To get through the economic downturn, we have been pushing our staff to think lean, look for efficiencies and concentrate on lowering costs. Now I'm creating a new environment by shifting that lean-thinking mind set and encouraging innovation to drive business growth.

My direct reports and I started with a definition: If an idea doesn't drive growth, we decided, it isn't innovation. Also, innovation doesn't have to mean making a big jump that requires significant investment; a lot of it will be in the form of incremental changes to our existing portfolio. In one case, rebuilding our product's user interface for a customer--making it easier for them to manage product data and share it electronically--led to ideas for improving the value other customers get out of their own implementations.

We're also getting the rest of the IT staff comfortable with raising new ideas again. I've brought in speakers and passed around books and articles on innovation, but the biggest impact has come from the skip-level meetings I hold with people we identify as rising stars. These meetings reinforce the message that new ideas are welcome from anywhere. Since we've started, analysts and engineers who know every detail of how our company's services work have come forward with creative ideas for driving growth.

Target the User Experience

Mark Carbrey, CIO, Cross Country Automotive Services