Politecnico di Milano

Master of Science in Management Engineering

Leadership and Innovation

Raffaella Cagliano| Mariano Corso | Roberto Verganti

1. Introduction
Overview of the Course
Nowadays, its impossible to be a leader without thinking innovative, i.e. without the capability to lead organizations in an everchanging context, where organizations have undefined and dynamics profiles. Vice versa, nowadays, its impossible to drive
innovation without leadership skills, i.e. without the capability to envision strategic directions, engage others, find resources, and
implement the vision. In short, nowadays leadership and innovation walk together. This link is further reinforced when thinking to
the challenge of sustainable development of business and society, which is the ability to grow without compromising the availability
of resources for future generations.
In this course we integrate these two themes that in traditional schools of management are addressed separately. The course is a
unique and pioneering journey, aimed at developing capabilities and skills to be effective authentic leaders who promote sustainable
innovation. The goal is obtained by focusing on two dimensions: (1) on you as a person (how to be an innovative leader); (2) and
on social and organizational relations (how to nurture an organization and an environment that creates innovations).
More specifically, the course aims at enabling student to:
Understand their role as leaders in society and business;
Increase their self-awareness, and focus their motivation and vision about their development as leaders;
Understand the role of leaders in managing and conducting interpersonal processes;
Understand a changing socio-economic context and the challenges of sustainability, capture the opportunities, identify possible
innovative directions for them and their organization;
Understand the dynamics of innovation processes within and across organizations;
Understand the dynamics of creativity and change in organizations, from the collaboration in small settings (team building,
team-working), to collaborative innovation in complex networks.
The course has been designed around three modules:
1. Strategy of innovation: in this module you will learn how to promote and manage innovation with a strategic perspective. The
module focuses especially on the capabilities of leaders to create innovative visions and to catalyse the resources that are
needed to make that vision come true. The topics characterising the module are the following ones:
o What is innovation, what is its value and its challenges;
o The drivers and the timing of innovation;
o The innovation of strategy and the creation of vision: innovation of meaning and design-driven innovation;
o Technology strategy: key technologies, dynamic capabilities, complementary assets, profiting from innovation;
o Collaborative and Open Innovation.
2. Leadership and change: in this module you will learn how to develop the capabilities to engage yourself and others in
becoming innovative leaders and effectively managing change and innovation in organisational settings. The topics
characterising the module are the following ones:
o What is leadership, what is the difference between leaders and managers;
o How it is possible to lead innovation, with an emphasis on digital innovation;
o The steps to be followed in order to effectively face change and lead innovation in complex organisational settings;
o Implementing diversity leadership strategies, lead in multicultural environment, and female leadership;
o Redesign the organisation in order to diffuse leadership styles, and coaching others to lead innovation.
3. Innovation process: in this module you will learn how to manage and lead an innovation process and a team devoted to such
process. The module will both go through the different phases, activities and methodologies needed to transform an idea into
a product-service solution to be launched in the market, and describe the organizational settings and challenges a leader has to
face in managing it. The specific topics covered by the modules are the following ones:
o Introduction to innovation process, users analysis and users integration in innovation processes;
o How to foster creativity for concept development: creative leaders, individual, team and organizational creativity;
o How to design and lead effective teams; teams roles and dynamics in innovation processes;
o Team dynamics: group behaviours, group decision making, conflicts and negotiation;
o Guiding principles and models for managing innovation processes.
Faculty
Each section (i.e. A-D Verganti, E-O Cagliano, P-Z Corso) will have a main professor and a dedicated tutor. They will be the
responsible for the evaluation of the students of the corresponding section (e.g. Prof. Verganti will evaluate the students of the
section A-D). Students will have to contact their main professor and/or tutor for organisational issues and any other course-related
matter.

