Our participants

DSI is for senior executives, teams and entrepreneurs who craft innovation strategies and put them into action.

Participants should have significant input on the technology and innovation strategy of their organizations. They should also play an influential role in innovative activities, being able to look up and down the value chain to identify promising strategic opportunities.

Team opportunities

Why not use the program as a launch pad for an organizational change or innovation project? Bring together managers from different units or regions of your organization. Develop a common approach, a common language and build on this shared approach by sending executives to the same program over time.

What

In today's fast-moving, complex business environment, innovating quickly, reliably and effectively is an advantage for achieving profitability and growth. Yet, all too often, organizations are unable to generate sufficiently creative ideas and effectively move them to market.

Driving Strategic Innovation (DSI) changes the way business leaders think about innovation and technology strategy, and gives them a deeper, richer and more comprehensive roadmap for executing change. Participants leave the program knowing how to influence corporate culture, alter the way an organization responds to the challenge of innovative and strengthen relationships with partners along the value chain.

The six-day program knits together innovation, marketing and product development, technology assessment, value-chain design, project execution and talent management in an end-to-end roadmap for achieving breakthrough performance. It demonstrates how to build organizational relationships that facilitate knowledge transfer, both within the firm and across the value chain.

DSI enables you to:

• Speed up market commercialization of innovative ideas that are strategically important
• Identify innovation opportunities in your value chain and learn how to better manage ideas and knowledge professionals, both inside and outside your company

Program themes

» Incremental and discontinuous innovation are not opposites, they are partners
» We love our customers, but we are always out of equilibrium with them
» We might serve our customers better by talking with people who are not our customers, and never will be
» Good ideas do not just rely upon experts, they require non-experts as well
» Innovation thrives when ambiguity is both reduced and enlarged
» Creating value is not the same as capturing value
» Wide-ranging creativity requires discipline
» Bottom-up entrepreneurial innovation thrives under strong, self-confident, top-down leaders

IMD and MIT Sloan: A powerful alliance

Driving Strategic Innovation is a joint program which brings together the latest technology research from MIT Sloan and the latest leadership knowledge from IMD. It provides participants with an unparalleled opportunity to learn how to manage innovation within their organizations.

How

Participants will take part in wide-ranging and challenging discussions, specially designed simulations, intensive group projects, and live case studies. The small class size fosters opportunities for rich interaction with Faculty and among peers.

Alumni of the program form a network of colleagues who continue to exchange ideas long after the program ends.

Our Faculty

Our Faculty members are recognized world authorities in their fields. They divide their time between teaching, research and acting as consultants to international companies. They remain on top of the latest management trends.

You can expect timely, innovative learning activities, materials and content in the program.

In this section, you will find important information on the program fee, application, invoicing, cancellation and transfer. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our program advisors.

Fee

The fee for the program run in Lausanne (which is mentioned on the overview page) excludes accommodation but includes tuition, teaching materials, and lunch on weekdays. Travel or living expenses are not covered. You must settle your own hotel bills, both when in Lausanne and on off-campus assignments, as well as all dinners and lunches on weekends when applicable. IMD reserves the right to modify the program fee at any time.

The fee for the program run in Boston (which is also mentioned on the overview page) includes accommodation.

Tentative reservation

To make a non-binding reservation, send us a completed tentative reservation form. This carries no obligation and is not a substitute for the formal application form.

For IMD sessions, the following information applies:

Application & invoicing

Your application is forwarded to the program director who will evaluate it to ensure that the program corresponds to your objectives and profile. This can take approximately 1 week.

The information & registration office will notify you of the outcome of your application. If you are accepted, they will send your acceptance letter and invoice fee together by priority mail. From this point, your enrollment will be considered firm by both you and IMD.

Please pay the program fee within 30 days of the invoice date and no later than the commencement of the program. If you register within 1 month of the start of the program, you must settle the invoice immediately without exception.
Payment can be made by bank transfer or credit card.

Up to six weeks before the program start date, a program coordinator will contact you with information on hotels and pre-program preparation. Please note that IMD reserves enough rooms for each participant on the program.

If accepted, you understand that you must be completely free of professional duties while attending this program and that you must attend all scheduled sessions and activities.

Substitution

A participant can be substituted on the same program session without incurring any fees. The substitute needs to apply and be admitted.

Note: Once you have paid the program tuition fee, if you do not attend another program within 24 months, the program fee will be forfeited.