Weight: 20% (includes 15% for the written report and 5% for presentation)

 The course project will entail:

1. Analyzing a change and innovation management situation facing a company, and
2. Describing (as well as sometimes developing or suggesting) responses to managing innovation processes based on the learning from the course.

Group formation

You will be required to work in groups of 3-4 in order to complete this assignment. Each group will be asked to:

• Produce a detailed report (15%) and
• Deliver a presentation of its analysis as well as recommendations in class (5%)

There are many benefits from working in a team, including access to a greater pool of time, resources and individual skills. Each member of the team will receive the same grade for the written report and the presentation. To prevent social loafing, students in teams experiencing problems with the level of commitment of individual members are required to submit a Peer Evaluation form to the instructor.Marks will be deducted for individual team members who do not live up to the group’s expectations.

PROJECT DETAILS

1. Choosing a company
2. As a group, your first task is to choose a company

• You MUST choose a company from the list of 2015 Fortune 500Global Companies- available by accessing: http://fortune.com/global500/

2. Obtaining instructor approval
   • Theappropriate project will be selected in consultation with your instructor. You must obtain my approval prior to beginning work on your project!
   • Once the entire group has agreed on a company, you must delegate ONE group member responsible for informing the instructor of the group’s choice. Email your choice to me.
   • Have at least one alternative choice – in case your 1^st choice is not approved.
   • If two groups choose to analyze the same company, the first group to approach the professor regarding their choice will receive approval. Second group must find an alternative company for their analysis.

3. Analyzing the innovationmanagement process
   • Research your chosen company.
   • Obtain as much detail as possible. If possible, attempt to collect primary data.
   • Analyze the data (i.e., company/ innovation) keeping in mind the concepts and frameworks covered throughout the course (i.e., Pentathlon Framework). Make sure you undertake a comprehensive analysis. Do not focus exclusively on the five major elements of the Pentathlon framework (i.e., ideas, implementation, etc.); rather, be sure to include other concepts/ideas mentioned in class (e.g., creativity as related to individuals/teams).

4. Writing the report

The report should represent the combined effort of all group members and must include an executive summary, a table of content, background of the company, body of the report (analysis of the issues), recommendations, references and appendices.

 Executive Summary

An executive summary is a 2-3 pages (max) overview of the report with a particular focus on the analysis of the issues, conclusions and recommendations.

Table of content

The table of content contains all the sections and subsections of the report, together with respective pages numbers, and is generated automatically in MS Word.

 Background of the company

• Describe the company
• Briefly describe the innovation trends observed in your chosen company (product, service, process, business model, etc.)
• Note: Keep in mind the fact that your audience may not be familiar with your chosen company; therefore, a certain amount of detail needs to be embedded in your introduction.

 

Body of the report

It is imperative that your papers address in detail the five elements of the Pentathlon Framework and how they are utilized within the company to effectively or ineffectively manage a change/ innovation process.  The change can be either a new product, service or both depending upon the company you have chosen. At a minimum, make sure to address all 5 elements of the Pentathlon framework (i.e., innovation strategy, ideas, prioritization, implementation, people and organization)

NB: depending on the chosen company, you may not be able to find a lot of data on certain elements of the Pentathlon (e.g., strategy or prioritization). In such cases, please provide your best/educated guess. If this is the case, however, please make sure to specify it in your paper.

Related issues: In addition to the major elements of the Pentathlon, we are also covering a series or related issues/concepts. You will be required to address a minimum of five of them. It is up to you to choose which adjacent/related concepts to pursue in your project. Examples include:

1. Innovation drivers
2. Dimensions of innovation present
3. Technology
4. Individual vs. team creativity
5. Managing knowledge

 

 

Conclusions and recommendations

Make sure your conclusions and recommendations logically flow from your analysis. What is the company doing well in terms of innovation management? What can be done better or differently?

 

References (on a separate page)

You are expected to use a minimum of five (5) sources in writing the project. All sources must be dated after 2009 (unless they are seminal pieces of work). The textbook does not count as a source. There is no shortage of sources on practically any topic. However, extreme care must be exercised as many unreferenced, undated, and even unnamed sources, freely available in the Web, are of questionable quality. You must use academic, refereed, and credible sources such as found in Library databases. If in doubt, contact me. Use in-text citations and make sure all sources used are included in the list of reference and format your references according to the APA guidelines.

 

Appendices

• At a minimum, you will be required to include one appendix (i.e., Appendix A).
• Appendix A should include a list of every group member’s contribution to the report (e.g., person X – wrote section on …; person Y – editing; person Z – research and gathering data on…, etc.)

 

 

 

 
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