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MGNT 630

MGNT 630
High Performance Innovation: Innovative People, Processes, and Organizations

1. Catalog Entry

MGNT 630
High Performance Innovation: Innovative People, Processes, and Organizations

Credit hours (3)
Prerequisites: MBA Status

Organizations are increasingly aware of the fact that they must create value through continuous innovation if they wish to retain a competitive advantage.  This course focuses on how organizations identify, recruit, retain, and motivate innovative individuals; develop and use innovative processes; manage high-performance innovation teams; and create a culture and climate that encourages innovation. Finally, the course will enhance the skills needed to convert innovations into successful business models.

2. Detailed Description of Course

The course is divided into 7 major modules:
    1) The Innovative Strategy
    2) Innovative Individuals
    3) The Innovative Manager
    4) The Innovative Team
    5) Innovation Processes
    6) The Innovative Organization and
    7) Implementing Innovation

Major topics include:
    1) The Innovative Strategy
        a. The Big Problems Motivating Organizations to Innovate
        b. Innovation as the Source of Sustained Value Creation, Competitive Advantage and
            Organizational Success
        c. The Role of Innovation in Driving Least Cost or Differentiation Strategies
        d. Drucker’s Drivers (Sources) of Innovation
        e. Radical, Incremental, and Disruptive Innovation
        f. Blue Sky, Red Ocean Strategies
        g. The Critical Elements of Innovation Driven Strategy
        h. Obstacles to Organizational Innovation
        i. Sustaining Corporate Innovation
        j. The Innovator’s Dilemma:  Trying to Time the S Curve Wave
    2) Innovative Individuals
        a. Innovative Thinking
        b. The Concept of Innovation
        c. The Nature of Creativity
        d. The Elements of Creativity
        e. The Creative Process
        f. The Innovative Mind-Set in Individuals
        g. Personality and other individual level characteristics of Innovators
        h. Identifying, recruiting, and retaining innovative people
        i. Managing Innovative Individuals
        j. Enhancing Innovation at Work

    3) The Innovative Manager
        a. The Innovative Manager’s Mindset:  Embracing change
        b. Adaptors vs. Innovators
        c. Idea Explorers vs. Market Creators
        d. The Leadership Imperative – Leading Innovative Organizations
        e. The Critical Management Attitudes and Skills

    4) The Innovative Team
        a. The Importance of Teams in High Innovation Organizations
        b. The Characteristics of High Performance Innovation Teams
        c. Forming, Developing, and Managing Innovation Teams
        d. Types of Teams
        e. Critical Success Factors at each Team Stage
        f. Personality Types and Their Implications for Innovation Teams
        g. Critical Interpersonal Skills:  Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Decision Making
        h. Managing Change
        i. Issues in Implementing a Team Based Organization

    5) Innovation Processes
        a. Approaches to Innovation
        b. Sources of Opportunity
        c. The Design-Thinking Process
        d. Design Misconceptions
        e. Elements of Design Thinking
        f. Design Guidelines
        g. Iterations:  The Secret Sauce
        h. Rapid Prototyping:  Fail to Learn
        i. Design Driven Innovation
        j. The Stages of Design Driven Innovation
        k. Converting Opportunities into Innovations

    6) The Innovative Organization
        a. Assessing Innovational Readiness in Organizations
        b. Improving the Firm’s Innovation Readiness
        c. Developing and Innovation Culture
        d. Designing Innovation Structures and Process
        e. Developing High Involvement Organization
        f. HR in High-Performance Innovative Organizations– Performance Evaluation, Reward Systems,
           Training
        g. Managing Open Innovation and Co-creation
        h. Innovation and the Corporate Budgeting Process
        i. Crowdsourcing Innovation
        j. Developing Supportive Policies and Procedures
        k. Innovation, Risk Taking, and Proactiveness
        l. Other Organizational Level Issues

    7) Implementing Innovation
        a. Innovation to Commercialization
        b. Effective Innovation Business Models and Plans
        c. The Innovation Business Model Factory
        d. The Business Canvas Model
        e. Accelerating Momentum – The I-Solution

3. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

The course will use a variety of pedagogy including readings, case analysis, lectures, videos, presentations, research projects, and other outside applied projects and assignments to integrate various concepts and develop applied skills.

4. Goals and Objectives of the Course

Students will be able to formulate, evaluate and select innovative solutions to optimize business performance.  They will
    1) Identify processes that enhance innovation competencies
    2) Apply innovation process tools to actual innovation challenges
    3) Derive recommended courses of action based on innovative solutions.
    4) Apply innovation techniques to formulate solutions to business problems
    5) Evaluate components of an innovative organizational culture and explain the management
        systems required to develop and sustain such a culture.  
    6) Demonstrate skills needed to select innovation solutions to optimize organizational
        performance.

5. Assessment Measures

Assessment will be based on the student's participation in class, skills in preparing cases and projects, discussions of cases and other materials, oral and written presentations, tests, a final examination, and other projects as assigned.

6. Other Course Information

Outside presenters, videotapes illustrated innovation concepts, and use of computer tools and software will be used depending on the projects selected by the instructor.

Review and Approval

May 11, 2015