Industry leaders recognize the need to invest in innovation to remain competitive and grow in times of rapid change.
However, building a coherent strategy, overcoming internal frictions, marshalling resources and bringing new offerings to market all while managing current operations, represent serious challenges in many settings.
To address these challenges, The Innovation Village, in partnership with CEO Summit, has organized a three-day online course to equip executives with the much-needed innovative skills to push their organizations forward.
The course that will run from July 28 to July 30, 2021, is expected to equip participants with skills on how to drive organizational change and apply these skills to the unique challenges and opportunities of their business context.
Innovation essential to post-COVID-19 recovery
Japheth Kawanguzi, the Team Lead at The Innovation Village says that the training is timely and relevant as businesses come to terms with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many businesses have been affected during the pandemic and now more than ever, innovation is an essential path for effective post-pandemic recovery. But it’s not easy to innovate if you have never had to. That, however, does not take away the pressure to innovate,” he says.
Kawanguzi added: “Organisations rarely articulate strategies to align their innovation efforts with their business strategies. Even the very best organizations will admit to just getting started on their innovation efforts. Research & Development (R&D) in most organizations is not even heard of. This program under our Future Lab is a first step to building a corporate centre for digital ventures, bringing together industry leaders keen to leverage the role innovation plays in business transformation.”
He also said that The Innovation Village would offer the participating executives a digital hub for demo days, round tables, challenges, and matchmaking sessions to scale their innovation aspirations.
The course, which includes three days of online executive education and networking with innovation Leaders as well as interactive classes on corporate innovation and workshops to apply content to real-life scenarios will be conducted by Simon Mawer, an Innovation Strategist. He doubles as CEO and Founder of Blue Wren Advisors.
Blue Wren Advisors is an international innovation firm that helps impact-driven organisations transform in times of rapid change.
Simon has over 15 years’ experience partnering with corporate leaders to design and catalyze innovation strategies that meet their current goals, create new sources of future value and ultimately achieve measurable impact for the stakeholders they serve.
Previously, Simon worked as an Innovation Manager at Plug and Play, the world’s largest corporate innovation platform and most active venture capital firm.
Commenting about the training, Simon Mawer, the program instructor said that while innovation was often viewed as a buzzword, leading companies understand that it’s the engine room for growth in a fast-changing marketplace.
Airtel Africa and SpaceX Announce Strategic Partnership to Launch Starlink Direct to Cell Connectivity Across Africa“This course is about equipping tomorrow’s leaders to learn how to keep pace on a global scale, recognise opportunities for value creation and guide their organisation to anticipate and seize them,” he said.
Martha Arinaitwe Rukare, Innovation Strategy Lead at The Innovation Village, will co-facilitate the training.
Martha, holds an MBA from Heriot-Watt and a bachelor’s degree in Development Economics from Makerere University. She previously worked at Ernst & Young, rising to the level of Senior Associate, before joining Laboremus Uganda as a business analyst. It is from there that she joined The Innovation Village. Throughout her career, she has been at the forefront of crafting innovation strategies for companies in order to enable them meet their current and future needs, generate new sources of value and achieve measurable results and impact for the stakeholders they serve.
Martha says that with the accelerating pace of change and the threat of disruption becoming the new normal, companies need to have a focused approach to innovation.
“In this program, you will learn how to drive innovation and develop winning strategies for your organisation,” she says.
The course rates are; $800 for individuals, $2,250 for a group of 3 and $3,600 for a group of 5 people in an organisation.
The course will deliver key lessons in strategy, structure, resources, processes and metrics.
Strategy
- Defining the innovation vision and strategy for your organisation
- Building a balanced portfolio of innovation activities
- Crafting a change management plan for your organisation
Structure
- Structuring & aligning innovation programs
- Establishing governance and decision making
- Navigating key trade-offs from different models
Resources
- Building an innovation culture across an organisation
- Diagnosing cultural issues
- Creating long-lasting & effective change
Processes
- Creating an innovation pipeline
- Designing a problem-solution-fit idea for your organisation
Metrics
- Understanding organizational change models
- Applying appropriate KPIs and metrics for POCs and pilots
- Calculating and communicating return on innovation
