Program Overview

Program Overview

The Driving Strategic Innovation program is designed for senior executives and entrepreneurs who have significant input into the technology and innovation strategy of their organizations. This course combines marketing, product development, technology assessment, value-chain design, project execution, and talent management in an end-to-end roadmap for achieving breakthrough performance.

Key Benefits

• Manage the front-end of the innovation process and navigate increasingly unpredictable value chains
• Combines marketing, product development, technology assessment, value chain design, project execution, and talent management in an end-to-end roadmap for achieving breakthrough performance
• Explore your own approach and style to innovation and leave with a roadmap which supports your company’s strategic goals and accelerates change
• Participate in wide-ranging and challenging discussions, intensive group projects, and live case studies
• Earn a certificate of course completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management

Course Takeaways

Participants will leave this program armed with the knowledge of how to influence corporate culture, alter the way their organization responds to the challenge of strategic innovation, and strengthen relationships with partners along the value chain. This intensive learning experience will deliver long-term value, helping business leaders to:

• Meet technology challenges, from R&D to manufacturing, and project management to engineering
• Link technology decisions with business strategy
• Integrate product development, process developments, and value-chain strategy
• Develop organization and supply-chain strategies to position the company for future growth
• Leverage learning and innovation collaboration with customers, lead users, and suppliers, maximizing the value of research
• Understand how technologies and markets evolve and how they are linked
• Outperform the competition by generating breakthrough ideas
• Cope with shorter product life cycles, while delivering greater customer satisfaction
• Optimize sourcing and “make-buy” decisions
• Integrate supply chain design with concurrent engineering
• Engage talent within the organization and across the value chain

Course Experience

Throughout this course, participants will participate in wide-ranging and challenging discussions, intensive group projects, and live case studies, with ample opportunities for interaction with faculty and peers. Past participants form a network of innovative thinkers who continue to exchange ideas long after the course ends.

Program Themes

• Incremental and discontinuous strategic 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 on 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

Sample Schedule

The sample schedule outlined below reflects Eastern Time and is subject to change without notice.

Day 1

2:30 PM - 3:00 PM: Registration 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Introduction: Observe, Admire and Adapt 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Entrepreneurial Dynamics: How to Nail it 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM: Welcome Reception

Day 2

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Breakfast 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM: Learning Synthesis 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Introduction to the DSI Framework 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Lunch 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Innovation Dynamics (w/ break) 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Entrepreneurial Dynamics: How to Scale it

Day 3

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Breakfast 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM: Learning Synthesis 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Innovation for Sustainability 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Lunch 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Why Great Innovations Fail Understanding Strategic Resources 5:00 PM - 5:30 PM: Break 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Entrepreneurial Dynamics: How to Sail It

Day 4

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Breakfast 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM: Learning Synthesis 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Creating and Capturing Value with Strategic Partners 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Lunch 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM: Business Model Innovation & Organizational Culture Understanding Strategic Resources 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM: Break 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Ambidextrous Leaders: Manage the present, create the future

Day 5

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Breakfast 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM: Learning Synthesis 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Alien Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Lunch 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM: From Value-Chains to Ecosystems 4:30 PM - 6:15 PM: Synthesis: Pulling It All Together 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM: Closing Dinner: MIT Museum

Day 6

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Breakfast 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM: Innovation & Teams 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM: Organizational Transformation 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Conclusions & Program Closing 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Celebration Lunch

Course Dates and Enrollment

Select your preferred date and enroll in the upcoming sessions.

• Date(s): Apr 19-24, 2026
• Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
• Duration: 6 days
• Commitment: 4-10 hours/day
• Tuition: CHF11,500
• Date(s): Oct 4-9, 2026
• Location: Cambridge, MA
• Duration: 6 days
• Commitment: 4-10 hours/day
• Tuition: $12,900

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for senior executives and entrepreneurs who have significant input into the technology and innovation strategy of their organizations. Participants should play a key role within their organizations where they have the ability and perspective to look up and down the value chain to appraise strategic technology options wherever they arise.

Participant Viewpoints

• "The course provided a holistic perspective of innovation in industries, the strategic decisions that need to be made in order to create, capture and deliver value, as well as the many factors needed to foster it and make it a continuous capability. It was an inspiring one week journey with lots of learnings and new connections."
• "This is one of the best courses for managers and architects who are embarking a transformation journey in their companies. The faculty for the course Bill Fischer and Charles Fine were excellent, ensured that everyone participated and provided tools and techniques for innovation\transformation. The examples provided strengthened the learning. The course content, case studies are perfectly designed and easy to understand."

Faculty and Team

• Charles Fine: Chrysler Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management; Professor of Operations Management and Engineering Systems; Co-Director, International Motor Vehicle Program
• William Fischer: Senior Lecturer, Operations Management
• Zhike Lei: Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior
• Duncan Simester: NTU Professor of Marketing; Professor, Marketing
• Howard Yu: LEGO Professor of Management and Innovation

How to Enroll

Offered jointly with IMD and takes place in person on the IMD campus in Switzerland or on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA. We accept enrollments until the offering reaches capacity, at which point we will maintain a waitlist. Many of the courses fill up several weeks in advance, so we advise that you enroll as early as possible to secure your seat. You can begin the application process by clicking the "Add to Cart" button.

Reviews

• "The course provided a holistic perspective of innovation in industries, the strategic decisions that need to be made in order to create, capture and deliver value, as well as the many factors needed to foster it and make it a continuous capability. It was an inspiring one week journey with lots of learnings and new connections."
• "This is one of the best courses for managers and architects who are embarking a transformation journey in their companies. The faculty for the course Bill Fischer and Charles Fine were excellent, ensured that everyone participated and provided tools and techniques for innovation\transformation. The examples provided strengthened the learning. The course content, case studies are perfectly designed and easy to understand."