BEMM118 Strategic Innovation Management
2024-2025
Module overview
In a world increasingly characterised as VUCA - volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous - few things are assured - with the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaza and Ukraine crises demonstrating the impact of uncertainty with great force. Managing risk and uncertainty considering current and future opportunities is both expected - and complex. We can be relatively certain that demand for both high quality and sustainable products and services will only be met by individuals and organisations who invest in learning how to manage innovation within an increasingly digital world.
While stakeholders are rarely willing to compromise on quality, the demand for value is greater than ever. Traditional business models are increasingly being turned on their head in both B2C and B2B markets. Organisations of all sizes and missions are facing growing pressure from cost-conscious and eco-aware customers, employees and governments, who are demanding affordable, sustainable and high-quality products that work in the digital era. The module addresses these challenges through integrating innovation, the creation of value from ideas, and entrepreneurship, the skills and behaviours to make innovation happen..
Research demonstrates that innovative organisations outperform, in both employment and sales, firms that fail to innovate. The Strategic Innovation Management module focuses on developing the dynamic capabilities that managers need to innovate in demanding global and technology driven environments, including the positive impact of diversity and inclusivity on innovation outcomes.
Module Aims and Objectives and Learning Outcomes
Innovation is the principal task of senior managers and leaders. Inspiring and driving innovation on a business level separates implementers from inspiring, value creating leaders. These leaders need an entrepreneurial mindset and the capabilities to innovate.
You will develop the skills to establish and sustain innovation across a spectrum of novelty and risk. We will deep dive into “do better”, radical, “do different”, and disruptive innovation. Learners will be introduced to a range of enabling tools, models and structures that will equip them to drive forward new ventures within established organisations.
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Module Specific Skills:
1. Understand the significance of innovation and how it links to wider strategic issues within the organization.
2. Appreciate the different ways in which innovation can take place - product/service offering, process, market positioning and in underlying business and mental models.
3. Gain insights into contingency factors of firm size, technological complexity and environmental uncertainty which influence the precise choice of processes.
Discipline Specific Skills:
4. Assess the factors that increase the likely success of innovation and explore frameworks, tools and proven strategies for organizing and managing innovation
Personal and Key Skills:
5. Demonstrate written and oral communication skills
6. Demonstrate independent and group study skills
7. Demonstrate researching skills
Personal Guidance
“Innovation” is one of the slippery and often most unhelpful words and phrases of our times, much like strategy, value proposition and business model. It is often used to sound important and clever. The great news is that we have over 100 years of research into innovation, and how it works in different contexts. We also know that innovative firms outperform, in both employment and sales, firms that fail to innovate.
However studies confirm that only around 12% of organisations successfully manage innovation, and only half of these do so consistently over time. How can this be the case, when the vast majority of organisations - start-ups, scale-ups and established firms - all project their desire for growth, referencing the importance of innovation?
The module has been designed by a practitioner with almost 30 years of commercial experience in large and SME organisations to share what we know about innovation, and how to make it happen. Sessions will be lively, fun and practical.
Learning/Teaching Methods
The module will be delivered F2F, and will use a mix of videos, chapters and other in-class activities to bring the themes to life. Before each class, students are expected to have watched the relevant videos. After the large class session, students are expected to read the relevant chapter(s), and to explore the subject more widely, including undertaking assignments.