Five reasons to learn Innovation Management.

We’re introducing a new course on Innovation Management starting Spring 2014 as an elective to MBA and MS Innovation Management and Technology Commercialization students. While students take their exams, I’d like to leave you with five stylized facts about Innovation Management.

1. Innovation is not Invention.

While you might think that innovation occurs each time you invent something, this is hardly true. Kodak may have invented the digital camera back in the 1970s but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that this technology was commercialized and became widespread.

2. New products are just one among the many ways of innovating.

While many managers think product is king, many innovations occurs in manufacturing processes, marketing strategies or even when customer’s perceptions are changed. Think about the Toyota Production system, a management philosophy based on continuous improvement and elimination of waste, which combines human and automation practices. This revolutionary process of manufacturing automobiles made possible Toyota’s global expansion.

3. Innovation can be revolutionary or a small improvement.

Not all innovations are completely new products. A common household appliance, the refrigerator, uses the same technology since it was invented – a heat pump. However, few disagree that its basic form has changed quite a bit since then, given the series of small improvements that were made are over the years.

4. Organizations can promote Innovation.

How do companies such as Google, Apple or 3M manage to stay innovative throughout decades? Certain managerial practices, organizational designs, or physical arrangement of office space are ripe for innovation.

5. The outcomes are uncertain, but the process can be managed.

Innovation may depend on creativity and its outcomes unknown. But this does not mean you cannot manage it within your organization. The systematic search of new business ideas is crucial to any company’s long-term survival.

Below a short video that describes this new and exciting course.

Hope to see you in class next semester!

About Tiago Ratinho Oliveira

Teaching Entrepreneurship: empowering students to take control of their careers and make a difference in the world.
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