Innovation Strategy

Course Director: Nathan Rietzler

This course is designed for students who wish to learn about innovation—the creative process, the different types of innovation, how innovations are created, and how innovations can be transformed into commercial reality either as new products or new services whether in startups, existing corporations, or nonprofits. It offers students an opportunity to obtain the fundamental insight needed to understand the innovation process and to become a player in it.

For many, entrepreneurship is synonymous with starting a high-tech company. This is a narrow understanding, as this is just manifestations of entrepreneurship. The goal of this class is not to launch the next big business or invent the next iPhone or the coolest app, but rather to understand how innovations in a variety of industries are conceived, vetted, tested, and gives you the tools to identify opportunities and then improve the quality of your ideas, whether you want to pursue an entrepreneurial path or innovate inside an existing firm.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This is a course that will encourage individual critical thinking and your ability to work as part of a team. Individuality and team-orientation is a paradox of founding a start-up and then selecting an entrepreneurial team. Grading will be based on individual work and the group output. You do not need a business idea before the course.

This course is geared to: 1) those who want to pursue an entrepreneurial career and are taking this course to develop and pursue a business idea; 2) those interested in a career path in business innovation, whether it’s in a new venture or innovating inside a larger firm (i.e. intrapreneurs); 3) those who are curious about a career in entrepreneurship and innovation and want to better understand what it entails and explore if it fits well with their inherent personality and talents.

**COURSE OVERVIEW **

The concept of innovation has gained a prominent position in both academic literature and management practice for a good reason: innovation fuels business growth and success, especially if the innovation process is clearly understood and executed.

In the course, we will explore:

• Innovation processes for startups and corporations.
• Definition and types of innovation.
• Design thinking and customer centered design.
• Developing value propositions.
• How to segment customers in a target market.
• Market research: turning customer input into innovation.
• The role of and reasons for prototyping.

The course is heavily participative and experiential in nature. The learning of the concepts listed above will happen not only through traditional lecturing, but also through student individual work (on cases of real companies and startups in high-growth industries) and group projects based on field research, experimentation, and validation.

No matter what your primary specialization and career aspirations are, the course is essential in understanding the role of innovation in business. During the course, you will get an opportunity to acquire the holistic perspective of innovation from learning best practices to practicing the concepts on your own innovation project.

Course administrators: Karl.Strelis@hhs.se, alexandra.svahn.alberts@hhs.se

The overall intended learning outcome for Innovation Strategy is that, upon completing the course, students should be able to understand and apply the core principles and processes of innovation — from identifying opportunities to validating and bringing them to market — both from a practical and theoretical perspective.

More specifically, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate in writing their ability to…
   • Recognize and evaluate innovation opportunities across different industry contexts, for both new ventures and established firms.
   • Understand and apply design thinking approaches to problem identification and solution development.
   • Analyze customer needs and the potential value of a new offering and translate those insights into compelling value propositions.
   • Segment a target market, assess the attractiveness of different segments, and develop a focused go-to-market strategy.
   • Evaluate and design business models suited to new ventures and corporate innovators, and articulate how these models create, deliver, and capture value.
   • Assess the role of experimentation and prototyping in reducing risk and building evidence for innovation decisions.
   • Position an innovation within its broader ecosystem, including the role of corporate accelerators, open innovation, and external partnerships.
2. Apply frameworks and methods from innovation and entrepreneurship to analyze real-world cases and generate actionable recommendations.
3. Collaborate effectively in a team to research, ideate, prototype, and present an original innovation project, demonstrating a structured and critical approach to developing new ideas.

General entry requirements.

Find the course schedule in TimeEdit

Have you been granted educational support because of a documented disability? If so, please contact the course director as soon as possible so that adequate accommodations can be made.

Contact specialneeds@hhs.se if you have questions about being granted educational support or need a copy of your educational support certificate.

For more information, visit the Specific Educational Needs page on the Student Hub (login required).