Fusion Skills Development 

 

Structured Approaches to Innovation and Research 

"Innovation" occurs within organizations at many levels and in many different circumstances. As researchers, organizational members may make unexpected discoveries, improvements and breakthroughs that may or may not tie to potential that the organization can fruitfully pursue. As engineers, organizational members may be encouraged to explore solutions and improvements based on pre-established organizational goals and limitations – sometimes missing opportunities to take the organization in productive new directions through valuable innovation.

Even organizations that have refined, empowered approaches to innovation must eventually confront the reality that the talents and experiences of the organization are inherently limited and potentially fall short of connecting with the highest value innovations. Further, once a potentially valuable innovation has been un-earthed or proposed, the process of managing, cultivating and enabling the realization of its potential requires a hybrid of creativity and organizational discipline.

Fusion students will be exposed to the process and structure of organizational innovation, examining a range of dynamics and approaches to addressing the problems above.

Students will be instructed in a range of strategies and approaches to structuring and fostering innovation, including:

Methodologies - review and comparison of well-respected methodologies (e.g., TRIZ/Stage gates/ ITM / NABC).

Management Drivers - Examining policy and economic drivers behind Discovery, Design and Structured Innovation.

Governance - Building models for disclosure, collaboration and strategic partnering necessary to drive innovation from concept to product.