New research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services finds that companies that are using technology to set the business apart tend to have CEOs who are pushing IT-driven business innovation as a core strategy throughout their organization.

"I often hear CIOs talking about the need to maintain a core set of infrastructure well and at the same time innovate and how do you do both at the same time. And I really don't see that a choice. I actually see them building on top of each other. You have to deliver the infrastructure. You have to be able to deliver the financials on time. You have to be able to deliver the collaboration tools that the company needs. Those are table stakes." Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat

As the head of IT you have the good fortune of positioning people for success. That means making the right decisions that allow them to continue to be successful and, of course, employed. At the same time, you know that if you make bad decisions or bad choices, the risk is that you could impact someone’s career — and someone’s livelihood.

The term “ease-of-use” has been thrown around in the enterprise software market for years. It generally referred to UIs that were reasonably intuitive, as well as deployment facilitated by sundry prompts, menus and “wizards.” The new rules of consumption economics, however, are forcing software vendors to radically re-think ease-of-use—because their revenue will depend on it. And enterprise IT will benefit substantially.