Chief Innovation officer: A new role to drive change

The Chief Innovation officer is the latest entrant to the C-suite

October 17, 2018 01:29 pm | Updated October 19, 2018 05:21 pm IST

Illustration: Sebastian Francis

Illustration: Sebastian Francis

There has been an explosion of data, necessitating new skills and roles to manage it efficiently. Similarly, innovation — more precisely, disruptive innovation — has become the life force of businesses, which has necessitated the creation of an atmosphere that would foster it. So, we now have Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), a role that combines the responsibilities of a chief technology officer and a chief information officer, but goes much beyond both put together.

In many big companies, CIO is the latest entrant to the C-suite. In May this year, Panasonic India appointed Manish Misra as its CIO.

“Previously, innovation was everybody’s job. Now, it’s more focussed with a predefined set of objectives,” says Misra.

At RPG Group, Sachin Nandgaonkar, management board member and president of the speciality sector, heads the innovation function.

Other companies that have created a specialised position that is aligned with the functions of a CIO include Razorpay, Sonata Software, BigBasket, FreshMenu and Mindshare.

Government bodies are also carving out roles to drive innovation.

Last year, the Telangana government brought RedBus founder Phanindra Sama on board to “build an innovation-driven economy in Telangana”.

More recently, the Ministry of Human Resource Development hired Abhay Jere as CIO for its Innovation Cell.

According to BTI Executive Search, there has been a 20-25% increase in recruitment to the post of a CIO.

“In the last six months, we have had requests from six companies and we have filled two,” says James Agarwal, managing director of the firm.

He says a CIO is expected to be familiar with all aspects of a business, and so, the one donning the role has to come from a multidisciplinary background.

“Even the behavioural component is factored in. The person should not be afraid of taking risks and facing failure and should be a brand by himself,” says Robert Inniah, a senior human resource executive.

“He/she advices the CEO on the market needs,” says Agarwal.

The main responsibility of a CIO may be to innovate projects, but they have the additional mandate of improving the company’s product or service delivery mechanism and enhancing consumer experience.

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