The processes organizations use to pursue innovation can actually erode their capability to innovate. Systems built on stages and reviews simply bureaucratize the process and deflect attention from the user experience. Then, by limiting responsibility for innovation to a specific department, these organizations actually under-utilize the creative capabilities of other employees. Companies must create a culture of innovation that harnesses the creativity of its customers, users, and employees.
Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources; Director of the Managing Talent for Strategic Advantage Executive Program; Codirector of the Customer- Focused Innovation Executive Program/p>
Hayagreeva Rao has published widely in the fields of management and sociology and studies the social and cultural causes of organizational change. In his research, he studies three sub-processes of organizational change: a) creation of new social structures, b) the transformation of existing social structures, and c) the dissolution of existing social structures. His recent work investigates the role of social movements as motors of organizational change in professional and organizational fields.
Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy); Professor of Management Science and Engineering, School of Engineering; Codirector of the Customer-Focused Innovation Executive Program
Robert Sutton focuses on evidence-based management, the links (and gaps) between managerial knowledge and organizational action, innovation, and organizational performance. His research style emphasizes the development of theory and recommendations for practice on the basis of direct observation of organizational life and interviews with executives, managers, engineers, and other organization members.
General Atlantic Professor of Marketing
Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management; Executive Director of the Stanford Executive Program
Frank E. Buck Professor of Management; Director of the Leading Change and Organizational Renewal Executive Program
Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior
Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing; Director of the Strategic Marketing Management Executive Program
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus
Field Research Project: Enhancing the Airport Experience for JetBlue Customers
As part of this year's project for the program, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at the Stanford School of Engineering will collaborate with JetBlue in an exercise designed to suggest enhancements to the carrier's airport experience with business leaders from around the world.
Rapid Prototyping
Participants will learn about the logic and methods of rapid prototyping and developing quick solutions to customer service problems that can be easily tested and refined. After completing observations and brainstorming exercises, teams will work with Design School staff to select the most promising ideas and to develop and present proposals about how their prototype experiences could be quickly implemented.
Systematic Understanding of Customer Preferences
This session will focus on a systematic understanding of customer preferences expressed in terms of the relative importance of multiple attributes or features of the product or service. Using conjoint analysis, participants will identify benefit segments, useful for identifying a new product line rather than a single new product.
The Knowing-Doing Gap
This session confronts the paradox of organizations that know what to do but frequently fail to do it. Participants learn how to diagnose major barriers and outline a new approach to changing behavior.
