Leading Product Innovation
Companies that continually excel at creating new products know how to innovate effectively—even in times of economic uncertainty. Focused on the core challenges of managing product development in unpredictable markets, this program prepares you to develop innovative products and processes by identifying and leveraging new opportunities. You will leave with the latest tools and strategies to manage today's diverse risks and to position your company for future success.
What You Can Expect
In an economic downturn, product development executives are challenged to do more with less, yet still keep their companies at the forefront of innovation. By balancing corporate strategy with effective execution, this leadership training program presents new methodologies and tools to help you manage product development day to day—and to help your company sustain competitive advantage over the long term.
Your Course of Study
Focused on the practices of today's most successful companies, this rich learning experience offers new insights into a wide range of product development challenges and opportunities. You will explore new approaches to aligning product development with corporate strategy, reinventing strategic innovation systems, assessing disruptive technologies, and managing risk.
Who Is Right for the Program
Designed for leaders responsible for new products and services, this HBS Executive Education program is suited for vice presidents, directors, and other senior managers in a variety of functional business areas. Cross-functional or intradepartmental teams may apply.
| Fee: | $8,500 |
View other innovation programs
The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
Programs, dates, fees, and faculty are subject to change.
In accordance with Harvard University policy, Harvard Business School does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, veteran status, or disability in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.
What You Can Expect
Leading Product Innovation improves your ability to execute company strategy by leveraging effective product development. While difficult economic times may cause some executives to cut budgets and rely on traditional approaches, this HBS Executive Education program will help you recognize the opportunities economic disruption presents for reinventing your innovation systems, retooling your processes, and thinking outside the box. You will leave with new insights that help you manage innovation-driven development to gain competitive advantage for your company. Specifically, you will be better able to:
- Create focused product plans aligned with your firm's strategy
- Recognize and create new opportunities for product innovation
- Design a development strategy for deciding which projects to pursue
- Leverage disruptive and open innovation models
- Reduce the time it takes to bring new products to market
- Reevaluate your product portfolio as financial and market conditions evolve
- Tap into customers as sources of innovation
- Approach each project as an opportunity to develop new capabilities
- Build and motivate a development team that continues to learn from experience and improve its processes
- Get more value out of sustaining technologies
- Develop experimentation capabilities within your organization
How Will My Organization Benefit?
Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School are a significant investment for both you and your organization. Going far beyond the basic transmission of skills and theories, each leadership development program provides applicable lessons in the classroom that can be implemented successfully within your organization. You will acquire a fresh perspective on global business from our groundbreaking curriculum, world-renowned faculty, and an accomplished group of elite peers from around the world.
"Leading product innovation is a critical component of my job. This course was instrumental in providing me with a toolkit and the theoretical framework to apply immediately in my day-to-day work."
Blackford Middleton, M.D. [Corporate Director, R&D], Partners Healthcare System, Inc., U.S.
Your Course of Study
Through dynamic faculty lectures, classroom discussions, real-world case studies, and small group activities, Leading Product Innovation explores new ways of thinking about the product development process. As you become familiar with a carefully designed set of methodologies and tools, you will tailor a coherent and consistent approach for innovating your development processes, products, and services. You will return better prepared to manage innovation-driven development, achieve strategic goals, and gain corporate advantage.
The comprehensive curriculum for this leadership development program is built around five integrated sections:
Leading Product Innovation
- Improving the product development process
- Creating projects to explore and build new technical capabilities
- Transferring learning across projects and managing knowledge flows
Linking Strategy to Product Innovation
- Aligning product innovation plans with business strategy
- Designing a portfolio of projects to ensure long-term success
- Reevaluating project portfolios as financial and market conditions evolve
- Building skills for R&D and execution, and balancing the two to meet current and future needs
- Creating and developing heavyweight cross-functional teams
Leveraging and Managing Disruptive Technologies
- Understanding how disruptive technologies affect product development strategy and execution
- Building the capability to anticipate and respond to emerging technical trends
- Managing the tension between radical and incremental innovation
- Designing organizations that can exploit disruptive change
Designing an Effective Product Development Process
- Identifying customer requirements and generating alternative solutions
- Implementing concurrent engineering and rapid problem-solving techniques
- Unlocking the potential of new experimentation technologies
- Designing flexibility into the product innovation process
Managing Risk and Uncertainty
- Ensuring that innovation continues in times of shrinking budgets and resources
- Building project teams that can learn and adapt to new information
- Establishing early warning systems to identify environmental changes that may impact product development projects
- Leveraging networks and ecosystems to share risks and increase reach
- Utilizing academic research and corporate venturing to tap into external knowledge sources
Who Is Right for the Program
This HBS Executive Education program is intended for senior managers in diverse companies, industries, and countries who have project responsibility for product and service development. Leading Product Innovation has particular relevance for vice presidents, directors, and other senior managers in a variety of functional business areas, including:
- Research and product development
- Engineering
- Product management
- Marketing
- Operations
- Finance
- Strategy
Because successful integration between product development and other key business functions can contribute significantly to product development effectiveness, HBS encourages companies to send cross-functional or intradepartmental teams of four to six managers. When leaders share a common vocabulary and a set of action frameworks, their organizations reap the benefits of faster, more effective implementation.
Visit the admissions section for details about our application process.
Past Participants Represented:
| Industries | Nationalities | ||||
| 15% | Chem/Pharm/Bio | 2% | Africa | ||
| 2% | Communications | 7% | Asia | ||
| 9% | Consumer Products | 2% | Australia/NZ | ||
| 4% | Financial | 21% | Europe | ||
| 21% | High Technology | 5% | Latin America | ||
| 19% | Manufacturing | 2% | Middle East | ||
| 3% | Nonprofit | 60% | North America | ||
| 2% | Other | 1% | Other | ||
| 6% | Other Services | ||||
| 6% | Professional Services | ||||
| 3% | Raw Materials/Energy | ||||
| 1% | Real Estate/Construction | ||||
| 2% | Retail Services | ||||
| 7% | Utilities/Telecommunications | ||||
Participating Companies Have Included:
|
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. |
Lucent Technologies, Inc. |
Meet the Program Faculty
Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Leading Product Innovation is taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.
Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.
Clayton M. Christensen, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Technology and Operations Management and the General Management Units.
Karim R. Lakhani, Assistant Professor of Business Administration and Richard Hodgson Fellow. Member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit.
Daniel C. Snow, Assistant Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit.
Stefan H. Thomke, William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration. Chair, MBA required curriculum. Member of the Technology and Operations Management Unit; and faculty chair of "Leading Product Innovation."