Course Details

This course is appropriate for a wide range of professionals but not limited to:

• Heads of Strategy and Corporate Development
• Innovation Managers and Directors
• Product and R&D Portfolio Managers
• C-suite members overseeing growth and transformation

• Expert-led sessions with dynamic visual aids
• Comprehensive course manual to support practical application and reinforcement
• Interactive discussions addressing participants’ real-world projects and challenges
• Insightful case studies and proven best practices to enhance learning

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Articulate a clear, measurable Innovation Strategy that supports the overall corporate strategy.
• Design and manage an Innovation Portfolio balanced across core, adjacent, and transformational initiatives.
• Establish the necessary governance, funding, and resource allocation models for innovation.
• Identify and secure the necessary internal and external partnerships for innovation delivery.
• Develop a strategic innovation pipeline and an effective stage-gate process.
• Define and track appropriate metrics for innovation success (e.g., innovation revenue, learning velocity).

DAY 1

Setting the Innovation Context

• Welcome and introduction
• Pre-test
• Defining innovation strategy: Why it must be deliberate and separate from R&D
• Analyzing the competitive environment and identifying disruptive threats
• The strategic gap: Where the current business plan falls short
• Case studies of successful and failed innovation strategies

DAY 2

Formulating the Innovation Strategy

• Identifying strategic areas for innovation (arenas)
• Defining the "Innovation Ambition" and risk profile
• Allocating resources across the Three Horizons of Growth (Core, Adjacent, Transformational)
• Aligning innovation strategy with customer needs and market trends

DAY 3

Portfolio Management and Governance

• Designing the Innovation Portfolio for strategic balance and risk mitigation
• Establishing an effective governance structure (Innovation Board/Council)
• The stage-gate process: From idea generation to scaling
• Funding models for innovation: Dedicated budgets, venture capital, and seed funds

DAY 4

Execution and Ecosystem Building

• Building internal innovation capabilities (talent, process, culture)
• Developing an external innovation ecosystem (partnerships, academia, M&A)
• Managing the transition from successful pilot to full-scale commercialization
• Overcoming internal resistance and organizational antibodies

DAY 5

Measuring and Sustaining Innovation

• Defining and tracking effective innovation metrics (leading vs. lagging)
• Techniques for measuring the value of "learning" and validated failure
• Creating a plan for continuous review and adaptation of the strategy
• Post-test
• Certificate ceremony