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

Section A-D
Professor: Roberto Verganti [email protected]
Tutor: Naiara Altuna [email protected]
Section E-O
Professor: Raffaella Cagliano: [email protected]
Tutor: Paola Rovelli [email protected]
Section P-Z
Professor: Mariano Corso [email protected]
Tutor: Andrea Pistorio [email protected]
Instead, each content will be taught by a specific professor, who will be supported by an assistant/content manager. The students
will have to contact the corresponding assistant in case of clarifications regarding module contents.
1. Strategy of Innovation:
Professor: Roberto Verganti [email protected]
Assistant/content manager: Giuseppe Pinto [email protected]
2. Leadership and Change:
Professor: Mariano Corso [email protected]
Assistant/content manager: Luca Gastaldi: [email protected]
3. Innovation Process:
Professor: Raffaella Cagliano: [email protected]
Assistant/content manager: Filomena Canterino [email protected]
The table below shows the distribution of the faculty for each section (for more information see the calendar of the classes).
Sections
Section AD
Main professor: R. Verganti
Tutor: Naiara Altuna

Section EO
Main professor: R. Cagliano
Tutor: P. Rovelli

Section PZ
Main professor: M. Corso
Tutor: A. Pistorio

First module (March)

Strategy of innovation
Taught by: R. Verganti
Assisted by: G. Pinto

Innovation process
Taught by: R. Cagliano
Assisted by: F. Canterino

Leadership and change

Taught by: M. Corso
Assisted by: L. Gastaldi

Second module (April)

Innovation process

Third module (May)

Leadership and change

Taught by: R. Cagliano

Assisted by: F. Canterino

Taught by: M. Corso

Assisted by: L. Gastaldi

Leadership and change

Taught by: M. Corso
Assisted by: L. Gastaldi

Strategy of innovation
Taught by: R. Verganti
Assisted by: G. Pinto

Strategy of innovation
Taught by: R. Verganti
Assisted by: G. Pinto

Innovation process
Taught by: R. Cagliano
Assisted by: F. Canterino

Course Scheduling
The table below shows the classrooms and the class scheduling for each section.
Schedule
Monday: 15:15 18:30
Tuesday: 10:15 13:30

Section AD (Verganti)
Room L07
Room CT18

Section EO (Cagliano)
Room BL.27.03
Room BL.27.04

Section PZ (Corso)
Room Bl.27.05
Room LM.4

2. Material
Slides / Business Cases / Videos
Slides, business cases and videos will be made available through Course website on BeeP.
Suggested Textbooks
Being an innovative course, there is not a unique reference textbook, but rather a collection of chapters from different sources that
complement an active participation during classes. Whenever possible, the specific chapters related to the mentioned books will be
uploaded in BeeP. Most of the classes have been developed considering the following books:
ROB: Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T.A. (2013). Organizational Behaviour (15th Edition). Pearson.
KRE: Kreiter R., and Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational behaviour (11th Edition). McGraw-Hill/Irwin
SCH: Schilling, M.A. (2012). Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (4th Edition). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
THO: Thompson, L. (2014). Making the team: a guide for managers (5th Edition). Pearson
VER: Verganti, R. (2009). Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean.
Harvard Business Press.
Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

WES: Westerman G., Bonnet D. and McAfee A.P. (2014). Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation. Harvard
Business Review Press.

Section 7 provides with more information regarding the specific chapters used, and will clarify which chapter can (and will) be
shared with students through BeeP and which not.

