When companies launch Box 3 innovation initiatives, they typically allot most of their time and energy to the thrilling hunt for the breakthrough idea. That much-ballyhooed burst of inspiration is merely a starting point. The real innovation challenge lies beyond the idea. It lies in a long, hard journey—from imagination to impact.
About the course
In this course, part of the Leading Innovation Professional Certificate program, Vijay Govindarajan (VG) reveals how to execute a Box 3 innovation initiative. The crux of the challenge is that business organizations are not designed for innovation; they are designed for ongoing operations. And there are deep and fundamental conflicts between the two.
This course is based on the frameworks and ideas from The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation book. Using three modules, VG shows you how to:
- Build the right team for your innovation initiative: Determine who will be on the team, how it will be structured, and how it can partner with ongoing operations. Anticipate and prevent conflicts.
- Run a disciplined experiment: Test assumptions, translate results into new knowledge, and measure progress.
The content of this course is relevant for a large corporation, a mid-size business, a startup or a nonprofit organization. Because innovation is a team sport, the course is useful for individuals who intend to advance careers in R&D, Engineering, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales, Service, Human Resources, Accounting, and Finance.
What you will learn
By the end of this course, you will cover:
- Module 1 - Overcome the Forgetting Challenge: Building a Dedicated Team for the Box 3 innovation initiative;
- Module 2 - Overcome the Borrow Challenge: Creating a healthy partnership between the Dedicated Team and the Core Business and managing the resulting conflicts;
- Module 3 - Overcome the Learn Challenge: How to amplify weak signals and test critical assumptions that are inherent in Box 3 experiments.
About the instructor
Vijay Govindarajan, known as VG, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling author, is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and innovation. He is the Coxe Distinguished Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College (US), a new Dartmouth-wide faculty chair. He was the first Professor in Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant at General Electric. He worked with GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt to write “How GE is Disrupting Itself”, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article that pioneered the concept of reverse innovation – any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world. HBR picked reverse innovation as one of the Great Moments in Management in the Last Century. In the latest Thinkers 50 Rankings, Govindarajan is rated the #1 Indian Management Thinker. VG is a two-time winner of the prestigious McKinsey Award from Harvard Business Review. His latest book is Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation.
Duration: 3 weeks, 3-5 hours per week
Language: English
Instructor: Vijay Govindarajan
Institution: Dartmouth College
