Micro Persuasion: The Geek Marketer

In Micro Persuasion: The Geek Marketer, Steve Rubel asserts there's a new role to be filled by people who can
bridge the gap between the technical and the marketing world.

While in some ways this is not news, in practice corporate America has a long way to go in integrating these two disciplines.
i work for a huge advertising network (though my unit is on the small side) and I see IT going in one direction, marketing in another, and creative bouncing around somewhere in the middle. If we can begin to share and play together better than we've been doing, we can fight off the competitive threats (death of print, etc.) that have been so frightening.

Here's a complementary take on IT's role in innovation - this time from the technical side:
CIO.com: The Secrets of IT Innovation