Engaging with Innovation Ecosystems: The Corporate Perspective

This course is aimed at corporate executives and senior managers who need to generate new growth opportunities from external innovation by engaging with “innovation ecosystems” around the world. We will explore how to evaluate particular innovation ecosystems (and select which ecosystems to locate and engage with). Participants in the course will learn how to develop fruitful relationships with a range of innovation ecosystem stakeholders: entrepreneurs, risk capital providers, universities and government policy-makers. In particular, we will show how corporations can use MIT’s new “Innovation Diplomacy” approach to build effective networks across multiple stakeholders in complex and dynamic innovation ecosystems. We will show how to assess the relevance of and design various types of programs that corporations can implement to engage with their innovation ecosystem: prize competitions, hackathons, accelerators, commercialization programs etc., taking a series of deep dives into how leading corporations have used these programs internally and externally to drive growth. This course draws heavily on the findings of MIT’s groundbreaking and unique Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP), which brings together cities, regions and countries to study and learn from MIT research and from each other how to create and grow a successful innovation-based regional economy.

About MIT Sloan Executive Education
MIT Sloan Executive Education provides non-degree programs to senior executives and high-potential managers from around the world. Program are designed, led, and often taught by full-time, senior MIT faculty. In many programs, breakthrough concepts and methods are delivered by the very faculty who developed them, bringing leading-edge management research directly into the executive classroom and driving innovation into practice. The faculty’s tools and frameworks provide participants with new ways to think about doing business, new perspectives for analyzing challenges, and new approaches for solving problems. From intensive short courses focused on a particular area of interest, to executive certificates covering a range of management topics, to custom engagements addressing the specific business challenges of a particular organization, our portfolio of executive education and management programs offers business professionals a targeted and flexible means to advance their career development goals and position their organizations for future growth.