SEARCHING FOR INNOVATION OPPORTUNITIES PROJECT

Learning Outcome:This project is intended to sharpen your recognition of customer needs, or “pain points” they experience, and also how identifying “jobs to be done” can reveal innovation opportunities.

Guidance: In this project, you will select a specific business and analyze its potential innovation opportunities. You will select a business or organization from novel companies that have been rated as top innovators on annual lists of FastCompany, Inc. Magazine, or other sites. For instance, see http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies (Links to an external site.) or https://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2018 (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

Advice: Descriptions of innovation opportunities should be structured around the opportunity categories from Drucker’s sources of innovation opportunity (and from other marketplace observers) described in-class lectures and resources from the innovation literature. You are expected to think broadly in your search for opportunities, and creatively explain how those opportunity categories might apply to the business you select. Finally, we suggest that you start each project EARLY, even if it’s with a rough outline of how you’ll approach it.

Deliverable: The scope of effort for this project is 5 single-spaced pages, presented in a well-organized manner, including references. We ask for references in these projects not only for academic integrity but also as an indication that you found evidence to credibly support your reasoning and arguments made in the project. This referencing should help build your competence to make points in a convincing way. Graphics supporting your explanations can be included within the 5-page length.