N91327 Innovation Management and New Product Development

This course is aimed at providing students with knowledge and tools related to technology strategy, innovation management and nwe product development.

The course will provide students with knowledge and tools for:

• evaluating decisions concerning the strategy, management and organisation of Innovation and Research and Development; 
• analysing the innovation process, identifying risks and opportunities, designing organisational and managerial solutions;
• managing the New Product Development Process, from concept generation, through product and process design, until commercialisation.

At the end of the course students will be able to master the dynamic of innovation and to adopt proper tools and methods for managing the complexity of the innovation process.

The course, after an introduction providing basic concepts and definitions on the innovation process, proposes the following topics:

The process of technology intelligence for the strategic analysis of the competitive and technology environment;

Technology strategy: strategic decisions about technology selection, timing, acquisition of resources, Intellectual Property;

Collaboration strategies and Open Innovation

Strategic planning of Innovation activities, evaluation and selection of innovation projects

Organising innovation  and R&D activities

Performance measurement of innovation activities

The New Product Development Process:

• idea generation
• product concept definition
• product and process design
• commercialisation

The TRIZ methods for inventive problem solving, within the New Product Development Process

the course is based upon theoretical lessons, discussion of cases and exercises.

Students are provided with the necessary references and teaching materials. Active participation of students is required.

The evaluation is based upon a project work (teamwork) and an individual oral exam.

The project work allows student to actually apply the techniques and tools discussed during the course to a real product innovation. The project also offers students the opportunity to improve their soft skills in terms of teamworking, problem solving, relational abilities.

The oral exam is aimed at verifying the students’ knowledge about all the topics presented during the course and also to evaluate their capacity to discuss about innovation and new product development with the required level of accuracy, precision, discriminating approach, contextualization.

Detailed guidelines about the project will be available on the website.