Overview
This course examines the processes of managing technology and innovation within organizations to improve organizational productivity involving human, capital, and operational resources. Innovations can enhance organizational performance and can lead to increased productivity within organizations, departments, and strategic business/operating units within for-profit businesses, government and public sector institutions, and not-for-profit organizations and agencies. This subject is important, as Canada’s productivity lags behind other developed countries, particularly that of the United States, with whom the productivity gap has widened in recent years. This course will also introduce the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm and its potential for helping organizations to generate ideas for innovations. Finally, this course addresses the importance of management support for introducing innovation to improve efficiencies within the work environment and to encourage a culture of co-creation that can lead to increased productivity.
Objectives
After completing this course, learners will be able to:
- understand the processes of managing technology and innovation within an organization in a manufacturing, development, or services environment;
- recognize the importance of focusing on technology and innovation-based ideas and concepts in economically driven enterprises;
- appreciate collaboration strategies involving a wide range of stakeholders that can enable organizations to adopt viable technological innovations;
- investigate internal and external innovative technologies to evaluate the viability of adopting and integrating such technologies within an organization;
- describe the basics of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm and its potential for generating innovations;
- identify the key role of sourcing new innovations from lead users;
- analyze and assess strategies for developing sustained competitive advantage in a technologically oriented organizational setting;
- understand the management and implementation of new product development processes;
- identify the key elements of a deployment strategy required for the adoption of new products into the marketplace.
Evaluation
Students will be evaluated based on their participation in two weekly online discussions (40%), two case study responses and discussions (40%), and weekly learning reflections (20%). To pass the course, students must achieve 60% or more on the weekly discussion components and 60% as a combined average on the other credit activities.