Promote innovation by confronting the key challenges in managing, developing, and expanding technological innovation in highly market-driven companies. Managing innovation requires managing technical professionals.
The future’s big winners in new technology product opportunities are focusing today on increasing innovative activity in preparation for business expansion. Bring this course into your company to further its innovation leadership.
Benefits
Contents
Who Should Attend
Instructor
Hours & Credits
Bring This Course to Your Company to Assume Future Technology Leadership:
Mobilize more effective, motivated, entrepreneurial team efforts
Rapidly commercialize technical advances and innovative ideas
Exercise leadership and decision making under technological and market uncertainty
Develop critical management skills and allocate technical resources in changing organizational and economic environments
Promote and lead system change within established corporate cultures
Leading and Motivating Technical Professionals
Understanding how professionals’ motivations change over time
Designing the task characteristics of a highly motivating work environment
Improving the integration and long term vitality of technical professionals
Managing and dealing with creative ‘mavericks’ and technical professionals who have ‘plateaued’
Managing Uncertainty
Understanding how motivation, innovation, and uncertainty are interrelated
Dealing with risk and uncertainty
Leveraging the creative tension between the generation and reduction of uncertainty
Managing Technology Transfer and Communication
Understanding the role and making effective use of the technology gatekeeper
Recognizing the effectiveness of alternative organizational structures including project, functional, and matrix-type approaches
Overcoming the barriers to transferring technology
Dealing with the effects of physical location and organizational architecture on technical communications and innovation
Staffing the Innovation Process
Moving technical professionals into leadership roles
Recognizing and balancing the critical functions necessary for carrying out innovation
Designing managerial systems, including dual ladder, career assignment, evaluation, reward, and recognition systems
Developing critical skills for reducing new product development cycle time
Commercializing Technical Capabilities
Linking technology with market strategy for successful innovation in the marketplace
Managing the technology/marketing interface and cross-functional relationships
Maintaining creativity in long term technical efforts
Encouraging, protecting, and sponsoring entrepreneurial risk-taking and team efforts
Improving the transfer of technical knowledge into new products and services
Understanding the effects of centralized/decentralized structures on communication and innovation
Managing the Decision Making Process
Managing the tensions between development efforts and schedule pressure
Structuring and leading decision making processes
Involving other functional areas and building consensus
Minimizing the detrimental effects of organization politics
Creating and Maintaining High Performing Technical Organizations
Building collaborative cross-functional teams
Building and sustaining motivation, performance, and innovation over time
Identifying the skills, characteristics, and managerial styles of effective technical leaders
Utilizing ‘marshaling’ events for overcoming the Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome
Using culture to gain high commitment and innovative work climates
Bring this 3-day course in to your company to encourage innovation. Management of Technology and Innovation is specifically designed for cross-functional teams of executives, vice presidents, R&D directors, high-level managers, and senior technical professionals responsible for technology development or the management of innovation for new products or services.
Schedule
Day 1 - 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Day 2 - 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Day 3 - 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Each person attending this course receives a copy of The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation: A Collection of Readings, 2nd ed., by Ralph Katz and The Organization and Architecture of Innovation by Thomas J. Allen and Gunter W. Henn.
Comments from Past Participants
"The Caltech IRC course, Management of Technology and Innovation, was one of the best courses I've attended. Caltech offers world class instructors in a remarkable learning environment. The open discussion format enabled participants from widely different industries to learn from each other. We are often faced with similar challenges regardless of our particular business and it was very helpful to learn how others deal with those challenges."
Edward B. Fritz, P.E. Director, Ride Mechanical Engineering Walt Disney Imagineering "This workshop surpassed my expectations. I wish I had taken this course earlier in my career. It would have made me much more effective as a scientist and as a manager."
Flora Tang Associate Director, Molecular Pharmacology Amgen Inc.