4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Innovation is the creation of value from new ideas, concepts, methods, materials, and organizational structures. Life sciences organizations that seek to create value for their stakeholders must do so using available capital resources, including financial capital, human capital, intellectual capital, and physical capital. They should manage those resources to gain leverage and maximize value realized. They then seek to defend and control the value created. Why, then, do most organizations treat innovation (and innovators) in ways similar to the body’s immune system (i.e., by identifying the innovators, isolating them, “killing” them, and ejecting them from the organization? This course will explore innovation, invention, and value creation as a driving force in the biotechnology or life sciences enterprise as well as the ways in which managers should plan to take full advantage of innovation as the only true competitive weapon for long-term success. A special emphasis will be placed on innovation as applied to life science applications (biotechnology, medical devices, health care delivery, drug discovery, development and packaging, bioinformatics, etc.). Topics include invention, ROI, disruption, creative destruction, types of innovation, technology brokering, organizational structures that foster innovation, planning, and managing for innovation. Students are required to read extensively, participate actively in discussions, do case studies, and develop a convincing pitch for an innovation project.