Innovation Management

The course sets the scene for the minor ‘Business Innovation for Engineers’. It discusses the challenges that companies face in introducing innovations and managing technological development, under the lens of the digital transformation of their key organizational functions. Firms may use innovation to improve their processes or to differentiate their products and services and outperform their competitors. However, the management of innovation is inherently difficult and risky: most new technologies fail to be translated into products and services, and most new products and services are not commercially successes. In short, innovation can enhance competitiveness, but it requires a specific knowledge and management style.

The course adopts an integrative perspective in analysing the innovation management process and discusses how the organizations can search for innovative opportunities, select innovative projects, develop new products/services and capture a social, economic or business value from this process. It also discusses different types of innovation and defines critical elements for building an innovative organization and developing an innovation strategy. In sum, the course presents the main concepts and methods in innovation management and supports them with series of examples and applications from practice.