EIB B242 - Innovation Models

Course Description

The needs of the global sustainable development agenda are both broad and urgent; innovation models are central to addressing them in a timely, efficient and scalable manner. From promoting inclusive growth to ensuring the longevity of natural resources to addressing issues across the state of the human condition, there are many problems to be solved. Inclusive business - including large MNCs, social enterprises to impact investors - recognize that the private sector will increasingly play a lead role in solving such problems and closing the gaps. Such gaps-closing can cost $3-5 trillion annually, according to some estimates; the value that businesses can unlock while closing the gaps are estimated to be in the range of $12-15 trillion a year. This suggests a macro level business case supporting the mantra of "doing good while doing well." This course will prepare students with a practical micro-level understanding of this opportunity, why the private sector is essential in solving sustainability and inclusion problems, what barriers get in the way of following through on this seemingly compelling logic, and how the solution lies in developing robust and scalable "inclusive innovation" models that overcome the key barriers. The course will help students with a framework for archetypal inclusive innovation models and where to apply them, identify how to specifically construct them and dig into specific models in practical case examples and draw broader conclusions. Graduates of this class will leave with a set of inclusive innovation models that they can apply to their own future organizations - an existing large business, a social enterprise, a start-up they have founded, a client they are advising as a consultant, board member or an investor. They will leave with conceptual frameworks, practical tools and skills and case examples for pattern recognition and practicing analytical problem-solving to apply elsewhere.