IT Managers are not bulwarks to innovation, they are managing and delivering crucial IT services. The bulwark is often the amount of resource and manpower they have to spend on operations, the everyday stuff that is important but probably not the subject of glowing press articles. IT Managers are never given a pat on the back when (as per most of the time) IT works like clockwork, only when things go awry.

So my message to those criticising IT Managers is that if you want IT departments to be more able to innovate, liberate them through automating IT processes. Automating your bread and butter operations can free up IT staff to provide the gourmet innovation you demand.