Vergelijkbare opleidingen
Opleiding: Executive Master Class in Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Leerdoel
Create new businesses to grow your organisation
The recent economic crisis has made innovation more necessary than ever. Paradoxically, difficult times call for cost-cutting, efficiency gains and prudent investment. But once survival is assured through business optimisation, it becomes essential to prepare for the next round of growth by creating new businesses. Yet, innovation remains a challenge. Companies struggle with disruptive innovation, often ceding leadership to new entrants. New products fail. Inertia slows down competitive response.
The Executive Master Class in Innovation & Entrepreneurship provides those who take an active role in the growth of their organisation through the creation of new businesses with the insights, the knowledge and the tools to understand and master the challenges of innovation. Participants leave the programme with a vision on how to make their organisation more entrepreneurial, improve the way the organisation responds to the challenge of innovation, and how to successfully create new businesses. The programme brings together a vast range of topics – from creativity to product launch, marketing, strategy, portfolio management, financial planning and growth strategy – and takes a results-oriented approach by basing the pedagogy on a hands-on, real-life project launch. Participants become the innovation agents to position their organisation for future growth.
After this programme
By the end of this programme, you will have:
- learned how to turn ideas into successful businesses;
- acquired state-of-the-art knowledge and best practices in innovation and entrepreneurship;
- understood how to create value and growth for your corporate business or start-up through innovation and entrepreneurship;
- learned how to write winning business plans and how these are evaluated;
- become an agent of entrepreneurial change within your organisation.
Doelgroep
This Executive Master Class is an advanced management programme designed for all who are concerned with creating new businesses.
This programme is ideal for:
- executive directors;
- business development managers;
- R&D managers;
- project leaders of innovative projects;
- CTO’s;
- technology transfer officers;
- scientific researchers;
- owners-managers.
Our goal is to have the participants represent a rich diversity of businesses and thus bring a wealth of experience to the programme.
Programma
Opening seminar
MODULE 1: Innovation and Entrepreneurship: What, Why, How?
Key words: innovation, entrepreneurship
This module introduces participants to the main elements of innovation and entrepreneurship theory and practice. The participants discuss what innovation is, how it can be approached, how industry differences affect the innovation process and how service innovation differs from product innovation. Also, a vision is created of what entrepreneurial behaviour really is and how it contributes to transforming ideas into businesses.
Core modules
MODULE 2: Idea Generation & Concept Development
Key words: creativity, inspiration, prototyping
The innovation process may be divided into three areas: idea generation, development, and commercialisation. In this module we focus on the first area. A creativity exercise will generate a variety of ideas in a wide spectrum of markets or industries. Participants will learn how to identify breaking points in projects, try to look for original solutions and possibilities for testing prototypes (also for the service context) will be discussed. An ‘inspirational course’, exploring tools for innovation and problem solving completes this module. As this session is off-campus and involves a lot of group exercises, this module serves as a team-building session for the group of participants.
MODULE 3: Innovation Management
Key words: fuzzy front-end, IP protection & valorisation, business cases/plans, managing innovative projects
The aim of this module is to look at innovation as a management process. This module sets out key areas of innovation: managing the fuzzy front end, management of uncertain projects, and appropriation. Analysing to what extent an idea can be (or already is) protected by other companies, and how to protect an idea, is crucial. Awareness of the variety of legal instruments available to protect an idea − ranging from design copyrights and trademarks to various forms of patenting. This module introduces the coaching sessions and how to translate ideas and business opportunities into validated, viable and executable business cases/plans.
MODULE 4: Becoming an Entrepreneurial Leader
Key words: leadership, teams, employee empowerment, negotiation skills, presentations skills
Most new ventures are created by teams. Hence, the ability to build, manage and grow the team is critical to a venture’s success. Yet companies still find it difficult. Who are the people you need to promote the idea within the company, to present your business plan to investors or to the company investment committee, or to grow your business effectively? This module has two aims. The first aim is to increase the participant’s entrepreneurial management skills. This module discusses teams, leadership and employee empowerment in innovative contexts. The second aim is to help participants improve their interactions with others in managing an organisation to further develop their future professional life as new business creators. It is important to have the right skills to convince team members and external parties to participate and commit to an uncertain project or even to risk an uncertain career move. Special attention is given to presentation, communication and negotiation skills.
MODULE 5: New Venture Marketing
Key words: unique value proposition, market position, discovery-based market research
This module provides insights into how a company can be meaningfully different by implementing a market–driven strategy process and by listening to the voice of the customer. We address the vital issues of forming a realistic market assumption through analysis and synthesis, of getting to know your market, and of establishing a clear aim as to how, where and when you should enter the market. How do you develop and commercialise new market offerings with greater speed and with greater marketplace success than you or your competitors have done in the past? How do you sell more of your offering, to more customers and more profitably?
MODULE 6: The Strategic Logic of the Organisation
Key words: Vlerick strategy formulation framework
As most business environments are dynamic in at least some respects, entrepreneurs and strategic managers must be able to recognise the strategic dimensions of their environment and define the strategic logic of their organisation to sustain its ability to create value. This implies a necessity to position the firm and its businesses in the value chain to define the value creation logic in relation to the competition. This module introduces Vlerick’s framework for identifying and understanding the key aspects of an organisation’s environment that are important in the design of a strategic logic.
