I once heard Tom 'Kwik-Fit' Farmer give an excellent talk at an IT strategy conference (moderated by Edward de Bono, no less). His operating principles were very simple. Everyone in the organisation was there to support his Kwik-Fit fitters (no one is quicker than them, of course). He drew an inverted pyramid, with him at the bottom, to make his point. He didn't allow the people directly above him to think of themselves - or call themselves - HQ staff. They were just support staff, and innovation was driven by customers and the fitters.

The very name of this outfit suggests that they think they are somehow in charge of innovation. If they see their job as enabling change at the front line and can persuade Whitehall that it's at the very bottom of the pyramid, then maybe they can do some good. But I'm not sure how ministers - who rather like to feel that they are running things - will really go along with that idea.