In recent years, the UAE has become synonymous with innovation. Neither the UAE government nor the country’s business leaders are content to emulate global success stories. They have their sights set on grander designs. They want to be trailblazers.
There are shining examples of those that are doing so successfully — enabling them to pioneer new services and enter new markets. Consider Lulu Exchange, the UAE currency exchange and money transfer service. The company spotted a gap in the MENA market for a mature cross-border payments platform and in response, developed the region’s most feature-rich digital fintech product, Digit9, a plug-and-play orchestrator platform that arguably disrupted the payments industry.
But not every venture is a success story. Many, if not most, organisations watch as their innovation stalls. Many instances of failure have familiar causes, such as skills shortages, budget shortfalls, and suboptimal market timing. But among the usual suspects lurks a rarely blamed culprit — the error of trying to please the wrong people. Sometimes innovators try to please customers, sometimes they try to please the sales team. But while chasing customer demands may seem the only game in town, it can actually lead to a haphazard approach to innovation with too many stakeholders, each hoping for glory when things go right, and eager to distance themselves from projects that inevitably fail.
Enter the Chief Product Officer (CPO)
Nowadays, when we think of innovation, we automatically assume that it will require some degree of digital acceleration, made possible through the deployment of relevant IT solutions. But even when that is the case, it does not necessarily mean that CIOs should be thought of as de facto innovation officers. Another error is to allow CFOs to have too much influence over the innovation process. In many ways, they are likely to raise challenges that weigh down the ability to innovate.
Let us be pragmatic for a moment. Finance teams do not build core offerings. And outside of the software industry, neither does IT. Instead, the responsibility of transforming visions into reality is placed on product teams. They are handed blueprints that may be costly to implement, impractical to deploy, or even altogether inviable. The product head is treated as little more than a project manager — tasked with implementing projects that they had little to no say in envisioning.
So why not? Why not consult the product head? In fact, why not make them a chief stakeholder in the process? Traditionally, businesses have seen a product as a monetisable collection of assembled parts. This attitude has pushed product development down the value chain, greatly diminishing the product team’s effectiveness. Why shouldn’t that change? Operations are important, so we have a COO. Finance is important so we have a CFO. Nowadays, IT is important, so we have CIO. If we agree that product development belongs on the same rungs as these other core functions, why shouldn’t we have a CPO?
Innovation leader
The chief product officer should not only exist; they should lead innovation. With the product in its rightful place, higher up the value chain, the CPO is no longer left reporting to the CIO or CFO. Instead, as with their C-suite peers, they report directly to the CEO. After all, if there’s intent to innovate, then the product itself should be integral to the board’s mindset. CPOs should lead from the front. Their role should be all about getting from boardroom to backlog — so they leave behind the practice of firefighting and convert the boardroom’s vision into a backlog of incremental innovations that the company can deliver, and deliver well.
The chief product officer should be given the freedom to align their vision with the strategy of the business and to articulate how to develop the solution in a way that serves the strategy, rather than expending energy on the build alone. It follows that the CPO should be given full PnL responsibility for products, and all that this implies. If a product is not selling, see the CPO. If a product is not profitable, see the CPO. This level of accountability, combined with deep domain knowledge of the value chain, will make the CPO more effective. And because they report directly to the CEO, they are more able to align with the complete company vision, rather than being perpetually waylaid and sidetracked by directives from sales or technology teams.
Fits the bill
Customers, CFOs, sales executives — all have voices, and all deserve to be heard. But in an organisation where the product team is tasked solely with execution, personalities rather than skills will shape the strategy. In the long term, this is not a recipe for success. UAE businesses must install a strong product leader at the wheel of innovation. The CPO fits the bill.–
