Open Innovation for Leaders

Course Introduction

This Oxford Management Centre Open Innovation for Leaders training course is designed for executives who are focused in creating the business for tomorrow, as well as managing the business of today.  The global business environment is often characterized as VUCA; volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous (‘Bennis and Nannus, 1987). The ability of leaders to steer their teams to innovate, requires not just the management of internal talent and skills – but also a managing of the valuable networks, critical suppliers, and strategic allies outside of the organisation, which is so often are the difference between innovation success or failure.

This Open Innovation for Leaders training course will allow participants to understand the process of Open Innovation, from both the strategic and tactical perspectives, and be able to apply and champion within their organisations. The training course will allow delegates to both confidently add value to senior discussion and to steer the practical planning, discovery, and management of often sensitive and critical business relationships. The training course therefore covers aspects of; strategy and market planning, product and service development, creativity, proposals and negotiations, relationship and partnership management.

This Open Innovation for Leaders training course will highlight:

• Marketing strategy; Reviewing organisational needs & strategic challenges.
• Innovation management; Recognising the horizons and competitive oceans of innovation
• Partnership management; Planning, prospecting, engagement and relationships.
• Creativity and risk; Ideation and discovery, testing and learning, failing quickly.
• Practical steps: Take away and actions, conversations and connections to start.

Objectives

This training course will allow you to be the champion of open innovation within their organisation.

At the end of this Open Innovation for Leaders  training course, you will learn to:

• Understand and apply the essential tools of strategic and environmental scanning and analysis
• Discuss and debate with senior leaders the application of open innovation in organisational plans
• Promote an organisational culture that supports change, creativity and risk to support innovation
• Create a practical plan for sourcing, contracting and managing valuable external relationships
• Lead the development of open innovation plans within your organisation

Training Methodology

This training course is designed for active and motivated senior executives, who are willing to contribute to business debate, and bring their own thoughts to discussions on challenges and opportunities of modern organisational change and innovation. This is a collegiate environment, mixing a relaxed atmosphere with challenging intellectual content. The training course will blend workshop formats that will stimulate and stretch participants, including (but not limited to); formal seminar style presentations, structured discussions, informal debates, along with solo work and group exercises. Workshops will use a mix of printed material, slides, activities and videos.

Organisational Impact

Participants will gain the knowledge and ability to be the champion of open innovation within their organisational context. The organisation will benefit as successful participants will be able to:

• Promote open innovation strategies and the value of external knowledge and relationships
• Explain & present open innovation ideas, tactics, and tools to others across the organisation
• Build the practical steps and actions to kick-start open innovation initiatives and trials
• Support team members and colleagues to explore and grow valuable new relationships
• Encourage a culture of change and managed risk, to explore new opportunities
• Manage the value and commercial impact of open innovation projects

Personal Impact

This Open Innovation for Leaders training course offers substantial professional development opportunities for the individual too. Participants will benefit from:

• Greater personal confidence in discussing topics of organisational strategy and planning
• Greater personal confidence in discussing topics of innovation, creativity and change
• An appreciation of innovation contexts and challenges from other industries, cultures & organisations
• An ability to become respected as their organisational champion and business lead for open innovation
• An opportunity to extend their executive and leadership abilities and skills
• Valuable contacts with participants from across industries and organisations

Who Should Attend?

This training course is relevant for any manager or executive who is tasked now or is expected to be involved in the future with projects that require innovation, business and service development and organisational change. Participants could attend from across the organisation, as innovation impacts not just strategic planning, marketing and business development, but units such as operations, human resources, finance and legal. 

This Open Innovation for Leaders  training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• General Managers and Executives responsible for leading innovation & change
• Project Managers
• Business Development Managers
• Business Unit Leaders and Commercial Managers
• Marketing Managers (Product and Service Managers)
• Relationship, Partnership and Contract Managers

Course Outline

DAY 1

Marketing Strategy

• Introduction
• VUCA challenge 2020’s: Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic and Ambiguous
• Organisational changes, cultural challenges & technology rules
• Strategic awareness: Sensing and responding
• Environmental scanning: The classic tools of strategic conversation
• Context and perspective: Tuning in your radar.

DAY 2

Innovation Management

• The need for innovation and change – global, local, personal
• Innovation theories and plans
• Understanding innovation horizons
• Understanding the red and blue oceans
• Business canvas part 1:  Challenging the business model

DAY 3

Partnership Management

• Principles of adaptive leadership – Managing internal and external relations
• Open innovation – Industries & loose connections to networks & alliances
• Relationship objectives: From scanning to prospecting
• Relationship development: From cold contact to simple steps
• Relationship management: Measuring valuable relationships
• Relationship map part one: Identifying value and opportunity

DAY 4

Creativity and Risk

• Creative culture – Connecting and collaboration
• Creative culture – Conflict and change
• Design thinking – Discovery, testing, learning and agile methods
• Risk and creativity – Failing quickly and encouraging experiments
• Open innovation – Your organisational thinking

DAY 5

Practical Steps

• Open innovation – Your opportunities and challenges
• Business canvas part two:  Changing the business model
• Relationship map part two: SWOT and TOWS
• Leading positive change – Stop, start and keep
• Final discussion