Subject description

Subject title:
Innovation development

Content:
Innovation is a key element for companies in providing growth and for increasing
results. Innovation means a new way of doing something; it may refer to incremental,
radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes or organisations. A
company that overlooks new and better ways of doing things will eventually lose
customers to another competitor that has found a better way.

Innovation by businesses is achieved in many ways. One way leading to innovation

is the use of creativity techniques. These are methods that encourage original
thoughts and divergent thinking (e. g. brainstorming, morphological analysis). New
ideas that have been generated by the use of creativity techniques have to be
structured and evaluated. In order to complete the innovation process the valuable
ideas have to be put into practise.

Learning objectives:
The students learn to use techniques and tools for creating an effective solution to a
problem. They are able to initiate and implement a creative process that covers the
three aspects of
• Idea generation
• Idea screening
• Idea realisation

The students experience that successful innovation development requires different

abilities and skills in order to collect new ideas, to evaluate new solution approaches
and to put them into practice.

Further more they are able to explain the different functions of the two brain
hemispheres and the implications for the creative process. They get a deeper
understanding of the conditions that support the creativity of a person (e. g. mood,
motivation, body posture) and how to overcome mental blocks.

Working methods:
Literature research and research of other sources; discussions within the student
group; during their presentation they should use practical examples and exercises
involving the audience.

Literature/Other Sources:
• Ayan, Jordan: AHA, New York 1997, ISBN: 0-517-88400-3
• Bettencourt, L. A., & Ulwick, A. W. (2008): The Customer-Centered Innovation
Map, in: Harvard Business Review, 86(5), 109-114
 • Epstein, Robert: The big book of creativity games, New York 2000, ISBN: 0-
07-136176-6
• Rowe, Alan, J.: Creative Intelligence, New Jersey 2008, ISBN: 0-13-145357-2
• Tidd, J., Bessant, J. R., & Pavitt, K. (2005). Managing Innovation: Integrating
Technological, Market and Organizational Change (3rd ed.). Chichester: J.
Wiley.
• Creativity Techniques – an A to Z:
http://www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques
• Luther, Michael & Gründonner, Jutta: Königsweg Kreativität
Powertraining für kreatives Denken, 1. Auflage, 2001

Contact information of supervisor:

Prof. Dr. Harald Vergossen
Niederrhein University of Applied Siences
Harald.Vergossen@hs-niederrhein.de

Expected outcomes:
• Group report = 10-15 pages (one page approx. 2600 characters incl. spaces)
• Presentation = 5 minutes/student for each presentation (all group member
should present)