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Project LAB - Corporate Innovation

Semester 2 · 25576 · Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation · 6CP · EN


The Corporate Innovation Lab (CIL) aims to boost early-stage (or dormant) innovation
projects proposed by a business partner by adopting an entrepreneurial logic. Through this Lab, the innovation projects proposed by business partners are significantly pushed forward to a stage that allows the company to evaluate them regarding business opportunities.
This path of acceleration involves the following steps: Problem validation, Observation and analysis of users’ needs, Exploration of multiple value propositions, Prototyping, Solution validation, Competition and Market Analysis, Business Modelling, Financial analysis, and Pitching the solution to the business partner.

Lecturers: Alessandro Narduzzo

Teaching Hours: 36
Lab Hours: 6
Mandatory Attendance: 75% mandatory presence

Course Topics
Design and management of innovation projects in organizational context, covering a range of the following topics: • Problem understanding and validation • Opportunity validation • Value propositions generation • Prototyping • Business Modelling • Financial analysis • Pitching innovation projects

Teaching format
This project-based course consists of a mix of lectures, students presentations on deliverables, output revisions at various milestones. Parallel to the project's development, specific sessions are dedicated to reflecting on the process from a problem-solving perspective.

Educational objectives
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILO) ILO 1: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ILO 1.a The student acquires advanced knowledge and understanding of models for new product development and innovation management within enterprises; ILO 1.b The student acquires advanced knowledge and understanding of business analysis tools and solutions for the development of innovations and organisational knowledge; ILO 1.c The student acquires advanced knowledge and understanding of innovation economics models and systems for regional innovation development. ILO 2: ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ILO 2.a Ability to acquire and select information that may be relevant from an entrepreneurial point of view, also in economic-productive contexts different from those studied; ILO 2.b Ability to analyse the combination of market opportunities and resources of the enterprise and to identify entrepreneurial formulas, also with the elaboration of original, compatible and sustainable solutions and combinations; ILO 2.c Ability to select business economics models, suitable for the appropriate analysis of a specific economic-social and productive context; ILO 2.d Ability to evaluate the entrepreneurial potential associated with the development of an innovation by a company (learning area 2); ILO 2.e Ability to acquire and select relevant information to frame cases of innovation (product, service, social, managerial organisational), also different from the studied contexts; ILO 2.f Ability to select product development models, suitable to appropriately analyse a specific economic-productive context; ILO 2.g Ability to classify, analyse specific innovations and assess their potential; ILO 2.h Ability to select innovation management and organisational knowledge development models, suitable for a specific economic-social-productive context, such as digital transformation, resilience and sustainability; ILO 2.i Ability to select the tools for innovation management and organisational knowledge development, consistent with the models deemed appropriate; ILO 2.l Ability to propose and implement strategic and operational courses of action to foster the development of innovations by a company; ILO 2.m Ability to assess the potential of an innovation within existing companies compared to the creation of a new company (e.g., intrapreneurship, open innovation, etc.). ILO 3: AUTONOMY OF JUDGEMENT ILO 3.a Acquire the ability to analyse complex entrepreneurial problems, such as the elaboration and evaluation of an entrepreneurial project (business plan) or the development of a new product; ILO 3.b Acquire the ability to make predictions, such as analysing the future consequences of entrepreneurial, managerial and operational choice; ILO 3.c Project-based training is particularly suitable for developing autonomy of judgement with respect to situations and problems typical of innovation management and the creation of new businesses. ILO 3.d Autonomy of judgement is developed in the training activities carried out for the preparation of the thesis, as well as in the exercises that accompany the lectures and that involve group discussions and the comparison of individual analyses carried out by students in preparation for the lecture. ILO 4: COMMUNICATION SKILLS ILO 4.a Acquire the ability to describe and communicate in an intercultural context, in a clear and precise manner, problematic situations typical of the management of a new enterprise and the development of innovation, such as, for example, the conditions for the validation of a problem or solution, the prospects and risks associated with a business model or an innovation project. The development of communication competences assumes heterogeneous situations such as, for example, the presence of internal stakeholders (e.g. colleagues, managers, owners), or external stakeholders (e.g. potential investors, suppliers and other business partners) and the ability to sustain an adversarial process; ILO 4.b The achievement of these objectives is assessed in the course of the training activities already mentioned, as well as in the discussion of the final thesis. ILO 5: LEARNING SKILLS ILO 5.a Acquire the ability to study independently, to prepare summaries; ILO 5.b Acquire the ability to identify thematic connections and to establish relationships between different cases and contexts of analysis; ILO 5.c Acquire the ability to frame a new problem systematically and to generate appropriate taxonomie; ILO 5.d Acquire the ability to develop general models from the phenomena studied.

Assessment
The assessment is based on three major components: 1. Project work (written): written group project reports defined at the beginning of the course (see ILO 1, ILO 2, ILO 3, ILO 4, ILO 5); 2. Oral presentations of the project work, at various steps (see ILO 1, ILO 2, ILO 3, ILO 4, ILO 5); 3. Final individual reflection paper (see ILO 3, ILO 4, ILO 5). The final evaluation is formed on the following elements: 50% based on individual evaluations: • 20% active contribution to project development • 30% final individual reflection paper 50% based on group evaluations: • Reports and presentations due for the course milestones Attendance at and participation in the lectures are obligatory; there is no assessment for students who do not attend. Project work and classroom contributions are valid for one academic year and cannot be carried over beyond that timeframe.

Evaluation criteria
Active contribution to the project development and deliverables (i.e., written reports and oral presentations) related to project milestones, activities, and final individual reflection paper. Criteria for active contribution: • task completion within the deadlines • progress in integrating new content • ability to evaluate the state of the project Criteria for written reports: • clarity of expression • logic and coherence (in terms of structure and arguments) • integration of the various topics • establish logical relationships between sub-topics Criteria for the reflection paper: • relevance and precise formulation of the selected experience • logical and coherent articulation of the argumentations • relevance and completeness of the selected theory • relevance and coherence of the learned lessons Criteria for oral presentation: • clarity of expression • logic and coherence (in terms of structure and arguments) • conveying key messages in a reduced format • mastery of key concepts • attention-getting

Required readings

Banfield, R., Lombardo, C. T., & Wax, T. (2015). Design sprint: A practical guidebook for building great digital products. O’Reilly Media.

Bland, D. J., & Osterwalder, A. (2019). Testing business ideas: A field guide for rapid experimentation. John Wiley & Sons.

Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J., & Kowitz, B. (2016). Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. Simon & Schuster.

Olsen, D. (2015). The lean product playbook: How to innovate with minimum viable products and rapid customer feedback. Wiley.

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., & Smith, A. (2014). Value proposition design: How to create products & services customers want. Wiley.

Patton, J. (2014). User story mapping: Discover the whole story, build the right product. O’Reilly Media.

Thomke, S. H. (2020). Experimentation works: The surprising power of business experiments. Harvard Business Review Press.




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Sustainable Development Goals
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals.

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