Course Description

Strategies for Managing Innovation explores how innovation in organizations operates as a process, how the marketplace affects it, how to identify innovation opportunities, how individuals find innovative roles in their organization, how managers foster innovation in their organization, and how innovation plays a part in an organization's overall strategy.  We will examine the innovation process from the origination of a new idea through its transformation into commercially useful products or results.  We will analyze the continuum of interdependent steps (scanning the business environment, invention, prototype development, venture sponsorship, and meeting recognized social and market needs) that are required to generate an innovative and commercially successful technological product or service.   

Successful students in this course will be able to:

1.   Describe how the process of innovation operates in the organization
	and marketplace at large.
2.   Identify those factors (scientific, human, economic, and
	environmental) that facilitate or inhibit innovative strategies in
	organizations.
3.   Match a conceptual template of the innovation process to an actual
	organization to assess its potential for innovation.
4.   Perform a basic innovation opportunity audit for an organization.
5.   Distinguish the roles of technology and the marketplace as they
	stimulate innovation.

Course text and materials:

Schilling, Melissa A., Strategic Management of Technological Innovation. McGraw-Hill, 2005. Paperback, 289 pp. Estimated cost: about $40. (available used for less on Amazon.com).
Hargadon, Andrew, How breakthroughs Happen: The surprising truth about how companies innovate. Harvard Business School Press, 2003. Hardcover, 254 pp. Estimated cost: about $30. (available used for less on Amazon.com).
Additional resource articles and handouts on innovation management will be made available on-line or by the instructor during the course.

Course requirements and grading:

INNOVATION CASE STUDY (30% of final grade)
A well-written case description of 12-15 pages, (excluding cover sheet, abstract, references, and appendices) will describe the anatomy of an innovation process and how it contributed to a successful technological product or service. Clear illustrations and explanations of the cause-effect relationships between innovative management efforts and ultimate results are expected.
This case study will exemplify graduate level research and writing skills and be consistent with the format requirements of the APA Publication Manual.
PRESENTATION (10% of final grade)
Students will make an individual presentation of their case. Presentations will be done in a conference format, with panels of designated class members providing feedback on the case's insight, clarity, and portrayal of lessons learned.
INNOVATION KNOWLEDGEBASE (20% of final grade)
In a two-part effort, students will first team up to identify as many sources of innovation literature (e.g. journals, periodicals, reports, etc.) as possible; then, at the direction of the instructor, they will scan those sources for material relevant to course topics, producing abstracts for distribution to other class members. The number of abstracts required will be determined by the instructor but will be commensurate with the percentage this allocated toward the final grade. Source Lists are due at class session #4. Abstracts are due at class session #8.
JOURNAL OF INNOVATION IDEAS (20% of final grade)
Each student will maintain a Journal/Notebook to capture week-to-week observations about corporate innovations, technology trends as opportunities for innovations, or significant articles addressing innovation issues. This Journal will be the result of an expansion of your usual reading for ideas in publications (or other media) that you would encounter as a normal part of your professional work, and is part of your intellectual development as a graduate student. Your personal Journal/Notebook will be due at the beginning of class session #13 and will be returned at the final class session.
CLASS PARTICIPATION (20% of grade)
Students at the graduate level are responsible for their own learning. Attendance and meaningful participation in class discussions are expected. This will require not only reading the assigned material, but also coming prepared to discuss it in class.
Class 1 – September 3, 2008
	Introductions & course overview
		•  Ice-breaker introductions
		•  Syllabus and course requirements
	Approaches to innovative thinking
		•  Creative styles – thinking like Leonardo DaVinci
		•  Adaptors vs Innovators
		•  Innovation research and learning agendas
Class 2 – September 10, 2008
	Mapping the innovation landscape
		•  Levels of innovation
		•  Types of innovations
	Definitions, context & misconceptions
		•  Innovation vs creativity
		•  Innovation vs invention
		•  Value propositions for innovations
Class 3 – September 17, 2008
	Working theories of Innovation
		•  Conceptual explanations of innovation reality
		•  Practical explanations
	Innovations fads and trends
		•  Major writers and thinkers in this field
		•  Disruptive innovation
		•  Open innovation
		•  Recognizing gurus and false prophets
Class 4 – September 24, 2008
	Process view of innovation
		•  Key process steps
	Recognizing innovation process in an organization
		•  Exercises and video examples
Class 5 – October 1, 2008
	Innovation roles in the organization
		•  Key innovator roles
		•  Exercises and video examples
	Perspectives on innovation models
		•  Explanations of how innovation works
		•  Antecedents to innovation
		•  Antecedents to innovation
Class 6 – October 8, 2008
	Innovation opportunities
		•  Drucker's 7 sources
		•  Scanning for innovation opportunity
		•  Scanning exercise
Class 7 – October 15, 2008
	External influences on innovation
		•  Technology-push
		•  Market-pull
		•  Case study example
Class 8 – October 22, 2008
	Innovation diffusion and adoption
		•  Product life cycles and adoption rates
		•  Adopter types and market proportions
		•  Crossing the chasm
		•  Case study example
Class 9 – October 29, 2008
	Organizational capabilities for innovation
		•  Corporate culture
		•  Core competence
		•  R&D process
		•  Case study example
Class 10 – November 5, 2008
	Innovation initiatives
		•  External approaches (benchmarking best practices)
		•  Internal approaches (corporate knowledgebase)
		•  Case study example
Class 11 – November 12, 2008
	Innovation audits
		•  Innovation patterns in the firm
		•  Innovation leaders
		•  Innovation competence
		•  Competitive advantage
		•  Initiatives for organizational change
		•  Case study example
Class 12 – November 19, 2008
	Innovation's value proposition
		•  Payback for innovation
		•  Innovative business models
		•  Case study example
Class 13 – November 26, 2008
	Innovation and strategy
		•  Open innovation strategies
		•  Blue ocean strategies
		•  Alliance strategies
		•  Orphan technology strategies
		•  Case study example
Class 14 – December 3, 2008
	Innovation case study presentations
		•  Conference-style panel presentations by students
Class 15 – December 10, 2008
	Innovation case study presentations
		•  Conference-style panel presentations by students