3. Educational Process
The underlying assumption is that organizations are living, open systems and that learning is best acquired by multiple means. The
modularity of the course, which will expose students to three different teaching styles, is coherent with this approach.
Each module will actively engage students in an experiential learning process: in addition to conceptual inputs, the faculty will use
structured and unstructured exercises, simulations, case analyses and student's presentations/group-work in order to:
Provide students with the opportunity to actually experience the behavioural dynamics and processes being studied;
Provide situations wherein students can assess the relevance of the dynamics and processes being studied.
Because much of the learning and work towards the achievement of course objectives will occur in the class, students must:
Attend class regularly and contributing to class discussions;
Be fully prepared for class (by accomplishing the pre-assigned tasks1);
Actively participate in team projects and activities outside of class, and contribute to team learning.
In particular, preparing classes is of utmost importance to enable the learning process of the single student and of the rest of the
class. In order to incentivize participation, cold call will be made among class participants, which should be ready to answer
professors questions.
The main educational process is thought for students who will actively participate in class and who will engage in team-works. The
course allows some students, who are not able to provide this form of active participation, an alternative educational process.
Attending Students
Each member of the class will be assigned by the faculty to a self-managed learning team. During the first three classes the
professors will bring the list of students that are already registered to the course; students willing to actually take the course and
participate to class will be asked to sign the document. Monday 16th of March will be the deadline for registering to the course. On
the basis of the final list, the professors will form the teams and publish them by Friday 20th. Six students will compose each team,
and professors will look for diversity among team members. Once the teams have been announced, each team will choose and
communicate to class tutor by April 3rd (together with the first assignment see relevant section in the syllabus):
A team leader (and her email), that will be responsible for all communications with professors;
A name and symbol representing the team.
The purpose of the teams is to provide a vehicle for learning about self, team management, team performance and the dynamics of
self-managed teams in organizations
Teams will be assigned specific tasks during and outside class sessions, and will carry out two projects during the course. Past
experience has shown that teams are effective if they:
Schedule times and places for group meetings early in the course, and observe those meeting times: in order to underline the
importance of team-works, the faculty has scheduled dedicated time within the classes (see the calendar) for team meetings;
Provide time for socializing with team members: teams exclusively focusing on tasks without building interpersonal
relationships tend to experience problems later on;
Meet in a place that is appropriate to the purpose of the meeting: a cafeteria may be a good place to build social relationships,
yet many groups will find that it is not the best place for working sessions requiring reflections and/or discussions;
Ask for tutors consultation: especially to solve a group issue that seems insuperable through mutual adaptation/coordination.
Teams will have two projects to accomplish by the end of the course:
Noble project: development of an innovative idea/product/service that could be beneficial for a local community; teams will
have to realize different outputs to report on the project (see section 4 for further details);
Leadership story: teams will develop a video describing the storywith its up and downof an innovative leader (see section
5 for further details).
Be aware that each team member will have to evaluate the contribution provided by the rest of the team to its final outputs. During
the evaluation of the projects, the faculty will take into account if a team has had to accomplish its projects without the
participation of someone of its assigned members. Thus, if a team experiences lack of contribution by any of the team members,
the issue must be discussed with the main Professor of the section to which the team belongs.
Not-attending Students

These activities are compulsory and the material will be previously available on beep. Faculty will randomly call students in order to test if they
have adequately prepared for class. A lack of preparation will be considered in the final evaluation of the course.
1

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

Not-attending students are those whofor some major constraints2 that should be clearly explained to the faculty by emailare
not able to participate to more than 30% of classes and/or team activities. Faculty will make cold calls during courses classes in
order to test the presence/participation of attending students. Students with overlapping classes should commit in participating to
L&I activities within the abovementioned limit or follow the course as not-attending students.
Not-attending students will not be included in teams, and have to produce two individual outputs by the end of the course:
Monograph: this activity substitutes the noble project that attending students accomplish in teams; the faculty will assign to the
not-attending student a topic related to the ones covered during classes, and that the not-attending students will deepen
through the writing of a monograph; more details will be made available directly to not-attending students by course tutor.
Leadership story: the non-attending student will develop a video describing the storywith its up and downof an innovative
leader (see section 5 for further details).
The faculty of the course strongly suggest to attend classes and to engage in team activities. An active participation to the course
not only improve the effectiveness of the learning process, but also reduce the overall effort that the student has to put in the
preparation of the final exam characterising the course.

