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Innovation Strategy: Challenging the Usual Suspects

Gain innovation strategy insights and learn to apply them to advanced and emerging contexts in business.

4,586 enrolled on this course

  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours

Get a deeper understanding of innovation

Meeting today’s business and world challenges requires going beyond the thinking that created the challenges in the first place. This is where a good innovation strategy helps. On this course you will develop your knowledge of the challenges of open innovation, management innovation, platform innovation and emerging market innovation and learn how to meet them with a long-term approach. Using quizzes, the newest theoretical insights, cases on pioneering businesses, and thought-provoking debates with leading experts, you will solidify your knowledge of innovation.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 1 second Do you feel that innovation jargon grows by the day, making it very hard to see the wood for the trees? Do you sense that the grand innovation challenges of our time require new solutions, yet you are being served the very same thinking that created the challenges in the first place?

Skip to 0 minutes and 19 seconds This is where a good innovation strategy helps:

Skip to 0 minutes and 22 seconds An innovation strategy fit for our times meets a quartet of challenges: the rise of open innovation, the need for innovating management practices. The shift to platform strategy, and the growing importance of emerging markets in global innovation dynamics. My name is Manuel Hensmans. Together, we’ll learn how to meet these challenges with a coherent, long-term approach. We’ll discuss what opportunities but also traps are hidden in these challenges; and how you should approach them practically. One of the major challenges is a shifting innovation world order. We’ll therefore explore innovation from and for Europe, the United States and Japan, but equally from and for China, India and other emerging markets.

Skip to 1 minute and 11 seconds We will accelerate your learning with quizzes, surprising data about the current state of innovation, the newest theoretical insights, as well as cases on pioneering firms. We will deepen your learning through thought-provoking debates with world-leading experts. Join us to rapidly gain an innovation strategy edge, and boost your career wherever you are in the world!

What topics will you cover?

Week 1: What is innovation strategy?

  • Definition of innovation strategy
  • The shift towards open innovation
  • Case study: Procter & Gamble

Week 2: Are you engaging in the most strategic types of innovation?

  • The innovation pyramid
  • The five types of innovation
  • Case study: Alphabet (Google)

Week 3: Can you go from a product to a platform strategy?

  • The shift from product strategy to platform strategy
  • The building blocks of platform innovation
  • Case study: Videogame industry

Week 4: Is advanced still advanced and emerging still emerging?

  • The rapidly accelerating innovation pace in emerging markets
  • The comparative advantages and disadvantages of emerging and advanced market firms in the global innovation market place
  • Case studies: GE in China and Huawei in Europe

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Debate conventional thinking on successful innovation and how to provide it with strategic direction.
  • Improve the innovation strategy of your current or future organization by drawing on practical frameworks grounded in a rigorous review of the management literature.
  • Describe key mechanisms of open innovation.
  • Explain that the leading companies in the world are adopting a platform strategy and not the commonly assumed product strategy taught in traditional management courses.
  • Describe the rising importance of China, India and other emerging economies, as well as the challenge of emerging market companies in terms of their innovation capacity rather than their low-cost market potential.
  • Apply the three strategic moves that allow a platform organization to "win".
  • Identify different types of innovation in a strategic framework, including the neglected but key type of management innovation.
  • Apply practical insights from leading global experts on innovation strategy.
  • Apply key innovation concepts, frameworks and theories in a professional context.
  • Apply leading case insights to your own local context.
  • Contribute to a multicultural, peer-led learning context on innovation strategy.

Who is the course for?

This course has been created for graduates with a strategic experience of innovation challenges, and experienced professionals looking to get up to date with the latest innovation strategy thinking. The course is also appropriate for students willing to invest very substantially in acquiring advanced knowledge and skills in the area of innovation strategy. Ultimately, the dual goal for all participants is to satisfy their thirst for advanced innovation strategy learning and improve practice in their current or future organisation. All participants are expected to demonstrate a willingness to contribute to discussions and debates with peers.

What do people say about this course?

"I have found the course exceptionally good at providing a foundation of what innovation is. It has given me a better understanding of innovation and how different organisations have adapted and worked in industries and across countries and the global markets."

"Relative to some other online courses, I really appreciated the depth of research and thought brought by the teacher and also that the questions posed to the students were really challenging and non-trivial. Those of us who've taken this course will be much more likely to make the right judgment call in the future!"

Who will you learn with?

Professor of Strategy & Innovation at Solvay Brussels School (ULB). Previously worked at Rotterdam School of Management, Strathclyde Business School, London Business School & Toulouse Business School.

Who developed the course?

Université Libre de Bruxelles

The Université Libre de Bruxelles, founded in 1834, has 13 faculties, schools and specialized institutes that cover all disciplines, closely combining academic input and research.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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