Q: How did you get Innovation that Matters as part of your job title?
A: The term originated internally, where we had … people brainstorm about … company values. The conversation was about innovation, but (people said), “We have to do something that matters. We have these great capabilities that actually impact the world.”
At the same time we were doing a study of 800 CEOs, and what they talked about was the way to differentiate themselves from competition. In this global economy, it’s through innovation.
The title is the name of the initiative. It’s not about how cool IBM is but about how we can help (the company) innovate and be successful.
Q: How do you define innovation? Is the term overused?
A: It does get applied to a lot of things. Maybe the things we apply it to are not innovative yet. We have to be sensitive. Some people think of it as the next new, cool gadget.
In our view, that’s not complete. It also includes innovation around services, business models, business process, even policy. We think it’s collaborative. In today’s world, we and our clients will rarely innovate alone. The fusion of technology and business is where innovation happens.
Q: What are some of the innovative things being done within IBM?
A: Personally, I think one is a capability that automatically through speech-to-text technology and machine translation technology translates Arabic TV news stations – al-Jazeera is one – and China TV news broadcasts and runs an English subtitle on the bottom. It’s in research, and we licensed it to a company called Critical Mention that will integrate it into its Web TV capabilities and offer it as a service.
Q: Do you spend a lot of time online reading about new technologies and innovations?
A: Yes, all the time. At IBM we have dedicated research on chemistry, physics and computer science. I’m not reading at that level but at the next level, which is applying it to a problem or product.
Q: Do you blog about innovation?
A: No, but I follow and comment on internal IBM blogs. I have one for personal photos. I haven’t updated that in a while.
Q: Do you think blogs are innovative?
A: It’s not that the technology is innovative; it’s a website. But all this Web 2.0 stuff, wikis and blogs, they’re innovative in how we use them. A lot of the social networking things that are going on are being used for fun, but they’re going to have a business use someday.
Q: Prior to becoming vice president of Innovation that Matters, you led IBM’s global e-government initiative. What are some of the primary issues you addressed?
A: Better managed social services are a very strong initiative in almost every country, along with accurate and timely benefits. Customs and border protection is a very big area. We have a device that we built with
Maersk Logistics that records temperature, humidity, motion and tampering – they can tell if it’s been tampered with or opened, which would go a long way towards better security and better trust in the system by people using the system.
So there are a lot of things that are part of e-government that aren’t necessarily citizen services.
Q: How close are we to having a fully integrated e-government system in the U.S.?
A: Part of the challenge is that we have 50 states, but if you go to a smaller country like Denmark, decisions are made at a national level or on one system. As American citizens, most things get delivered at the state level. States are being very aggressive, but they’ve got a very challenging environment because anything that’s a mistake in the public environment is news headline material. We cannot afford a government to fail, so there’s some justifiable conservatism there.
Edited for space and clarity by staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson.