4. Noble Project
Focus and Objectives of the Project
The team will identify and develop an innovative and noble idea, which has to be realistic/doable and potentially
implementable in a local community, and report on the experience. The team is required to develop the concept of the noble idea
and, if possible, to prepare a prototype of it (ideally with also some form of experimentations in the local community). Some
examples of the team projects of this kind are:
Developing a new database for helping local volunteering associations;
Developing innovative services supporting people with diseases or disabilities.
The project has the following objectives:
Applying in real contexts the theoretical concepts seen during classes;
Developing team working skills;
Developing project management skills.
Requirement and Outputs
Each team should deliver:
A report (max 30 pages, including a summary), with the following content:
1. Description of the challenge:
a. What is the problem of interest;
b. Why the problem has been selected;
c. How the problem has been selected (team decision making process).
2. Analysis:
a. Trend analysis (technological, markets and societal-cultural trends);
b. Analysis of users needs;
c. Analysis of already existing solutions.
3. Concept of the solution:
a. Name of the solutions;
b. Who: Target users;
c. Why: Meaning and needs you want to satisfy (positioning and benefits over existing solutions);
d. What: The user experience;
e. How: How your solution works technically (features, blueprint, etc.);
f. Description of the test/prototype/experimentation of the concept (if implemented).
g. Project plan (which phases would be needed to be conducted if you would move further into implementation to fullscale launch of your idea): WBS, Timeline, Budget.
4. Organization of the Team:
a. Description of how the team worked together on accomplishing the task (roles, tools, responsibilities);
b. Initial analysis of the team experience while utilizing relevant course concepts;
c. Individual and team reflections on leading, facilitating and participating in such team activity.
A 5-minutes long video describing project and outputs (e.g. the prototype/test), to be presented and discussed in class during
the dedicated sessions of June 16th and 22nd. The video will represent the final presentation of the team project. Teams are
required to be well organised and to respect the time limits. After the projection of the video, the team will be asked to answer
to some questions both from professors and from other teams.
Deliverables and Deadlines

2

E.g. Interns, Erasmus, etc.

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

April 3rd : one-page proposal for facultys approval3, in which team name and logo should be specified;
May 5th: first review on the state of the project (in class, with the main professor and tutor of the section);
June 9th: second review on the state of the project (in class, with the main professor and tutor of the section);
June 15th: delivery of the final report4;
June 16th and 22nd: each team will present its project through the projection of the summary video.

The two reviews are mandatory and the whole team will have to participate to them. In both the reviews, each team will have a
scheduled time to meet face to face with the main professor or the tutor of the section. During the face-to-face meeting, the team
will have to report on the status of the project (what, who, why of the noble idea/product/service; organization(s) involved, status
of the project plan). The meetings are also a moment in which teams can ask questions to Professor and Tutor about doubts,
problems and clarifications regarding the project.
In addition, several group work sessions are planned during the semester (see the calendar). Teams can use the four hours of the
group-work sessions to work on projectseither in class or outside it. A tutor will be present in class for the whole duration of the
session, to support teams in case of doubts, questions or problems. Moreover, to make these sessions more active along the class,
the team leaders will have the chance to post questions regarding the project on the Forum: the most relevant ones will be picked
up and answered by the professor/tutor in a plenary session at the beginning of each group-work session. The deadline for posting
the questions is 14.00 of the day before the session.
Both reviews and group-work sessions are extremely important for the accomplishment of projects requirements. It is up to each
team to exploit these resources in the best way, and learning how to do it is a part of the educational process.
Evaluation
The total points achievable with the project are 10.
The report will be evaluated on the following criteria:
The quality and clarity of the analysis, of the solutions concept, the project plan and organization of the team;
The data and evidence provided to support those analysis and insights;
The use of appropriate frameworks, tools, and topics introduced during classes;
The logical structure of the report, and its effectiveness in terms of communication (language, visuals, etc.).
The presentation (video) and class discussion will be evaluated on the following criteria:
Content: same criteria as above for the report (with, of course, the additional capability to select key messages that can be
communicated in a 5 minutes presentation);
Communication: logical structure and communication effectiveness of the video;
Discussion: effectiveness in addressing the questions raised by the audience.
Please note that the technical and graphical quality of the video is not a criterion for evaluation.
Points achieved with the noble project are valid for the entire academic year. Students that do not pass the written exam in one of
the sessions of the current academic year (2014/2015) will have to re-do the noble project the following year.

