COURSE NUMBER: MBA 296-1*, this course is cross-listed with EWMBA

COURSE TITLE: Corporate Innovation

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Jack Caouette

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL): Innovation.JCaouette.com

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Tuesday, 6-9:30pm, 10 weeks of meetings over a 12-week period.

PREREQUISITE(S): None

CLASS FORMAT: A mixture of lectures and class discussions, case studies, and guest speakers.

REQUIRED READINGS: Dealing With Darwin by Geoffrey Moore. Other readings will be assigned, including several case studies.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Class discussion (20%), case write-ups (20%), analysis of two reading assignments (20%) and final project (40%)

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This is a course in corporate entrepreneurship. Increasingly companies are facing a much more competitive environment and they must compete on a global scale. They must innovate to survive and prosper. There is plenty of innovation and new business creation happening in most industries, but much of the effort is wasted and most innovation fails. The objective of this course is to help students understand the nature of why this happens, and assist students in developing the skills needed to manage the process of developing new businesses and products within an existing organization. We will explore the nature of the entrepreneurial spirit, how corporate culture can affect new business development efforts, and how innovation must reflect the type of business and the business’ position in its life cycle. The course emphasis will be on leadership and what it takes to move an organization toward the implementation of new business ideas, services and products. Using cases we will look at how some organizations have succeeded and how others have failed. Several guest speakers will share their experiences dealing with the challenges related to these activities. The major deliverable for the course will be a team project providing students with an opportunity to employ many of the topics we have discussed in a real-life situation.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
John B. (Jack) Caouette is Chairman of Channel Capital Group, a European-based credit derivative products company. He was Vice Chairman of MBIA Insurance Corporation, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of Capital Markets Assurance Corporation and CapMAC Holdings, and Senior Vice President and General Manager, the Foreign Exchange & Money Market Division, Continental Grain Company. He joined Citibank after graduating from the Haas School in 1970 and started and ran a number of financial businesses for Citibank during the period 70’s and 80’s. He has worked and lived in Asia and in London. He is lead author of Managing Credit Risk: The Great Challenge for the Global Financial Markets, originally published by John Wiley & Sons in 1998 and a new edition, which will be published in May 2008.