What, pray tell, you say, is the IP D??

‘Who has the D?‘ was, as you know, the title of Paul Rogers and Marcio Blenko’s January 2006 Harvard Business Review Article on clear decision roles and organisational performance.

They split the strategic decision process into five key roles – R.A.P.I.D. – Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide.  D being the Deciding role.

The IP D then, is the person in your organization who has the role of making the final call, on all things intellectual property.  As Rogers and Blenko point out, this person not only serves as the single point of accountability, but also brings the decision process to closure, and has the mandate to commit the organisation to the decision.

They don’t have to be ordained ‘Chief IP Officer’ or any other such title.  They don’t need to be in the legal department (though some would beg to differ).  They do need to have the actionable mandate from on high within the organization to make the call, get it going and be accountable for it.

So how about it?  Who has your IP D?