Managing Innovation

Program Overview

Leaders at any level can recognize the value of innovation, whether in processes, products, or strategy. However, many managers struggle to innovate and don’t have effective innovation processes. Countless case examples suggest the obvious: that innovation is hard, especially for established companies in mature industries.

Participants in the program will explore different approaches to innovation, confront some inherent challenges, and devise strategies to overcome them. Innovating requires managers to defy past thinking – even and especially where it has been effective or efficient in the past. Break old habits and tackle future challenges as an ”innovation manager” in Managing Innovation.

What You Learn

Recognize opportunities for innovation

• Assess the many factors related to process, management, organization and culture that are related to innovation.
• Understand and leverage the nature and “shape” of innovation processes.
• Use case studies to map how new products and services diffuse into the market.
• Explain the vital role that variation, including random variation, plays in innovation.

Avoid barriers to innovation

• Review comprehensive research on the requirements for innovation, and why it is difficult for many managers and companies. Recognize recurrent issues in innovation management.
• Learn how innovation processes are different from industrial processes in terms of how they need to handle variation within a process, and how certain management reflexes can run counter to the desire to nurture innovation
• Describe some of the behaviours and attributes that successful innovators share.
• Practice strategies for meeting the challenges of diffusing new offerings into the market.

Implement innovation in your organization

• Understand how managing for innovation is different from managing for efficiency, and what specific management reflexes need to be confronted to bring about real change that builds innovation capabilities.
• Identify ways that technology might be deployed to enhance innovation capabilities.
• Think as an innovation manager – encouraging their teams and organizations to develop a deeper capacity to innovate. Identify some actionable ways you can keep your organization innovative.
• Understand the issue of ambidexterity in organizations.