What about the Chief Innovation Officer?

productsI work with CIOs from forward-thinking global companies around the globe, and in fact am preparing to meet with many at our upcoming CoDev15 conference in Scottsdale in a few months. I found an interesting article over on Fast Company’s website by Brian Cooper, who says that the Chief Innovation Officer title may get in the way of innovation.  His article, Why There Are Too Many Chiefs And Not Enough Innovation, attempts to make a case that companies are trying to “fix a symptom” rather than find a solution.  Do you agree? Read on:

Over the years this country has seen a steep rise in job title inflation. It seems there is a “chief” of everything you can possibly think of. From Chief Creative Officers to Chief Strategy Officers to Chief Finance Officers to Chief Marketing Officers to Chief Innovation Officers. But what do all these chiefs do?

The truth of the matter is that they don’t do much more than what their previous lesser job title did. In the creative department, the Chief Creative Officer has replaced the Executive Creative Director who in turn has replaced the Creative Director. There used to be a time when the Creative Director was the most sought after title. Now I’m unsure as to how much creative directing an actual creative director does.

Full article here

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