Short Programs

Radical Innovation

Date: June 10-12, 2013 | Tuition: $2,500 | Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 1.4
Application Deadline »

Overview  |  Learning Objectives  |  Who Should Attend  | Program Outline  | 
Course Schedule  |  About the Instructor  |  Location  |  Links & Resources  |  Updates

Overview

Five years ago, traditional players such as Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, and Motorola dominated the mobile phone industry. The hottest phones today are by Apple and Google. Three elements of modern technology are making new ideas appear at such an extraordinary pace: the sheer rate of technical progress, the abundance of tools that are placing advanced technologies within the reach of new entrants, and the extraordinary opportunities created by convergence. Not all innovation need progress at this rate; however, there are lessons to be learned from these events and every company should be prepared to leverage opportunities from within or to ward off threats from without. The objective of this class is to cover some of the salient features of innovation in the modern world and to lay out the philosophy, tools, procedures, and incentives that an organization can adopt to drive innovation.

The course will cover a range of topics in innovation. We will start by understanding what makes a successful innovative product and business: People, Opportunity, Context, and Technology. We will examine case studies in what we call radical innovation and will identify steps that companies can take towards encouraging innovations from within, ranging from brainstorming sessions to invention awards. We will also examine successful incubator strategies and critical success factors and some of the IP issues around invention. Next, we will explore the role of venture funds inside and outside companies, and discuss spinouts, spin-ins, licensing, and acquisitions. Finally, we will consider the role of communities, standards bodies, and open-source models in innovation. We will have breakout sessions in which smaller groups will engage in innovation exercises.

Learning Objectives

The participants of this course will be able to:

1. Understand how to identify and evaluate new innovative products and businesses.
2. Review and understand different ways to create an innovation group and culture and run a targeted innovation session within a company.
3. Formulate a corporate plan for invention and new product generation.
4. Approach the critical challenges in technology, product, sales, marketing, and financing a new innovative venture.
5. Understand the supporting legal and IP requirements and how to set up an intellectual property strategy for the company.
6. Incubate, refine, and grow a portfolio of innovative new businesses/products.

Who Should Attend

The course is taught from a technology viewpoint and is targeted at technical leaders, executives in charge of product or company strategy, and product managers. Typical titles will include: CTO, Head of Strategy, CIO, Head of R&D, Product Manager, Director of Lab, Group Leader, and so on.

Program Outline

Day One

Session 1--1 hour
POCD: Ocean Liners and Speed Boats: How startup innovation is exactly alike and yet completely different from internal innovation
1. Mass and Velocity: Newton’s second law as applied to innovation
2. Your unfair advantages
3. Your “ball and chain”
4. Ideation: Identifying and protecting disruptive ideas within the organization
5. Innovation (Business) vs. Invention (Technology)
6. Leveraging the organization, existing customers, revenue streams
7. Writing a business plan

Break

Session 2--1.5 hours
Moving your own cheese: Managing creative destruction
1. Business model disruption
2. Technology driven disruption
3. Managing your organization
4. Managing your customers

Break

Session 3--1 hour
Making your organization work for you: Internal buy-in & Financing

Lunch

Session 4--1.5 hours
Choosing your market: New customers vs. New products

Break

Session 5--1.5 to 2 hours
Opportunity and Market Analysis
1. Market Sizing
2. Customer Needs
3. Concept: Disruption vs. fast market
4. First Mover
5. Differentiator: Barriers to Entry
6. Value proposition & Positioning Statement

Day Two

Session 6--1.5 to 2 hours
Go To Market: Leveraging existing customers and partners, market inflexion, and disruption
1. Your customers may feel threatened too
2. Managing your existing customers
3. Market Inflexion and Disruption
4. Go to market

Break

Session 7--1.5 to 2 hours
“The Deal” – Financing strategy: Capital needed, budgeting, and funding sources
1. Capital Needed – Financial Projection
2. Budgeting
3. Inside Venture Capital
4. Funding Source

Lunch

Session 8--1.5 to 2 hours
Financing & Claiming Value: Spinouts, Acquisitions, In and Out Licensing
1. Valuation
2. Spinout
3. M&A: Acquisition
4. Managing the Process

Break

Session 9--1.5 hours
Building your team: Organization, Skills, and Profiles
1. Skills required – organizational design
2. Budgeting

Day Three

Session 10--1.5 hours
IP Strategy
1. IP Vehicles: Publications, Trade Secrets, Patents
2. Cultivating strategic licensing and patenting

Session 11--1.5 hours
Managing a Portfolio of Innovation and its Risks: Lifetime, Write Down, and Success Rates
1. Incubators (Internal and External)
2. Filtering and Evaluation
3. Seeding
4. Milestones
5. Exit

Session 12--1.5 hours
Problems from Audience and Case Studies

Course schedule and registration times

Class runs 9:00 am - 5:00 pm each day except for Wednesday when it will end at 12:30pm.

Registration is on Monday morning from 8:15 - 8:45 am.

About the INstructor

Sanjay Sarma
Sanjay Sarma is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and MIT's first Director of Digital Learning. Professor Sarma was one of the founders of the Auto-ID Center at MIT, which developed many of the technical concepts and standards of modern RFID. He also chaired and helped to set up the Auto-ID Research Council consisting of six labs worldwide. Today the suite of standards developed by the Auto-ID Center, commonly referred to as the EPC, are being used by over 1,000 companies on five continents. He serves on the board of EPCglobal, the worldwide standards body he helped to create. Between 2004 and 2006, he took a leave of absence from MIT to found the software company OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems in 2008. He is a consultant to several companies, and also serves as a permanent guest of the board of GS1.

Professor Sarma received his Bachelors degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, his Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. In between degrees,he worked at Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Aberdeen, UK. His Master's thesis was in the area of operations research, and his Ph.D. was in the area of automation. His current research projects are in the areas of radio frequency identification, IC packaging, manufacturing, CAD/CAM, machine design, RFID applications, device networking, mobile capture, and smart devices. He has over 75 publications in computational geometry, virtual reality, manufacturing, CAD, RFID, security, and embedded computing.

He is a recipient of the MIT MacVicar Fellowship, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Chair at MIT, the Den Hartog Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Keenan Award for innovations in undergraduate education, the New England Business and Technology Award, and the MIT Global Indus Award. He was selected on 2003's Business Week ebiz 25 and Fast Company Magazine's Fast Fifty. Professor Sarma is also a MacVicar Fellow at MIT.

Location

This course takes place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We can also offer this course for groups of employees at your location. Please contact the Short Programs office for further details.

Links & Resources

News/Articles:

• Radical Innovation course resonates with Italian industry professionals
  Sanjay Sarma urges Italian companies to capitalize on the country's innovative heritage to launch skunkworks efforts.

Updates

There are no updates at this time.