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MBAs Need Innovation NOW! Today's MBAs are increasingly aware of the creativity and flexibility required to stay on top of an intense job market. To help them stay competitive and on an upward trajectory, the first tool they should slip into their belts is an understanding of the discipline of innovation.
Sometimes being an adjunct professor makes you feel like the proudest parent in the universe. I recently received the following e-mail from one of my '05 Georgetown MBA grads, Christine Fernandez, now working at Guidant. "Hello Professor Rae. You would be proud to know that just today one of my teams was working on a user needs assessment exactly like the one you showed us in class, and I could understand the entire process in an instant…after toiling over my project for hours last year!"
The user needs assessment Christine is referring to is the starting point in the design-led innovation process I teach in my second year MBA class. From here the students learn how to invent the future -- designing and testing new concepts; understanding the power of prototyping; building out new business models; and wrapping their offerings with brand equities both real and invented. (To see a short video of a concept born in my "Developing New Products and Services" class, click on associated video here).
RIGHT-BRAIN SKILLS. Some students I've taught over the last five years have told me that the work required in my class has been the most engaging of their B-school career. For once, someone on the faculty is emphasizing creativity, inventiveness, emotional connectedness, and right-brain skills in a business context.
But shouldn't business school, of all places, be teaching innovation process to all of its students, given that they will be tasked with leading companies in the most globally and technologically complex environment of all time? The answer is yes, of course. Many schools are moving down this path by teaching electives on creativity and new product development, but so far "Leading Innovation" hasn't made the list of required courses in any major business school.
This means the message that future managers should possess the capability to lead innovation as a business discipline is lost on the majority of students who are neither willing nor able to make such electives central to their course work. So the status quo continues, with the awkward result that B-schools will remain uncomfortable places to train more "whole-brained" individuals. The left-brained folks will continue to think their analytical abilities are everything they will ever need to be successful.
Georgetown's new dean, George G. Daly, who spent the last 12 years at NYU's Stern School, has recently made innovation one of the strategic pillars for the school. "The ability to understand, lead, and deal with the consequences of innovation will be one of the most important determinants of the success of the next generation of business leaders," he says. "This is why we are making it one of the central themes of our educational programs."
INNOVATION IS INEVITABLE. To get a feel for what my students think of learning about innovation, I recently asked my class for their interpretation of the current buzz on the topic. High-tech veteran Stephanie Stern remarked that "understanding what innovation is prepares you to have a certain amount of flexibility -- the only thing constant is change. To be able to recognize opportunities as you see them and to train yourself to look at the world in new ways and problems in new ways is probably the key. It's not just: 'This is my product; this is my vision.' I think it's broader than that."
Engineering whiz Jennifer Faraci added: "Innovation is inevitable, and we're not going to stop it. We might as well be ahead of the curve and actually ride that wave and see if we can drive it, rather than just waiting for it to happen."
These quotations support the notion that MBA students are aware that competency in innovation management is fundamentally about being ready for the unanticipated "POW!" -- conventionally known as disruption. Students know that disruption and disintermediation, planned or otherwise, will be the rule rather than the exception for the rest of their careers. They get Starbucks, iPod, Jet Blue, Whole Foods, and Google. Recognizing disruption in the making is another matter altogether.
Besides investigating the larger macroeconomic issues, some students are fundamentally curious about how systemic innovation happens. Asked for his five most pressing questions about innovation, Jack Lawrence, a naval academy grad, came up with: How do companies make budget decisions for innovation programs?; How do companies hire for innovation?, How do companies structure their organizations for innovation?, How do companies manage innovation? How do companies mismanage innovation?
NEW FRONTIERS. These are great questions. But I would ask my fellow academics: Do we have the answers? We have opinions that suggest X. There are patterns that suggest Y. But those of us leading the charge in business school education know there is little research to help answer Jack's questions.
Innovation should not be centered solely on product development. The idea that innovation is important isn't new, but it does feel as if we are at the dawn of a new age. The buzz conjured up by business media attention ought to be addressed by leaders who can provide specific answers and direction for thousands of people who are receptive and ready to answer the call.
The trouble right now is that the majority of business leaders -- including the CEOs we are looking to for leadership -- seem to have gaps in their understanding about how to make innovation work in large corporate or institutional environments. This only underscores how important it is that business schools hit the topic hard, so that in 10 or 15 years the gaps can be closed.
Rae is co-founder of Peer Insight LLC, a research and consulting firm focused on service innovation and related topics. She has worked in the field of innovation and design for over 15 years, consulting to dozens of leading companies in a multitude of industries. She's also an adjunct professor of marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Prior to founding Peer Insight, she was a member of the senior management team at design and development firm IDEO
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