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continued from page 13 14 “If a company has the right kind of culture, they run experiments. And with the right kinds of experiments, they have a better chance of hitting a home run,” Williams says. Chowdhury agrees. “Experimentation is vital in the formulation of an idea,” he says. And once you have hit upon a good idea, it allows you to hone your innovation to meet the needs and preferences of the customer. Even after product launch, ongoing research is useful. Chowdhury points out that you may find that what the customer actually wants doesn’t always match your vision. “In my case, I wanted to just open more nap centers. What we didn’t expect was such a strong demand for the purchase of the MetroNaps pods we developed,” which are in great demand in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany. With experimentation, “the goal is not necessarily to be successful,” Williams says. “Though that seems odd on the surface, the goal is to learn – to see if something works or not.” When success is based on what is learned through experimentation, there is less aversion to risk. This, in turn, frees up energy to explore. “Explorers are the pathfinders, the pioneers,” reports Williams. “This is a good strategy in searching out new opportunities. You have to be willing to take journeys without guarantees.” Rushin says Apple is an excellent example of the “don’t-give-up attitude” needed for success. “The company’s Newton PDA wasn’t successful, but the company became very successful in other areas, such as with its iPod and iTunes. What makes companies successful is a willingness to take risks and accept failure without penalty. Penalties for failure stifle creativity.” Williams emphasizes, “It’s a matter of having the willingness to treat the question of knowledge as the most important fundamental source of new competitive advantage.” THE TEPPER FACTOR With regard to innovation by individuals, one must be equipped to actually recognize those “ah-ha” moments, or the opportunity passes unobserved. While the time, place and circumstances for innovation are presented to different people in different ways, an important attribute among innovative individuals is having the broad base of knowledge and multi-functional insight with which to scan the opportunity horizon. Tepper graduates frequently point to this aspect of their education – the emphasis upon decision making driven by multiple strategic perspectives – as uniquely relevant and reliable as part of the innovation process, whether they work as part of a corporate team or as entrepreneurs. While at Tepper, Chowdhury not only tested his new business concept, but he refined and developed it. He points to the extraordinary support shown by professors, the opportunity to create a business plan in entrepreneurship classes, and the opportunity he had to enter the plan in a national venture capital case competition, where it passed muster with the investors and won the competition. Li believes the Tepper experience is special because students are perpetually exposed to a wide variety of different functions. “It gives you perspective – awareness of diverse aspects of the business world without having to be an expert. It makes one open to possibilities because you can communicate, relate and understand across various disciplines,” he says. Contrary to the conventional wisdom held by authors, management experts and even many corporate leaders, identifying the opportunities for innovation is not about being in the right place at the right time. It’s unrelated to luck, or serendipity, or the proverbial light bulb above one’s head. Innovation is certainly elusive, but it’s also attainable. A person does, indeed, have control: control over the horizon that is scanned, control over the information that is assessed and acted upon, and control over how to seize the opportunity recognized. Inspiration, culture and experimentation are all contributing factors. But, having the knowledge on how to proceed toward the opportunity is what makes it happen.
TEPPER School of Business New Center For Business Solutions Integrates Business And Education by Geof Becker Aiming to transform the practice of business and business education, theTepper School of Business recently launched the Center for Business Solutions.The new center, in combination with two other research centers at theTepper School, integrates core disciplines central to the process of business innovation.Three specific areas are involved in the centers: stimulation of relevant management research; enhancement of business education; and long-term partnerships with corporations to help businesses more fully employ sophisticated analytical technology in strategically important processes. Headed by Sunder Kekre, Bosch Professor of Manufacturing and Operations Management, the Center for Business Solutions is an ambitious and focused effort to forge mutually beneficial partnerships between industry and theTepper School. “The cycle of strategy to execution is faster than ever.The key to our partnership model is helping member companies leverage technology as a critical element in converting data to knowledge, action and financial performance,” said Kekre. The fully integrated approach embodied in the Center for Business Solutions comes as Dean Kenneth Dunn seeks to keep theTepper School at the forefront of business research, building upon the legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning work that distinguishes theTepper School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University. “The Center for Business Solutions is a new approach grounded in the belief that in-depth partnerships between companies and the Tepper School will capitalize on our recognized strengths in leveraging the intersection of business and technology,” said Dunn. “The close relationships also will help our faculty develop new knowledge based on real business data and problems, and quickly bring these discoveries into the classroom.” The new center is an integral component in the dean’s plan to stimulate innovative research and education that impacts business practice. Its close relationship with two other centers at theTepper School, the Center for Analytical Research inTechnology (CART) and theTeaching Innovation Center (TIC), defines the organizational structure that will foster the leadership Dunn envisions. Companies partner with theTepper School’s Center for Business Solutions through a sponsorship program that funds research projects for faculty and students that benefit companies’ businesses. Membership benefits include access to faculty/student teams; private briefings on faculty research; company-specific executive education programs; priority recruiting; project courses sponsorships; and opportunities to participate in summit meetings and conferences. Member companies may also provide industry data and sponsor international field studies and case competitions. “The tripod concept is a good illustration of the interplay among the three areas of research, teaching and practice,” said R. Ravi, associate dean, Intellectual Strategy and Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research and Computer Science. “The size of the faculty is an important factor in the delivery of knowledge across these three areas. With our smaller faculty, there are no silos. Everyone contributes to breakthroughs.” With the CART and theTIC, the new Center for Business Solutions completes a powerful pedagogical plan designed to benefit faculty, students and corporate partners. Faculty gain insight into complex, high-impact problems for research and the creation of new knowledge; students apply newly acquired skills to real business problems; and corporations receive in-depth access to theTepper School’s and Carnegie Mellon University’s renowned academic resources and intellectual capital for critical problem solving, research, recruiting and executive education. “This is the final part of the research triangle whose goal is to increase the dominance of our faculty research in the area of business education,” said John Mather, teaching professor of marketing and executive director of the masters programs. 15 www.tepper.cmu.edu For more information, call 412.268.1748 or visit www.tepper.cmu.edu/solutions
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