The idea of placing a C-level someone in charge of innovation has had its tires kicked a time or two. Contributors to the Corante Innovation Hub are quite appropriately featuring prominently in the discussion on this topic. The most recent round of discussion on this seems to have been started by Corante Network contributor Jeffrey Phillips of Innovate On Purpose (someone please do correct me if I'm wrong on this!):

"How do you determine which ideas have the most merit and which to fund? Who is responsible for the succcess or failure of these ideas? Short answer - a lot of different people, who have a lot of other things on their plate. Long answer - really, no one. Perhaps it's time to identify the Chief Innovation Officer in your business."

Corante contributor Paul Gladen's blog is called Chief Innovation Officer, so it's no surprise that he's blogged on this subject, including this description of how to measure the success of this position (which he calls "Chief Creator of Pleasant Surprises and Avoider of Unpleasant Surprises" ):

"Percentage of revenue and income generated from new sources; ratio of pleasant to unpleasant surprises; [and] amount of investment wrestled away from old products, services and business practices."

Corante contributor Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools is hosting a lively discussion on this topic on a forum on his Innovation Tools site. Chuck also pointed his readers to a CIO magazine article from August 2002 describing the perfect Chief Innovation Officer candidate and a more recent (March 2006) description from Innovaro magazine on the ways in which this position could take shape:

"In some companies...the Innovation Director is leading the development and introduction of innovations – both incremental and radical – that support continued growth of the existing businesses. ... In other organisations... the role is more about helping move the innovation agenda into new spaces through managing the development of new products or services that may take the organisation into adjacent sectors or by preparing for a major change....[and in other companies] the strategic Innovation Director role is more about seeding the future, identifying and exploring options for the company to develop new businesses for the longer term, be that five, ten or even twenty years down the line."

Corante contributor Matt Chapman of the Corporate Innovation blog talked about the rewards of such a position:

"Candidates are drawn by the high visibility of the position and the rewards that could accompany success. This isn't innovation for innovation sake; this is making new things happen that adds value to companies through a new, dynamic and exciting role that comes with the opportunity to really make a visible difference in the corporate world."

Also not to be missed is this April 10 Business Week article on ths subject.