Transformation Design

Innovative Product Development TUTA2270 or equivalent BSc or MSc level innovation course is required as a prerequisite, and this will be checked for all the registered.
This is a master's level course in Industrial Engineering and Management programme. A BSc degree is required from Industrial Engineering and Management or closed field is required to participate in the course.

This course aims to present to students the concepts of technology, innovation, strategy, disruption, and how to increase the chances of success of a sustainable transformative innovation. It is intended to appeal to those interested in the management of technology-oriented firms, creating technology-driven startups, or consulting with such companies. Participants will have an overview of the entire innovation & strategy process from spark to shipping, what investors are looking for, what makes an innovation disruptive, and a set of analysis techniques to better inform strategic innovation and to create more successful products and services. The course will provide practical skills to undertake an industry analysis, identify markets and customer segments, and using a simple set of tools, create more successful innovations. While the dominating perspective on the course is the performance of a firm, the societal aspect and impacts for sustainability form an important part of the course.
In the course, students will learn to:

1. Develop an awareness of the range, scope, and complexity of sustainable transformative innovation, what makes an innovation sustainable, transformative and how they can be purposefully designed.
2. Understand how to perform an industry, market and customer-segment analysis to uncover opportunities for transforming a market through innovation.
3. Understand how to create a graphical representation of an industry and how to identify surpluses, rents and tolls in order to craft an innovation strategy.
4. Understand the innovation process, its deliverables, failure modes, costs and methodologies to reduce risk throughout the process.
5. How to frame innovation strategies, market selection, product and service definition and how new sustainable innovations take over and surpass the status quo (and rearrange entire industries).
6. Develop a better appreciation for how consumers and enterprises make adoption and spending decisions, the importance of substitutes and how to evaluate multiple innovation options to develop an optimal transformation strategy.
7. Through a group project pick an industry to transform and go through the entire process of industry research, ideation, sustainable innovation definition, making strategic choices and preparing an innovation-problem thesis and an investment thesis and finally a self-ranking of the opportunity and barriers to success.

There is no textbook for this course. Course readings will include classic book chapters and articles such as:

Kaplinsky, Raphael, & Morris, Mike. (2002). A Handbook for value chain research. Institute of Development Studies. (Part I & III)

Bower, Joseph L., & Christensen, Clayton M. (1995). Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave. Harvard Business Review, 73(1), 43–53.

Porter, Michael E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78–93.

Additional course learning materials will be provided by the course faculty including links to publicly accessible articles.

SPM program students get free train tickets for mandatory participation on mandatory courses for Seinäjoki-Vaasa travel. Please contact teaching assistants for details.

Please note! Course description is confirmed for three academic years. The learning outcomes, assessment methods and key content stay unchanged for the confirmed period. However, the syllabus may specify changes to the course execution in each realization of the course. These changes may concern the organization of contact sessions, the weighting of assessment methods, or the use of materials.

The exam booking must be made separately in the EXAM system, and the exam is taken in the University of Vaasa EXAM room or as an exam visit in another higher education institution’s EXAM room.”

Five places have been reserved for Open University students for this implementation.

Responsible Unit: School of Technology and Innovations