In her article "Innovation from a Standing Start" (BusinessWeek, Dec. 16, 2005), Jeneanne Rae cites a recent study by management consulting firm PRTM which concluded that service companies were a full 10 years behind the average product-based company in innovation. Rae asks: is it because Wall Street satisfied with existing growth through mergers and acquisitions and sales activities? because innovation isn't relevant to the service industry? are companies waiting for their competition to dive in first? or is ignorance bliss?

The article offers much food for thought, including the simple summary of award-winning design firm IDEO's process: understand, observe, visualize & predict, evaluate & refine, implement. Process is just one part of a successful innovation equation. The other critical components according to Rae are Leadership, People, and Leverage.

Information tools are critical in the knowledge economy, and fit into Rae's framework in two ways: (1) Information tools to support innovation would fall under the "Leverage" category. Information tools to support knowledge worker productivity would be valuable outcomes of the innovation process for service organizations.

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