Innovation & Strategy

In the early phases from idea initiation to business model development, start-ups are very quick and agile. Establishing customer and user empathy is an important success factor in this process. Early testing, dealing with failed ideas, and continually assessing the knowledge gained are among the most important success factors. This thinking culture and approach is promoted by Agile methods and strategies. As an employee of an established company, in this seminar you will become familiar with the mindset and procedural methods of start-ups, in order to also adjust your own company to volatile markets and the complex environment in a more agile and flexible manner, as well as at greater speed. Engaging with customer-centered business models and digital effects in the value chain is also increasingly key. In addition, you will gain specific recommendations with respect to the balance between a traditional approach and Agile methodology.

• Commonalities and differences between start-ups and established
• companies
• Disruption scouting
• Strategic management in start-ups
• Agile idea generation and validation using design thinking
• Agile product development with Scrum
• Lean start-up methodology and business model development

You will gain an overview of current challenges in strategy work, in the context of disruptive changes such as digitization and Industry 4.0. In this seminar you will learn how to analyze, develop and implement strategies. You will gain an overview of the relevant methods and instruments for the individual process steps, evaluate them, and adapt them to individual circumstances and companies. You will look into risks and challenges in the design of strategy processes, and analyze why even the best processes can fail. Together we will discuss the various characteristics of new business models. In this process, we will also shine a spotlight on international developments and evaluate the effects on companies.

• Strategy in view of the “4.0 World” and its effect on strategy work: Classic versus adaptive strategy development
• Strategic analytical instruments: SWOT analysis, trends and scenarios, customer, market and competitor analysis, strategic analysis of your own company
• Strategy development: Vision, target position, mission, slogans and values
• Business model innovation and business ecosystems: International examples and effects, instruments for the assessment, selection and implementation of strategies: Quantitative methods, portfolio analysis, strategy map, BSC

The economy has become a great deal more uncertain in recent decades. Companies are confronted with shorter product life and innovation cycles, surprising fads that necessitate just-in-time concepts and slim time-to-market strategies. New strategies, approaches and instruments are needed to better cope with this complexity.

Corporate Foresight is a comparatively recent management discipline, which provides decision-makers with many concepts, theories, principles and methods for strategic work. In the Corporate Foresight EBS certification program, you will learn how to use key methods, gain knowledge of successful practices, and understand how to develop and successfully implement Corporate Foresight projects and systems yourself. Practical examples, work on case studies, and the sharing of information with your peers as well as with experts from science and practice, will contribute to an interactive university-level program.

You will be given an overview of the design and management of successful Corporate Foresight projects and systems. You will gain an understanding of Corporate Foresight processes and their implementations in organizational contexts. You will become familiar with instruments and approaches for the efficient management of complexity, dynamism, and uncertainty in organizational environments, and understand how you can identify future opportunities and risks. Transferability into strategic management and innovation management is particularly important here.

The two modules in the Corporate Foresight certification program are based on a single script, building on one another. The first module focuses on traditional methods, and training in their application is given using several practical examples. The focus of the second module is the development of Corporate Foresight processes, as well as system design. The content is always taught interactively by practice-oriented instructors from EBS Executive Education.
 

Face-to-face modules

Module 1 (3 days – methods, tools and formats)

• Introduction and fundamentals
• Perceiving: Identifying and structuring developments
• Prospecting: Understanding and interpreting interactions

Module 2 (2 days – process and system design)

• Probing: Planning and preparing measures
• System analysis and design

With the right innovations, your company can achieve key competitive advantages in the global market. However, these can then only be successfully implemented when all levels and departments in your company are proactively involved on the journey from the idea to market. For ideas to achieve the desired added value in your company, the process must be planned, constantly evaluated, and managed in a professional manner from the outset. With your technical knowledge as an Innovation Manager (EBS), you will become the expert point of contact when it comes to complex innovation processes as well as strategic decisions, and will make a decisive contribution to realizing growth-related and synergetic potentials in your company. The particular focus here is on the subjects of digitization, Agile methods, and cutting-edge strategy approaches.

