Welcome, great that you have chosen to follow our MOOC on innovation management.

What do you already know about innovation managements? What is the first thing that
comes to your mind when you think of innovation? You may think of a product like a
smartphone or game computer or service innovation like Uber. Maybe you were
thinking of a person an entrepreneur like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk or were you
thinking about a process like crowdfunding? All this has to do with innovation.
Innovation involves the creation of new products, services, processes, and business
models by firms and other organizations. They all serve a purpose which can be
commercial, social, or practical of nature. We don't innovate to innovate. All we
do innovation is oriented on a goal like solving a problem or fulfilling a societal
or market needs. It's an interesting topic because it determines the future of
organizations. Organizations will not survive if they don't innovate to keep up or
catch up with competitors. However, innovating is no guarantee for success.
Innovations need to be managed. You can have a great innovative idea, but if it's
not implemented correctly or even at the right time, it can fail and even bring you
damage. For example, Kodak, once market leader in analog photography, invented the
very first digital camera. However, they waited too long to commercialize it and
were overtaken by their competitors. Our MOOC consists of six modules. This will
provide you with an overview of innovation management. You will gain a thorough
understanding of the basics of innovation management. We will take you through the
entire innovation process step by step. This is done by my colleagues from the
Innovation Management section at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus
University and they will share their expertise with you. Next to that, you will
also see me back. Each module starts with a short video, by me, explaining where we
are in the process and introducing the topics of that particular module. You will
also see me back at the end of each module summarizing what has been discussed and
making a connection to the coming module. Take a look at this visualization of
innovation management. We will address all elements of this module in the MOOC. In
the first module, we will start with explaining the importance of innovation
management. We will discuss the paradoxes of innovation and we will provide you
with the understanding of the basic concepts in innovation managements. These basic
concepts will help you to better understand the information in the following
modules. Module two. Concerns innovation strategy, which determines the direction
of the organization. The innovation strategy direct when, where, and how to
innovate. We will also talk about challenges of innovating in ecosystems, where,
for example, different products are related to each other. In module three, we will
discuss creativity. In which first ideas and concepts for innovations are being
identified. We will look at the sources of these ideas and concepts in the forms of
creativity and idea management systems. Module four. We will dive deeper into the
prioritization and selection of ideas. We will focus on different methods and
challenges to select ideas and ways to protect ideas once selected. Module five.
Will be about the implementation of innovation. Here we will compare two methods to
execute and implement innovations. In the final module, we will look at the people
in the organization. You will also see that organizations can innovate at different
levels. To follow this MOOC you don't need any entry requirements. You just need
some basic knowledge of Business Administration or know how businesses work.
Besides videos, the learning process also involves exercises which we recommend you
do. This stimulates active learning. I wish you an exciting time studying our MOOC
and we look forward to receiving your answers to the assignments. Have a nice
journey into the world of innovation managements.