On the engineering front, we very rapidly began developing consistent methods around how we wanted to design and develop products.

What are some recent examples of innovation at Textron? If we think about product innovation, we're putting together a new piston aircraft called the . It was developed in a traditional style. The chairman at Cessna [Jack Pelton] said he didn't want anyone to know about it. It was an innovative process that wrapped in a new product.

But what I found intriguing was that it brought in such an innovative process that we had [ professor] come in and talk to us about it. The concept is that you have to be innovative on the back end. If you don't manage that, some upstart can outgrow you from the bottom up. So we decided that we needed a new business model for this.

How did your background as an IT leader help prepare you for the chief innovation officer role? IT is one of the few areas where you have to manage between the department silos. The IT person is one of the few who understands managing the white space.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role? When it's all said and done, the whole game is still about people. Some of the biggest challenges are being able to create a vision that people can look toward with a spirit of expectation. When we got to thinking about how to change the holding company to an operating company, the CEO and I said that all of the [business unit] CIOs would be hard-lined back into my office rather than into each of the business offices.