iTwire has a review of Gartner's 2007 CIO resolutions. Number three on the list offers the most value for companies that wanting to be competitive in the hyper-accelerating world of modern business.

Gartner’s advice on what CIOs should START in 2007

1. Create an IT leadership generation succession plan

2. Track and improve the environmental performance of your IT

3. Identify, enable and provide incentives for true innovators

1. As the baby boomer generation, born 1946-1964, start to retire en masse, IT departments will lose wisdom and leadership. According to Gartner, this also presents an opportunity to clear out some 'dead wood'; for example people that were over-promoted in the early days of IT and some out-dated attitudes stifling progressive thought.

2. Mr Raskino said, “Don’t assume the next generation of IT leadership should look the same as the last. Identify your best generation X people born in the 60s and 70s, then start giving them challenging projects and operational responsibilities to complete their experience. Bear in mind that future IT management will need skill traits more common amongst women, people with experience from multiple disciplines, business skills and proven change management success.”

3. In addition, identifying individuals with the creativity, ability and a determination to overcome corporate inertia and take new ideas to action is paramount for IT to deliver business innovation. In a poll at a recent Gartner Symposium, 80 percent of respondents said this is a priority, however, only 20 percent had a systematic innovation program in place.

It is my experience that in quarter-report driven companies innovation takes place almost by accident and is rarely the result of a corporate-wide strategy. Improved abilities to identify and respond to developing markets is perhaps the key success driver of the 21st Century. Companies that don't have a systemic way of managing their innovative practices will likely fall by the wayside as global competition heats up.