ADMN 898: Managing Growth and Innovation

• Deals with central concepts and related applications at the intersection of technological innovation, organizational growth, and corporate entrepreneurship.

• To achieve the imperatives of sustained growth, technological innovation is increasingly becoming the most important “lever’ firms adopt, especially in disruptive business environments.

• Yet, building an organization-wide culture to successfully and repeatedly bring innovations to market is a daunting managerial challenge. As organizations get more established, they often lose the innovative edge, finding that their very existence is threatened by their inability to innovate successfully. Leaders with a deep understanding of innovation and change management can help organizations counteract this tendency.

Upon successful completion of the course, students develop the following competencies:

• Recognize the creative and innovative potential within himself/herself (through a “pre” and “post” assessment of a well-validated psychometric tool, The Innovator Mindset), including specific techniques of innovative thinking and creative problem-solving.

• Understand the imperatives of firm growth and why it is so difficult for well-established companies to sustain growth. 

• Explain how industries evolve and change and industry-level dominant standards come into play.

• Form an appreciation of the multilevel nature of the innovation process in organizations and the role of leaders in strategic innovation.

• Learn the steps involved in implementing innovation and the key considerations when taking charge of an innovation change effort.

Throughout the course, students work on a range of assignments, including a term long team-based project on assessing an innovative company of their choice. They also develop individual-level term-end reflection papers, summarizing their key learning takeaways and how they plan to apply them in their own organizational settings.