Innovation Residency Week

At the beginning of the second year, students convene for one week of daylong coursework in new venture creation and product innovation. Students stay at a hotel on the Country Club Plaza.

New Venture Creation and Product Innovation & Managing a High-Growth Business is a two-course sequence that brings together the several disciplines students have encountered in their first year of the Executive M.B.A. Program curriculum. The objective is to help the student gain experience in new venture creation and product innovation management.

A management simulation serves as a continuing, evolving “case” in which course participants working in teams assume “CEO” roles. Within the simulation game, students will start a new business, develop and execute business strategy and plans, build the business, execute true-to-life new venture creation decisions, and compete with other students in a virtual business world. Teams will:

           define market opportunities and select target segments

             conduct relevant marketing analyses
 

           design new products and reposition existing products
 

    establish price, promotion, advertising, sales force, and R&D policy to support new and existing products
 

           conduct marketing research
 

           allocate and manage resources
 

           coordinate marketing programs and operations capabilities
 

           manage plant capacity and finished goods inventories.
 

In addition, participants cope with the usual range of issues that arise in the context of teamwork. The simulation game is based on the highly competitive environment where firms compete with multiple brands in several countries.

During the second year of the Executive MBA program, students take a two-course sequence covering the entrepreneurial and innovation process.

Creating and Managing an Enterprise I & II (a two-course sequence) covers the entrepreneurial and innovation process from conception to birth of the new business. It looks at both process and people involved in assessing ideas, exploiting opportunities, and converting concepts into high-growth businesses. Students identify opportunities for high-growth potential new enterprises, develop a business plan, and present their plans to a panel of potential investors. Topics covered include organization form, funding sources, the start-up team and the product launch.  Taught by Dr. Michael Song, the syllabi for Creating and Managing an Enterprise I and Creating and Managing an Enterprise II are available for review.