Among the biggest process-related challenges the Middle East’s technology leaders expected to face in 2017 is “driving innovation through IT.”

While this signals an interesting shift in priorities, it is perhaps not all that surprising given that emerging technologies are blurring traditional industry boundaries and taking competitive pressures to a whole new level.

It’s even less surprising when one considers that innovation has always been a hallmark of the IT industry; it just previously happened at a much slower pace than the breakneck speed we’re used to today.

The enterprise IT industry as we know it traces its roots back to the late 1950s and the introduction of mainframe computers, a truly innovative concept that continues to underpin much of what we now take for granted in the workplace.

Computing remained a largely impersonal interaction between man and machine for the next couple of decades, but such limitations didn’t dampen the pursuit of innovation.

The reward came in the mid-1980s and the arrival of the client-server era, when PCs started tapping into mainframe databases and applications, thereby offering a more personalised experience.

The extent of that “personalisation” has to be viewed in the context of its time, but it was this revolution within the IT industry that truly got the innovative juices flowing.

Groundbreaking innovations have come at us thick and fast over the intervening years, to the point where once unimaginable technological feats such as cloud, mobile, social, and data analytics now form the very bedrock of our day-to-day lives, whether at home, in the office, or on the move.

These technologies have already ripped up numerous industry playbooks, disrupting and transforming all around them as organisations rush to lay the foundations required to ensure a sustainable, competitive, and digitally-empowered future.

And they are increasingly being complemented by an additional wave of ‘innovation accelerators’ that are already gaining traction among consumers in one form or other — 3D printing, robotics, the internet of things, cognitive systems, augmented/virtual reality, and next-gen security.

Think about it; we all unlock our phones using biometrics of some sort, and we all know someone who tracks their steps on a Fitbit, gets their daily news updates from Siri, or has been pestered into buying a PlayStation VR by their kids!

The point is that as consumers, we are already keenly embracing these technologies. But the real challenge is for businesses to figure out how these innovation accelerators can be incorporated into their own ecosystems in order to begin the process of actually accelerating innovation.

By its very nature, innovation implies change in how a business develops its future structure and processes, designs its products and services, or engages with its customers and other stakeholders.

Seen in that light, successful innovation lies in understanding the basic changes in how the organisation must be structured, incentivised, managed, directed, supported, encouraged, rewarded, and led.

There are, of course, no hard-and-fast rules for creating truly revolutionary products or services that disrupt established industries and transform the customer experience as we know it.

But successful innovation is all about creating an environment where ideas are allowed to flourish, and there are five key approaches to making that happen:

• Start Small and Stay Focused: Starting small and focusing on a few key goals or metrics for success is the best way to change an organisation’s innovation culture.

• Experiment: A willingness to experiment with organisational design and roles is far more conducive to success than creating rigid team structures.

• Fail Fast: Speed is an essential component of innovation — failure is inevitable and acceptable as long as it leads to rapid recovery and improvement.

• Provide Air Cover: Governance for innovation means leaders must accept responsibility for the trial-and-error problems their teams experience while learning how to become innovative organisations.

• Don’t Penalise Failure: Good innovation leaders don’t penalise individual failures. Innovation execution is a team sport, regardless of how much it relies on individual brilliance.

It’s also important to remember that successful innovation ecosystems can be built and sustained without the need for formalised organisational structures or management complexity.

Indeed, organisations need to embrace more fluid, informal approaches to actively promote innovative mindsets and reward experimental approaches to solving business problems.

Innovation is undoubtedly an essential element of business success; it always has been. But many organisations are still falling short when it comes to facilitating the supportive environments required for experimental ideas to prosper.

To this end, sustaining an innovation ecosystem requires not only demands the active support of senior leaders but the development of a culture that supports risk-taking and occasional failures.

Ultimately, this requires a new kind of organisational mindset — one based on flexibility and adaptability, rewards and recognition, and a willingness not to punish failure but to learn from it.

The columnist is group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey at global ICT market intelligence and advisory firm International Data Corporation (IDC). He can be contacted via Twitter @JyotiIDC