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IT and Innovation Leadership to Go Beyond Green

By clarachow | March 6, 2009

The role of IT in making companies green is an important one.  Greening is a great approach in optimizing some business processes in terms of reducing waste.  And, we all know that waste erodes the bottom-line.  However, many of the IT solutions for greening relate to making data centers more efficient and less of an energy drain.

To that end, greening is a good start in gleaning cost savings while reducing a company’s carbon footprint.  But, greening has limitations if the goal is to create a sustainable enterprise.  This is because the “greening” business model reflects an internal focus with a strategy centering on today.  On the other hand, a business model that goes beyond green is one that is positioned for the long-run by being externally focused with a strategy for tomorrow.

In a changing economy, the role of the CIO and the use of technology can be instrumental in navigating through these uncertain times and be the organizational mortar for long-term profitability.  More than ever, CIO leadership is needed to guide a company’s strategic direction of going beyond green — whether it is to improve collective intelligence, thereby increasing productivity and performance, or it is to maximize ROI and advance business growth through sustainable technology.  Limited resources and the volatility in the economy should be viewed as an opportunity to spawn innovations, leading to the competitive longevity of a firm.

Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

One Response to “IT and Innovation Leadership to Go Beyond Green”

  1. vic on March 7th, 2009 1:57 pm

    Very succinctly put – nice job.

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