5. Leadership Story
Focus and Objectives of the Project
The team will develop a video describing the profile and journey of an innovative leader: her/his peculiar personality, capabilities,
her/his behaviours in different situations, including moments of success and of challenges. The objective of this work is two-fold.
On one hand the students will have to screen and agree on a leader to be examined. This reflection phase will be an
opportunity to create a map with the different leaders surrounding us, which will quite likely differ on not only the context in
which they operate but also in their characteristics.
On the other hand, once having selected the leader, the students will have to fully immerse in the story behind her/him. The
students will carefully look at the challenges the leader had to overcome over time, to later analyse them. This task will help the
students to see if (and how) the theory is applied in practice.
Requirement and Outputs
The team will have to first identify the protagonist of the story, i.e. the leader. Interviewing the leader is mandatory and the
interview will have to be complemented with archival research and the knowledge that the team might have about the context and
the specific story of the leader. Note that in case the interview is in Italian, and if you wish to report any part of the interview in the
video, English subtitles have to be added.
The final output will be a video of 3-4 long. The video will need to contain:
Introduction to the leader and its context;

3
4

The one page has to be uploaded in the folder Homework/Consegne. The file should be named TeamName_Noble_OnePage.docx.
The one page has to be uploaded in the folder Homework/Consegne. The file should be named TeamName_Noble_Report.docx.

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

Reason of selection: why did you pick this leader?

The profile and journey her/his peculiar personality, capabilities, his behaviours in different situations, including moments of
success and of challenge;
Personal reflection: possible questions to guide the reflection:
o Connection to theory: has theory been confirmed or challenged?
o Learning outcomes: what have you learned from her/his story?

Deliverables and Deadlines for Attending Students

April 3rd : the leader has to be selected and communicated for Professors approval; each team will have to fill in a simple form
(which will be provided beforehand) with the name of the leader, the organisation she/he belongs to and a couple of sentences
explaining why you have selected her/him5;
June 15th: delivery of the video6;
June 15th20th: peer-evaluation and quality check;
June 23rd: the best stories will be displayed in class.

Deliverables and Deadlines for Not-attending Students

Not-attending students will have to deliver the video of their leadership story and the monograph one week before the exam
session they decide to attend. A specific folder on BeeP will be create for these deliverables.
Evaluation
The total points achievable with the leadership story are 3.
The stories will be peer-evaluated. Each group of students will have to rank all the works done by the groups of another section.
The most voted projects will be presented in a final lecture. Professors will make a quality check to make sure the requirements of
the assignment are fulfilled and the video covers all the elements requested and will define the grade of the project. Please note that
the technical and graphical quality of the video is not a criterion for evaluation.
Points achieved with the leadership story are valid for the entire academic year. Students that do not pass the written exam in one
of the sessions of current academic year (2014/2015) will have to re-do the leadership story activities the following year.

6. Evaluation
The final evaluation of the course is different for attending and not-attending students.
Attending Students
The evaluation will be based on the following elements:
Written exam: theoretical questions on course content; the exam will be based on the content included in the course slides,
cases, guest speakers presentations and class discussion.
Noble project: teamwork with the goal to apply leadership and innovation notions to a project of innovation of (social)
relevance; best projects (selected by professor) will be presented in a final lecture; see section 4 for further details.
Leadership story: development of a video that describes the teams perspective on an innovative leader, based on interviews
with her/him; projects will be peers-evaluated; the most voted projects will be presented in a plenary final lecture(s) with
presence of testimonials; see section 5 for further details.
The specific elements in the grading system and the points assigned to them are depicted in the following table.
Evaluation element
Written exam
Nobel team project
Leadership story
Total

