Perception is king and it can make or break an organization. The IT Department is one of smartest and capable units within any organization. They are able to listen, break things down and put together an action plan. More often than not, you will find a disconnect, frustration and miscommunication between marketing, sales and IT departments. This presentation is about addressing the problem and finding the steps we need to take to work smarter. It's important to show progress and support a positive and more understanding cross-department environment moving forward. Teamwork makes the dreamwork! This talk was presented by Survey Analytics President Vivek Bhaskaran at Interop 2014 in NYC.

1. IT Innovation Crisis: Getting to the Culture of Yes
Vivek Bhaskaran
Survey Analytics and IdeaScale
#INTEROP14

2. About Me
Founder of two companies
BootStrapped, Profitable and Proud
Used to be an IT/Tech Consultant

3. Let’s Talk About IT Perception
• Poorly Understood
• COGS – Like Government
• Impedes You
• Geeks
• Wield Power – NO
Entrepreneurs or Drones?
• Old Fashioned
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4. Are We Something Like This?

5. Well, Maybe…But Some Facts
75% of CIO’s think they are aligned with Biz!
43% of Biz thinks IT is aligned with them!
Net: About 30% of companies are clueless.
Source: Vivek’s Napkin Survey
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6. Now Some Real Facts About IT
ü Best Listening Division in the Organization
ü Touches almost the entire company
ü Has an actual SLA
ü The “Yes” is silent, “No” is amplified
IT is like Customer Support –
you don’t think about it till you need it!

7. Let’s Change the Perception!
“All of our radical innovations come from people who are not
domain experts.”
- Orange Telecom

8. Culture of YES!
ü Open Innovation
ü Listening & Communication Loop
ü Perspective
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9. Open Innovation
TYPES OF IDEAS
NATURE OF IDEAS
STRUCTURE / ORGANIZATION
INCREMENTAL DISRUPTIVE
LOW RISK HIGH RISK
STRATEGIC
LARGE SCALE
EMBEDDED
SMALL SCALE
PRODUCTS / SERVICES
PROCESSES / METHODOLOGY
MARKETPLACE

10. ROI Addiction vs. New Opportunity
“This is one of the innovator’s dilemmas: Blindly following
the maxim that good managers should keep close to their
customers can sometimes be a fatal mistake.”
- Innovator’s Dilemma

11. Communication Loop
“Listen actively, respond quickly.”
- Steve Jobs

12. Communication Loop
Be sure to show progress – even
when you’re not implementing a
solution so that a community
comes to trust you.
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13. Listening = Empathy
We all feel the need to be listened to.
Just the act of asking is noted.
The ability to give feedback!

14. Perspective
“Our brains are wired to assume that ideas come from nearby
are more concrete so they’re not considered as creative as the
more abstract concepts that come from further away.”
- Shankar Vedantam
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15. Perspective
Approach ideas first for their possibilities and
secondarily for their feasibility.

16. Q&A
• Share a story of when your company
met one of these challenges. How did
they respond?
• IT has some key advantages in the
innovation space. What are they?
• Other innovation challenges?
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17. Thank You!
Listening Systems
Empower Innovation