Strategic Innovation: Building and Sustaining Innovative Organizations
I have an annual “unlimited” membership for Coursera, which tends to come in handy for my analytics continuing education. Having a buffet plan gives me the opportunity to wander into other pastures, though, so I recently started exploring product innovation coursework. A few weeks ago, I found an interesting specialization on Coursera called Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship. With that said, I recently finished the first course in the specialization, titled Strategic Innovation: Building and Sustaining Innovative Organizations.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/strategic-innovation-building-and-sustaining-innovative-organizations/home/welcome
From the course summary:
Innovation strategy is about creating unique value for consumers by delivering a great product that satisfies their needs. At the core of a successful innovation strategy is a great product concept. Product is an all-encompassing term that includes physical goods, intangible services, and even ideas. There are three pillars to a successful product strategy: a clear understanding of (a) the target customers (WHO), (b) the specific elements of the product offering (WHAT) that satisfies consumer needs and dovetails with company capabilities, and (c) the tactical plans to reach end consumers (HOW). The value proposition has to be embedded in a coherent business model in order to create and capture value. But well-laid innovation plans can go awry without a consideration of the business ecosystem that includes competitors and collaborators, including suppliers, distributors, and retailers, or the contextual environment in which the company operates. In an interdependent world, fostering an integrated ecosystem is critically important for companies interested in maximizing the odds of innovation success.
Upsides:
- The video sections are the highlight here. The professors are clearly knowledgeable in their program area and videos are relatively succinct. Ray Echambadi is a confident presenter, which is a high-level need for MOOCs that are video and audio-heavy.
- The examples of business innovation that were provided are also good highlights of their connected concepts. I’m well aware of model and segment differentiation, but I didn’t even know that DeWalt is owned by Black & Decker, nor did I know that DeWalt’s origin was to eat into Makita’s professional customer segment. I blame my general lack of handyman abilities for that ignorance.
- The three-question quizzes are a godsend compared to the larger essay prompts that some Coursera courses push. Even the open prompts in this course are fairly digestible without having to log-on for several sessions to complete.
Downsides:
- It’s an introductory course, so it’s invariably going to be heavy on simple concepts and keywords. If you have professional experience in strategic innovation, this MMOC is going to feel like a slog. If so, just watch the videos at 1.25x speed.
- Peer-reviewed assignments rear their ugly head once again.
Overall, the downsides to the course relate more to general pains of the introductory nature of the content and the weaknesses of the platform itself. Will you learn much? Probably not, if you’re already active in product innovation; but it is a confidence-builder to hear the professors discuss concepts that you already feel intuitively. My interest is piqued, so I’m going to continue the specialization to the end.