Points
18
10
3
31

Bonus points could be given for significant class participations or contributions to team effectiveness, being the reviews a crucial
moment. Students who will achieve 16 points in the written exam or 28 points on the overall evaluation can take an optional oral
exam to improve their grade. To pass the course, students must achieve at least 10 points in the written exam.
Not-Attending Students
The evaluation will be based on the following elements:

5
6

The document has to be uploaded in the folder Homework/Consegne. The file should be named TeamName_LeadershipStory_Proposal.pptx.
The document has to be uploaded in the folder Homework/Consegne. The file should be named TeamName_LeadershipStory_Video.avi.

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

Written exam: theoretical questions on course content at the end of the course;
Monograph: based on topic assigned by professors;
Leadership story: development of a video that describes the student perspective on innovative leadership based on interviews
with her/him; see section 5 for further details.

Both the monograph and the leadership story are going to be developed individually and not in teams. Both works will have to be
handed in a week before the corresponding call for the written exam.
The specific elements in the grading system and the points assigned to them are depicted in the following table.
Evaluation element
Written exam
Monograph
Leadership story
Total

Points
18
10
3
31

Students who will achieve 16 points in the written exam or 28 points on the overall evaluation can take an optional oral exam to
improve their grade. To pass the course, students must achieve at least 10 points in the written exam.

7. Course Schedule
The course has three sections that run in parallel, and arrange the three modules of classes in different time periods (for further
information, see the calendar).
Course Introduction

In class activities: illustration of the motivation and structure of the course. Every student will describe her perspective on
innovative leaders.
Pre-assigned activities: think about the personal characteristics that an innovative leader should nurture, and you would like to
develop yourself; think about the name of a famous leader who best fit with that description and who best represents the kind
of leader you would like to be.
Supporting readings: none

Strategy of Innovation
Class 1 What is innovation, its value and its challenges. The drivers of innovation
In class activities: discussion of the case Dragon Teeth Vineyard
Pre-assigned activities: read the case Dragon Teeth Vineyard (available on BeeP) and get ready to answer the following questions:
o If you were Peter Dregoot would you invest in OGMs to innovate your products? If so, how would you invest? If not,
what would you do?
o Why traditional wine producers, have not been able to innovate in the past decades and therefore have lost market share?
o Would you invest in OGM now if you were an Italian producer? If so, how would you invest? If not, what would you do?
Supporting readings: chapters 1, 3 and 5 of SCH7.
Class 2 Innovation strategy and strategy innovation: meaning and vision
In class activities: discussion of cases of innovation of meaning (in teams)
Pre-assigned activities: imagine you are a bank and want to understand how new generations (consumers aged between 20 and
30 years) are changing their attitude and behaviours towards money. Imagine this bank wants to reflect on are the current
trends in this consumer group concerning how they think about money, their needs and aspirations, feelings. Now: think of a
song that best represents (because of its lyrics or music) your understanding and interpretation of this trend, i.e. how new
generations are dealing with money. Post the YouTube link to this song in Beep before the start of the class and get ready to
explain why you choose it.
Supporting readings: chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of VER8.
Class 3 Innovation strategy and strategy innovation: critical and metaphorical thinking
In class activities: presentation of your cases of innovation of meaning; exercise on metaphors (in teams).
Pre-assigned activities: think of a case of innovation of meaning (different than the one already discussed in class); describe the
case in terms of change of meaning, from to
Supporting readings: chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 of VER.
Class 4 Technological Innovation: Strategy
In class activities: brief discussion on the case Blu-ray versus HD-DVD: A Standards Battle in High-Definition Video
Pre-assigned activities: read the case assigned for the class and try to answer the related questions in advance:

7
8

Schilling, M.A. (2012). Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (4th Edition). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Verganti, R. (2009). Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Harvard Business Press

