B Schools need to significantly improve their curriculum and pedagogy to create managers who can innovate in this way.
If there is any doubt about it, the events of the last two years have confirmed that we are indeed living in a turbulent, uncertain, complex and obscure world. This type of environment requires managers, whether they work in established companies or start-ups, to respond quickly and creatively to these VUCA opportunities and threats. These responses usually take the form of innovative solutions that need to be repeated quickly. B Schools need to significantly improve their curriculum and pedagogy to create managers who can innovate in this way. To date, B schools have offered their students thematic courses in AI, Analytics, FinTech and Digital Marketing. Tomorrow, B schools will jump on top of each other to offer courses, be it quantum computing or virtual reality or the next hot technology. While exposure to emerging technologies is indeed important, it is equally important that students develop the basic innovative abilities that can transcend the cascading waves of technology. There are five courses that can build this basic ability in B school participants.
Entrepreneurial initiative
2021 has been a watershed year for the Indian start-up ecosystem with a total value of ইউ 82.1b including 42 unicorns. With a blockbuster IPO, Nykaa has shown that there is no age to start a business and move it forward. The success of Falguni Nair can inspire millions of dreamers. In fact, Google noted that more research was being done on how to start a business in 2021 than on how to find a job. A good entrepreneur-venturing course will immerse students in the entrepreneurial process and ecosystem from seed funding to IPO, and provide practical solutions to prototype, refine and pitch emerging opportunities in front of their actual investors. Importantly, this course will develop an entrepreneurial orientation or mindset – a unique blend of risk-taking, thrift and passion for innovation – that will benefit students throughout their careers even if they choose not to be entrepreneurs.
Corporate Venturing / Entrepreneurship
Innovation is not just the domain of start-up enterprises; Established companies need to constantly redesign themselves. Although digital transformation, which is much more focused today, is a form of innovation, the right integration and acquisition to explore new solutions and opportunities, new market entry strategies, to include new organizational forms for incubation. Managing tensions between old and new businesses. In India, TATA exemplifies this multifaceted approach – digitally transforming their core businesses, acquiring next-generation businesses like 1MG, and vigorously pursuing international expansion. Entrepreneurship shares some similarities with entrepreneurs, but is different enough for their own study qualifications.
Product management
In both entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship, product management has emerged as a key driver of innovation. Product management is the process of managing the life cycle of product innovation – from conception to continuous improvement and sunset. As a process, product management is ultimately a cross-functional effort, sorted by product manager. LinkedIn showcases 34,000+ opportunities for product management jobs in India, and Glassdore rates its product manager role as one of the most ambitious in the world. Moreover, in addition to the product manager, many players in other functions such as UX design, marketing and operations participate in the product management process. Therefore, an understanding of product management and related concepts such as product marketing and product management is mandatory for any manager working in innovation economics, regardless of their effective affiliation.
The dynamics of complex systems
Skills in socio-technological system design are required to develop innovative solutions that work in the real world. Systems thinking reflects the effects of social and environmental externals or managerial actions. System dynamics, introduced by MIT Professor J. Forrester, since 1950, although it has never become mainstream in Indian B schools. The growing popularity of complex and chaotic theories, beginning in the 90s and turning into the 2008 financial crisis, has brought back issues of complex adaptive systems and concepts such as feedback loops and tipping points back into the conversation. But the recent epidemic seems to have really highlighted the importance of system thinking. Fortunately, some of the barriers that hinder the broader adoption of business system dynamics policy, such as the need to understand non-linear programming, have been addressed with an emerging generation tool. Many B schools correctly teach design thinking as an innovation enabler. Now it’s time to run the thinking system in the curriculum.
History of Innovation
Innovation requires a deep understanding of lateral thinking and human aspirations and the social and economic parameters that people work on. There is a growing consensus that B schools and engineering schools need to integrate liberal arts into their curricula. One way to do this is through the study of history. The American philosopher Santana pointed to history as a source of learning. Studying the history of innovation is interesting because it is possible to establish innovation against a long-term pressure, to understand the interaction between innovation and society, and to appreciate the often unintended consequences of the spread of technology and innovation. Ultimately, innovation should be aimed at making a positive impact on society and our planet. It is necessary to guard the railway of history and philosophy for wise innovation.