Together with the instructors, you will discuss and work on practice-oriented solutions, including with respect to the following questions:

• How can framework conditions for creative and innovative work be designed, particularly in the context of increasing digitization and Agile methods?
• How can the process of idea selection and evaluation be designed to be effective and efficient?
• How is an innovation strategy established and implemented?
• How are product, service, and business model innovations generated?
• What are the most important methods and KPIs in Innovation Controlling?
• What marketing models can be applied for innovative products and services?
• How can it be ensured that open innovation and the safeguarding of a company’s own industrial property rights on innovative products go hand-in-hand? And how can open innovation be implemented usefully and reliably?
• How can the management responsibility of innovation management be constructively fulfilled? How can employees be “brought on board”, and filled with enthusiasm for innovation-related work?

With our University certification program to become an Innovation Manager (EBS), you will be optimally equipped to face the challenges of the future: Thanks to the innovative blended learning concepts, you will be able to quickly use and implement the knowledge you have gained directly in your own environment. To achieve this, you will work directly on practical examples in three face-to-face modules and two e-Learnings. This process is significantly further supported by information-sharing with other participants and top instructors, as well as experienced practitioners from the field of innovation management.

Face-to-face modules & e-Learnings

Module 1 (2 days)

• Innovation – what is it exactly?
• From brainstorming to design thinking: Idea generation and evaluation

e-Learning 1

• Strategy as a basis for successful innovation work

e-Learning 2

• Introduction of open innovation

Module 2 (3 days)

• Innovation, strategy and digitization: Dealing with a VUCA world
• Successfully managing innovation projects
• People make innovation happen: Achieving successful implementation by taking the human factor into consideration

Module 3 (2 days)

• Managing rather than monitoring innovations – sustainable innovation-Controlling
• Innovation and new ventures
• From the product idea to the successful business model

Certification

Innovation Manager (EBS)

Companies must react to new challenges at increasing speed; problems are becoming more complex and it is difficult to keep an overview of the available knowledge. Major innovations such as Machine Learning, growing data availability and digitization, as well as societal challenges, are challenging all market participants’ power to innovate. These trends are also having their effect on Controlling. Design thinking is a method for developing more creative solutions more efficiently. It makes the customer the focus, meaning that the understanding of the problem from the user perspective is the basis for all developed solutions. In this seminar you will learn how to use the methods of design thinking in projects in the Controlling environment. You will find out which questions in your everyday working life could benefit from design thinking. In practical units, you will fully utilize the creative potential found in short intervals of intensive collaboration in mixed teams. In this process you will be taking positive action rather than just discussing. You will find out how a deep understanding of users and the problem prepares the ground for astoundingly innovative solutions.

• The objective and method behind design thinking
• Running through the design thinking phases: Understand, Empathize, Define; Ideate & Prototype; Experience
• Transfer and discussion: Pragmatic testing of prototypes for usability and user experience; sufficient time for your individual questions

In this seminar you will learn the key Controlling processes in strategic and operational planning and budgeting, management, and control, taking a holistic perspective. You will be able to assess the planning and management process in the company on an integrated basis, identify possible improvement potentials, and take on planning and budgeting tasks that are associated with greater responsibility. Through the discussion of various best practices from corporate planning, you will be able to professionally support the optimization of planning and budgeting in your own company, or critically review existing applications.

• Overall corporate planning structure
• Integrated strategy development process (including simulation of a strategy workshop)
• Strategy communication and implementation
• The need for professional Change Management
• Introduction to value-based management
• Operational planning and budgeting: The structural and procedural organization of planning and budgeting; integrated earnings, balance sheet, and cash flow planning
• Enhancing the efficiency of planning and budgeting by means of advanced budgeting processes