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

o What factors do you think influenced whether (1) consumers, (2) retailers, or (3) movie producers supported Blu-ray
versus HD-DVD?
o Why do you think Toshiba and Sony would not cooperate to produce a common standard?
o If HD-DVD had not pulled out of the market, would the market have selected a single winner or would both formats
have survived?
o Does having a single video format standard benefit or hurt consumers? Does it benefit or hurt consumer electronics
producers? Does it benefit or hurt movie producers?
Supporting readings: chapters 4, 6, 10, 13 (pp. 277290) of SCH

Class 5 Collaborative Innovation

In class activities: brief discussion on the case Dyesol: Partnering to Harness the Power of the Sun
Pre-assigned activities: read the case assigned for the class and try to answer the related questions in advance:
o What were the advantages and disadvantages of Dyesols venture with Tata Steel?
o What were the advantages and disadvantages of Dyesols venture with Pilkington?
o Should Dyesol look to aggressively form licensing agreements (or other types of alliances) with other firms?
o What mechanisms do you believe should be in place to help ensure that Dyesols objectives (and those of its partners) are
met in its collaborative relationships?
Supporting readings: chapter 8 of SCH and the Article Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You? (available on BeeP)
Leadership and Change
Class 1 Introduction to organisational behaviour and leadership
In class activities: discussion on the case GEs two-decade transformation: Jack Welchs leadership.
Pre-assigned activities: read the case on GE (available on BeeP) and get ready to answer the following questions:
o How difficult a challenge did Welch face in 1981? How effectively did he take charge?
o What is your evaluation of Welchs approach to leading change? How important is he to GEs success? What implications
for his replacement?
o What is Welchs objective in the series of initiatives he launched in the late 1980s and early 1990s? What was he trying to
achieve in the round change he put in motion in that period? Is there a logic or rationale supporting the changing process?
o How does a large, complex diversified conglomerate of business that is GE defies the critics and continues to grow so
profitably? Have Welchs various initiatives added value? If so, how?
Supporting readings: chapters 1 and 12 of ROB9 (available on BeeP), and chapter 1 of SHA10 (available on BeeP).
Class 2 Leadership styles in modern organisations
In class activities: discussion on the case Googles project Oxygen: do managers matters.
Pre-assigned activities: read the case on Google (available on BeeP) and try to answer the following questions in advance:
o How would you describe Googles culture? How were managers viewed before project Oxygen?
o Whats your assessment of the Oxygen 8 attributes? What value (if any) do they provide? How generalisable are they?
o What should Settys priorities be going forward? Which of the proposed initiatives should he pursue? In particular, should
he and his team take on the challenge of trying to create truly amazing managers? If so, how?
Supporting readings: chapter 12 of ROB (available on BeeP) and chapter 8 of SHA (available on BeeP), WES11 (all book).
Class 3 Leadership for change and innovation
In class activities: discussion on the case Chapparal Steel: Rapid Product and Process Development.
Pre-assigned activities: read the case on Chapparal (available on BeeP) and get ready to answer the following questions:
o Which specific characteristics make Chaparral Steel so effective? How would you measure and monitor this effectiveness?
o Why other competitors do not imitate Chaparral Steel implementing their best practices?
o How would you characterise the specific Chaparral Steel approach to innovation?
o Which managerial challenges are now opened by the success of the Near Net Project? Which recommendations, in
particular, would you give to Gordon Forward to preserve their successful Continuous Innovation culture while growing?
Supporting readings: chapters 1 and 18 of ROB (available on BeeP).
Class 4 Leadership in multicultural, diverse environment and female leadership
In class activities: discussion over a real experience by a famous Italian female leader.
Pre-assigned activities: work in teams in order to prepare some questions to be made to our guest; share the questions with
faculty 2 days before the class.
Supporting readings: chapter 2 and 4 of KRE (available on BeeP).
Class 5 Shared leadership and coaching others to lead innovation
In class activities: team discussion of possible drivers for developing leadership styles supporting smart-working practices
Pre-assigned activities: think of a film that best represents (because of its plot or acting styles) the character/traits of innovative
leaders nowadays; get ready to explain why you choose it.

Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T.A. (2013). Organizational Behaviour (15th Edition). Pearson.
Shani A.B. (Rami), Chandler D., Coget J.F., Lau J.B. (2009). Behavior in Organizations (9th Edition). McGraw-Hill.
11 Westerman G., Bonnet D. and McAfee A.P. (2014). Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation. Harvard Business Review Press.
9

10

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation

Course syllabus

Supporting readings: chapter 12 of ROB, chapter 9 of SHA, chapter 3 of KRE12 (all availables on BeeP).

Innovation Process
Class 1 Concept design and User Needs analysis
In class activities: discussion on the IDEO Shopping Cart video and on the case Innovation at 3M Corporation (A)
Pre-assigned activities:
o Watch the IDEO video (link available on BeeP) and get ready to answer the following questions:
What are the main steps of IDEO innovation process?
Which are the organization and culture of innovation in IDEO?
What is the role of applied ethnography in the IDEO innovation process? Why it is considered more effective than
traditional market research to elicit user needs and foster innovation?
What type of innovation is the Shopping Cart of IDEO? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the final concept?
How these are related to the use of applied ethnography?
o Read the 3M case (available on BeeP) and be prepared to discuss the following question: what are the main differences
between Lead User research process and Traditional 3M development process?
Supporting readings: chapter 2 and 14 of SCH, chapter 9 of BES13 (available on BeeP) and the following papers:
o Thomke S., Von Hippel E. (2002). Innovators. Harvard Business Review, 80(4): 7481 (available on Beep)
o Von Hippel E. (1986). Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts. Management Science, 32(7): 791805 (available on
BeeP)
Class 2 Creativity for innovation
In class activities: work in teams on team creativity; discussion on the case Teaming at Disney Animation
Pre-assigned activities: Read the case on Disney (available on BeeP) and get ready to answer to the following questions:
o Which practices does Disney put in place to foster team creativity?
o Which organizational interventions/characteristics of Disney are aimed to foster creativity?
o How leadership affects the creativity process in Disney?
Supporting readings: chapter 11 of KRE, chapter 9 of THO14 (available on BeeP)
Class 3 Groups and teams dynamics
In class activities: Mattson Project Delta (A) and (B)
Pre-assigned activities:
o Within your team: think of a sport that best represents leadership and innovation within teams. Post a picture or very
short video (YouTube link) together with a sentence explaining your choice in Beep before the class and get ready to
present them in class
o Read the case on Mattson and get ready to answer the following questions:
What are the main differences in team structures used for the Project Delta?
What is each team structure better for in terms of innovation?
Supporting readings: chapters 9 and 10 of ROB (available on BeeP), chapters 12, 13 and 14 of KRE (available on BeeP),
chapters 1 and 4 of THO (available on BeeP), chapter 12 of SCH
Class 4 Team behaviours, decision making and conflict management
In class activities: in-class simulation on team decision making and effectiveness
Pre-assigned activities: none
Supporting readings: chapter 14 of ROB, chapters 12 and 13 of KRE (all available on BeeP)
Class 5 How to manage and lead a development process
In class activities: Mattson Project Delta (C)
Pre-assigned activities: Read the case on Mattson and get ready to answer the following questions:
o Describe pros and cons of innovation process used in each team in Project Delta
o Was Gundrum approach correct to test different innovation processes?
Supporting readings: chapters 10 and 11 of SCH, Case Living on Internet Time (available on BeeP)

Kreitner R., Kinicki A. (2013) Organizational Behavior (10th Edition), McGraw-Hill.
Tidd, J., Bessant, J. R., & Pavitt, K. (2005). Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change (4th Edition). Wiley.
14 Thompson, L. (2014). Making the Team: A Guide for Managers (5th Edition). Pearson
12
13

Politecnico di Milano | Leadership and Innovation