Managing Innovation: Driving Ideas from Strategic Initiative to Value Creation

Managing Innovation: Driving Ideas from Strategic Initiative to Value Creation

One of the most pressing business challenges is keeping up with the pace of global innovation. To be competitive, organizations must create value by developing, selecting, and exploiting the best new ideas for improvement or radical change in products, processes, positioning, platform, or paradigm. In this program, you will discover and practice the mindsets and skill-sets needed to increase both the quality and quantity of innovation. As a result, you will be able to lead and manage a successful “Innovation Journey” from a strategic initiative to the creation of value. 

The program is based on research by David L. Francis, Ph.D. and his colleagues at CENTRIM (The Centre for Research in Innovation Management), identifying the best practices of successfully innovative organizations and leaders. You will incorporate innovation management skills and processes into your work by absorbing the results of research on exceptionally innovative organizations. You will then put that knowledge to work through structured activities, cases, and skill practice. Later, you will experience and practice many of the skills and tools used by the most successful innovation managers.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will gain practical skills to:

  • Learn best practices in innovation management.
  • Analyze and develop mindsets and skill-sets for the innovation journey.
  • Reflect systematically on your own strengths and weaknesses as a manager of innovation.
  • Identify organizational innovation capabilities and barriers.
  • Participate in and facilitate a real “Innovation Journey.”
  • Create an “Innovation Agenda” that can be implemented following the program.
     

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This course is for individual contributors whose work involves facilitating innovation, managers who see fostering innovation as a part of their role, and senior managers who lead or sponsor innovation as part of their responsibilities.

PREREQUISITE

There is no pre-requisite for this course.


MATERIALS

Participants will receive a workbook containing copies of all course slides, case studies and handouts.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Introduction
  • Opening exercise & discussion
  • Exploration of core definitions and concepts related to creativity, innovation, and innovation management
     
Personal Connections: Contributions, Lessons Learned, Needs, and Issues
  • Examination of participant and organizational strengths, needs, and experiences regarding innovation management
     
The Innovation Journey
  • Introduction to the core model for innovation management
  • Applying the model to participants’ past experiences
     
The Avatars of Innovation: Mindsets and Skill-sets
  • Exploration of the mindsets and skill-sets required during each phase of the innovation journey
  • Review of the mindsets and skill-sets as applied to participants’ own management practices
  • Identification of further learning needs

Searching and Exploring

  • Analysis of the Searching and Exploring phases of the innovation journey
  • Skill practice, observation, and feedback
     
Tools for Idea Development
  • Introduction to several tools for generating, developing, and selecting promising ideas
     
Innovation Journey Exercise
  • Practice in managing a competitive, time-bound innovation journey through all the phases
     

Organizational Capability: Research and Application

  • Application of six areas of innovation capability identified through research on successfully innovative organizations to participants’ own areas of influence and responsibility
     

Innovation Agenda

  • Development of a draft plan for implementing innovation management skills.