Innovation is a hot topic. Governments emphasise its central role in the future prosperity of the global economy. Presidential candidates describe it as powering the American Dream and place it at the heart of America’s success as an economic superpower. Corporations tout it as the panacea for their competitive malaise.

If innovation is so important, it should also be high on the agenda of every business school; a firm fixture on the MBA curriculum. Yet for many people, the term “innovation” conjures up images of creative genius, brainstorming sessions, remarkable inventions, scientists in white coats, Archimedes, his bath and the eureka moment. Can such a mysterious, nebulous concept as innovation be taught?

Fortunately, innovation is rather prosaic in reality and, despite much misunderstanding, easily defined. “A new idea in the laboratory, or in someone’s mind, is just invention,” says Julian Birkinshaw, co-founder of the Management Innovation Lab and professor of strategic and international management at London Business School. “Invention becomes innovation when the idea is exploited for commercial benefit.”

Vijay Govindarajan, professor of international business at the Tuck School at Dartmouth College in America and General Electric’s chief innovation consultant, says: “There is a lot of confusion about the word innovation. People mistake innovation for creativity. To me innovation is commercialising creativity.”

If innovation is easily defined, teaching it is more challenging. Thomas Edison, the great American inventor, said that genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration. So it is with innovation. Edison may be famous for his inventiveness but he also toiled for years at Menlo Park laboratory, creating an environment where the processes of innovation could be allowed to flourish.

“That 99 per cent can be taught,” says Govindarajan. “How do you design the right organisation for innovation, create the right culture, recruit the right people, and allocate the resources for innovative projects?”

Teaching innovation is not like teaching other staple MBA fare, though. Harry Davis, professor of creative management at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, was way ahead of the innovation teaching curve when he created the school’s New Product Laboratory in the 1970s. “My role is more teaching ‘how to’, rather than ‘what to’,” says Davis. “It is more mentor or coach. I help MBAs to use innovation tools in a meaningful way; provide opportunities for students to experience what the innovation process feels like; create a culture and environment where there is minimal fear of expression, that allows creativity and innovation to flourish.”

Keith Goffin, professor of innovation and new product development at Cranfield School of Management, says: “Innovation is an interactive, practical subject. You do not teach people how to develop products just by showing slides and talking about the theory.”

Goffin’s students undertake a project in which teams of MBAs compete to launch the CityCar, a model car controlled by software. The exercise allows MBA students to encounter many of the problems involved in a company-based innovation project.

With any luck, says Govindarajan, a generation of MBA graduates armed with new innovation tools and knowledge will soon be making a real difference to the organisations they work for. “I would score companies five or six on creativity, and one or two on execution,” he says. “Most of the problem lies in commercialising ideas. My message to the MBA graduates is: ‘You are bright, privileged people. Go and improve the score on execution; that is your challenge’.” Design and innovation, page 15

More to innovation than meets the eye

Learning about innovation played a pivotal role in launching Realeyes Data Services, says Mihkel Jäätma, who studied on the MBA programme at Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

Jäätma took an MBA as part of a career-change strategy, switching from fund management in fixed-income funds to running his own business.

“We had several electives focused on entrepreneurship,” he says. “And an important part of that was teaching us about innovation, about the structure and elements you have to think about when you are innovating.”

Realeyes uses infra-red eye-tracking technology, enabling Jäätma to analyse the way people look at webpages and e-mails. He can then advise clients how to optimise their webpage design and e-mail campaigns.

“One of the most valuable things I took away from the MBA was that innovation is not necessarily a piece of technology, or a new solution,” says Jäätma. “Other aspects of innovation are also important, such as partnership and collaboration, getting the idea to market and understanding the needs of the customers.”

The MBA programme also encouraged Jäätma to consider using a novel network-based business model. “Realeyes would not have happened without those MBA electives,” he says.

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