A85557 Managing R&D and Innovation

In an increasingly competitive and rapidly changing global market, innovation takes an added value and it plays a large part in improving the quality of life. In order to enhance the success of a company we must create and deliver customer-relevant new products and services. However, managing innovation and new product development processes is not easy; the real challenge is to understand the key concepts for successful innovation and knowing about best practices and how to integrate them into an organisation to ensure customer-relevant innovations. Therefore it is essential that entrepreneurs and managers understand the strategies, tools and techniques for managing innovation. 

This course will explore ways by which companies can manage innovation and new product development successfully.

At the end of the course the student will be able:

1. gain a better understanding of the innovation process from the fuzzy front end through to market launch
2. explore main theories of technological change
3. learn the best practices of generating ideas, screening, and evaluating new product concepts
4. learn best practices for a successful technology transfer in an R&D atmosphere
5. learn the fundamentals of technological entrepreneurship
6. learn best practices and principles for product teaming
7. experience best of the "voice of the customer" tools
8. learn how successful companies enhance new product successes
9. learn how to manage the sales force for new product marketing

How do you conceive, develop and launch superior new products? This programme will explore ways by which companies can manage new product development successfully. It is designed to provide an understanding of the key concepts and practices in new product development and how to use them in your company. Using examples from leading international firms, the class reviews strategies for choosing between R&D projects, trade-offs and challenges of managing R&D for innovation.

The programme consists of a package of classes covering important areas for managing innovation and product management including:

1) Innovation management and product development
2) Innovative entrepreneurship
3) Advanced project work

4) Collaborative research
5) Product development

To this end, the course will provide appropriate coverage of the following topics:

• Importance of new product development
• Attributes of an environment that promote innovation
• The “magic recipe” for a dynamic ecosystem
• Alliances/transfer of technologies/knowledge spillovers
• The role of Technology Transfer Offices
• Regional/local initiatives to promote “technoentrepreneurship”
• University activities to promote a “technoentrepreneurial” spirit
• Introduction to Intellectual Property Rights and Patent strategies
• Spin Off and Start Up
• What is an entrepreneurial leadership in a large firm ?
• Innovative entrepreneurship / Business Plan
• Innovative finance for high growth companies
• Venture Capital and “the case history”: Yozma
• Need for innovation, what successful companies do
• The product innovation: mission, vision, strategy, and goals of new product development
• New product development: creativity, concept generation, concept evaluation and selection
• Identify steps in the research process
• Management techniques to promote innovation
• The development process – step
• Reducing time to market / the market launch process
• Make or buy?
• Licensing strategies
• Why new products succeed and fail ?
• The role of consumer/end user input and data in product innovation
• Market orientation and understanding the voice of the customer/patient/end user
• Cross-functional relationships: the R&D-marketing relationships
• Competitive intelligence and benchmarking
• Marketing new product: the role and management of the sales force

The course is based on 6 interactive three-hour lecture sessions, devoted to particular topics in innovation management and will be available in the Spring Term, lectures are held throughout the entire semester. Lectures will include presentations of case-studies. Course notes will be prepared in PowerPoint format and distributed to students for further note taking at each lecture.

Students will be expected to complete the required reading before the lectures and to engage in debates and other exchanges related to the topics of each week’s session.

The course will run under a workshop format requiring active students’ involvement.

Assessment will be based on group coursework and an exam, which will be taken at the end of the course. In addition to active participation in the weekly discussions, students will be expected to prove detailed knowledge of the course material. For students attending classes, grade is based on class participation and a final written exam.