Innovation is among the most over used – yet underutilized – concepts in business today. The purpose of this course is to leave students with practical knowledge and tools to improve an organization’s capacity to generate and successfully apply new ideas. What is innovation and why is it important to all organizations the world-over? Why is innovation easy to talk about yet so difficult to implement? Using readings - and video clips from innovative leaders - students will learn the characteristics of innovative organizations. In teams they will then engage in a project in which they examine an actual organization in light of these characteristics and design concrete changes that foster the organization’s capacity for innovation.
At the completion of the course, students will have:
• Greater appreciation for innovation, it’s importance, and what stands in the way of successful innovation
• Knowledge of strategies, structures, processes and skills that characterize successful innovators, and which can be used to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of organizations
• The ability to design organizations with improved capacity for sustainable and measurable innovation.