovative and why you should hire one. 

What is a Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)?

The role of a Chief Innovation Officer can be somewhat flexible, but one thing is for sure: they’re tasked with being the driving force behind innovation in a company. 

The CIO is responsible for orchestrating and guiding the company's innovation strategy. In other words, they make sure that the company's innovation efforts align with its business goals and values. 

They monitor research and development, stay up-to-date on technology advancements, and guide creative processes. They also make sure that everyone in the company - not just them - participates in innovation. 

The newest addition to the C-suite

The Chief Innovation Officer is a relatively new term that was coined in 1998. It’s a new addition to the C-suite, which arose from the increasing need to address innovation initiatives. 

As companies recognize the importance of continuous innovation, the role of a CIO becomes crucial in guiding innovative strategies and making sure that they align with the company's overall objectives and market dynamics.

Is the CIO a new useless corporate role? 

The purpose of the Chief Innovation Officer’s role has been questioned since its conception. 

The most recurrent arguments against it say it’s pointless, unclear, and utterly counterproductive. 

Those who claim the role of the CIO is useless argue that if one person is in charge of innovation, everyone else is not. This argument rests on the wrong understanding of the CIO’s role as the sole person responsible for innovation outcomes.

The CIO's actual role is not to single-handedly create new products, processes, or customer experiences. 

Instead, they’re responsible for organizing and guiding the innovation efforts of the entire team, making sure that everyone contributes to the company’s innovative development. 

5 Reasons Why You Need to Hire a Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)

A Chief Innovation Officer is the driving force behind innovation. Here’s why you need to hire a CIO if you’re looking to foster a culture of innovation within your company. 

✅ A CIO is a specialized innovation explorer

The main reason why you need a CIO is to explore innovation. The CIO is responsible for continually researching and testing ideas and is trained to enable others to do so. 

Simply put, the Chief Innovation Officer's job is to encourage and lead the organization to explore uncharted territories, which they often do in collaboration with the CEO. 

Research has shown that companies where the CIO and CEO go hand in hand tend to outperform competitors.

This makes sense because the Chief Innovation Officer bridges gaps and fosters innovation, while the CEO sets the direction with their deep knowledge of the business and its culture. 

Together, they create a united approach, ensuring the CIO has the necessary support to drive innovation across the company.

✅ A CIO guides the way to innovation

Being the leader of innovation within the company, the Chief Innovation Officer’s role is to effectively guide the rest of the workforce and inspire them to participate in innovation-related activities. 

However, when CIOs are judged on their direct contributions to innovation, it often results in the rest of the workforce detaching from innovation under the belief that innovation is only the responsibility of the CIO rather than the entire team. 

Instead, the mindset should be, "Everyone is in charge of innovation," which fosters a culture of collective responsibility and collaboration in innovation efforts across the entire organization.

✅ A CIO organizes innovation

Although everyone in the company is responsible for innovation and should contribute to it, innovation can become chaotic and lack direction without a leader to organize and guide it. 

An experiment conducted by a European energy company brought together four different teams and tasked them with innovation. None of the teams had a leader to guide them. The experiment found that each team went in a different direction and competed for space and resources, duplicating work and hindering productivity. 

✅ A CIO keeps track of innovation initiatives

Innovation no longer happens behind closed doors. Now, it includes everyone inside and outside the company, such as customers, partners, shareholders, and sometimes even competitors. But without someone to monitor these innovation activities, it's hard to know what's effective and what isn't.

Without a person to keep track of innovation initiatives, you’ll quickly lose direction and focus. A Chief Innovation Officer is responsible for monitoring all innovation processes and providing feedback while facilitating innovation initiatives. 

✅ A CIO inspires an innovation culture

Companies that lack a good culture of innovation struggle with silofication and the Not Invented Here syndrome, where employees resist outside ideas. This issue, deeply rooted in the company culture, leads to isolated talent, slow progress, and a reluctance to share knowledge and innovate.

But creating a culture of innovation isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen in two days. Often, it’s a process that takes years, and there’s a need for someone to guide and monitor it. Hence, the role of a Chief Innovation Officer. 

With support from management and the freedom to act, CIOs drive the culture of innovation by implementing strategies for change, engaging key stakeholders, organizing events, and connecting innovators with the rest of the company to pursue a shared goal. 

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