MODULE 7: Developing Business Models
Key words: entrepreneurial strategies, business models, business model innovation
A business model defines how the firm extracts value from its business. This is a fundamental step in new business creation. Most innovations, while great on paper, fail to succeed and create value. Similarly, existing firms often find it difficult to adapt or renew their existing business model to changing environments and disruptions. This module introduces the participants to the fundamental aspects of business model creation and innovation. Links to strategy as well as key options in defining business models are presented, and practical examples in various industries are discussed.
MODULE 8: Bringing your Product or Service to the Market
Key words: market strategy, sales programme, marketing communication
Once a product is developed, an effective product launch becomes the critical step to its success. The product launch process must address all aspects, such as choosing the right market strategy, designing the sales force to match the business life cycle and executing an effective marketing communication plan. Next, making a business plan or business case assumes that your financial forecast reflects reality. Making sales forecasts based on market shares that increase over time is usually not the correct way to sell your business case to your board or team of investors. Instead, a bottom-up sales forecast should be made that takes the principles of strategic selling into account. This module explains how to make a realistic financial forecast based on a sound and in-depth estimation of the sales path.
MODULE 9: Financial Planning
Key words: cash flow plan, profit and loss statement, balance sheet
A financial plan translates the business plan into concrete figures and is, therefore, a reality check on whether the business plan is value-creating. The financial plan helps you understand the outcomes of business choices in terms of revenue, profit, and cash flow, and often leads to a re-assessment of the initial choices. A financial plan is also necessary for raising money from third parties − internal or external investors. This module introduces participants to the fundamental tools of financial planning, including profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet.
MODULE 10: Growing the New Business
Key words: growth strategies, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation culture
Growth is the purpose of new business creation. As the new business develops, it gradually leaves the entrepreneurial stage and moves into the growth stage. This transition from entrepreneur to manager must be managed carefully for the new business to succeed. New business leaders can have a significant impact in achieving this objective. This module provides participants with concepts and tools to successfully transition from entrepreneur to manager and, as a result, to make the new business succeed. The module ends with sessions about how to boost the innovative capacity of individuals, teams and organisations and equips participants to create a culture of innovation in their organisation.
MODULE 11: Valuation of Entrepreneurial and Innovative Projects
Key words: company valuation, required return, time value of money
Businesses can be valuated based on the financial plan. This is important when raising money from outside investors, as the value of the business determines the percentage of shares for both entrepreneurs and investors. This module studies different valuation methods − traditional discounted cash flow methods, as well as methods often used in entrepreneurial settings: multiples and the venture capital method. Much attention is paid to: the return required by investors, a major driver of value.
MODULE 12: Collaboration & Open Innovation
Key words: corporate venturing, open innovation paradigm, collaborative innovation
In today’s rapidly changing and increasingly complex business environment, companies, however large and powerful, can no longer innovate alone. To succeed, suppliers, customers, partners, start-ups and even governments must be brought into the innovation process. Hence, innovation is becoming ever more open and collaborative. In this module, we explore collaboration and open innovation practices. Important issues are how to move to an open innovation paradigm and how to appropriate value in an open system. We look at the entrepreneurial efforts needed, how established organisations can invest in and/or create new businesses, and what the types of corporate venturing business models are.
MODULE 13: Entrepreneurial Finance: Structuring Deals
Key words: financial instruments, equity & debt, venture capital & private equity, shareholders agreements
Entrepreneurial ventures can be financed by equity or debt, or a combination of the two. Choosing the right financial instrument enhances value for both entrepreneurs and investors, either by shifting risk to the other party or by changing the characteristics of the return. This may cause contracts between different groups of shareholders to become quite complex. The goal of this module is to analyse the impact of ratchets, exit preferences, and other stipulations often used in shareholder contracts.
Closing seminar
MODULE 14: New Business Creation & Executive Master Class Conclusions
Key words: due diligence, government, entrepreneurship, innovation & internationalisation
This module starts with an extensive workshop on the due diligence of a business plan or case. This workshop allows participants to apply the concepts learned during the programme in an integrated exercise. The purpose of the workshop is to make a due diligence of a new company, to make a deal proposal based on this due diligence, and to do a negotiation exercise to learn how to negotiate as, or with, an investor to finance a new business. The second day of this module is devoted to the role of governments and internationalisation and general management issues related to new business creation.
In-company project
As part of the results-oriented learning methodology, during the Executive Master Class, each participant has the opportunity to contribute to the development of a business plan/case. Participants can choose to use their own idea as a basis for the business plan, to further develop a project that is being conducted in their company, or to participate in a project proposed by a partner company. The aim of the project is to analyse the feasibility of the idea or project from a business point of view.
Coaching sessions
As the development of a business plan/case requires expertise and experience in a number of domains, this is facilitated by means of 4 coaching sessions supporting participants and providing additional insights and information. These sessions follow an entrepreneurial workshop approach: that is, a 4-stage learning programme with the purpose of turning ideas and business opportunities into validated, viable and executable business plans/case. The emphasis lies on the implementation in practice. During the sessions, all participants go through the stages of testing the feasibility of a business opportunity. According to the scope of the projects, participants will look at their business opportunity from a number of different aspects: appropriateness of the idea, team, business model, market, financials, etc. The final outcome is a business plan/case.
MODULE 15: Business Plan Presentation
Key words: business plan presentation
During this module, participants present their business plan to an audience comprising Vlerick faculty, outside business experts, investors and other participants. The presentation of the business plans takes place behind closed doors. Ample time is provided for discussion and feedback for each business plan.
Opleiding kerngegevens