Propositions on Innovation, Creativity, Enterprise and Design
Late October 2011 I began developing a new course as an elective for the Unitec Master of Business programme. I created the formal course descriptor, then took leave for a month travelling Korea and England. Since returning to work, I have begun to ‘flesh out’ the details of the course, particular the novel approach to the course assignments.

A colleague remarked: “But will you get any students, since it’s an elective course?” So I took a break from writing the assignment specifications, and put together a brief promotional video for the course. Yesterday morning, I tentatively ‘pilot tested’ my developing Apple Keynote presentation with a newly enrolled student exploring which electives she could study for her degree. Her enthusiastic response to my presentation prompted me to ‘go live’ with this  prototype recruitment and introductory video.

So let’s begin….

• What is innovation? Why do we need innovation? … Is innovation more than inventing an unconventional product, or creating a new service or process?
• How do innovations get created? … What are the factors associated with success and failure?
• What are the roles of leadership, enterprise, creativity, and design in the process of innovation?
• Have you the motivation to ‘make a difference’ and lead innovation in your enterprise?

This short video (3 min) introduces several propositions that begin your journey towards answering these questions.

 If these propositions strike a chord with you, then come join my learning adventure!

Enrol in course APMG 8118 Enterprise Creativity, Innovation & Design at Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

Next course commences 28 February, 2012.

Course link (for 2012-2-28): APMG 8118 

The course is an ELECTIVE in Unitec’s Master of Business, MBus.

Course tutor Dr Peter Mellalieu. http://about.me/peter.mellalieu

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the advice and many ideas of John Thompson and Bill Bolton that have informed my distillation of the ‘Five Propositions on ICED’ presented here, particularly their Entrepreneurial Process Model, Fig 1.1 in their book:

Bringing ‘reality TV’ into the academy: Introducing Enterprise Masterworks™ for entrepreneurship education

A substantial gap is opening up between business faculties and leading edge business practice. Academics tend to dismiss the innovative struggles of leading edge businesses as faddism. By doing this they fail to recognise that what is often happening is that practising managers are confronting actual, experiential situations and finding that traditional practices no longer work. What seem to be fads are actually people struggling with new situations for which they have inadequate models to help them understand - and they are getting inadequate help from academics at both the research and teaching levels.” (Anna Smith, Business Education Quarterly Review, 1996)

In response to the challenge issued by Smith, I created a university course in innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship that “practised what it preached”. One unique element in the learning environment was the use of a television production studio to create each “lesson” with the students in the style most closely described today as “reality TV”. The title of the TV programme is: Enterprise MasterWorks™.

Enterprise MasterWorks™ (EMW) is a university-based educational programme that demonstrates a novel approach for developing competencies in entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.

EMW is framed as a start-up small-medium enterprise (SME), staffed mainly by students of enterprise development. The EMW ‘company’ produces two products: (a) purpose-designed learning adventures, and (b) video training packages based around the competency requirements for creating efficacious entrepreneurs and innovators, science and technology managers, SME consultants and trainers, and SME managers.

Each episode of EMW is realised as an “as live-to-air master class and workshop”. In practice, each episode is a high-energy learning adventure that takes place in a television studio. A typical 160 minute episode includes: a workshop briefing from a guest “master” (such as an SME manager); an interview and fish bowl discussion with students; video inserts profiling the guest’s enterprise; a team-taught practical workshop; reflective insights; and learning connections to relevant theory and “masterful” entrepreneurial practice.

The EMW ‘reality-TV’ format results in a weaving together of the strengths of both academic thinking and good management practice, focussed directly on the personal and professional development interests of the programme participants: the students.

Historical note:
The EMW approach to teaching was a ‘skunkworks’ innovation project run ‘under the radar’ for three years and 30 episodes at Massey University between 1998 and 2000. The TV studio used analog equipment purchased in the late 1980s. This is one reason for the use of brown paper instead of whiteboards - to avoid camera flare!

The full paper

• Introduces the Enterprise MasterWorks (EMW) pedagogical format as a new and effective form of university-based professional and personal development for SME managers, entrepreneurs, and innovators.
• Reports the history of the founding and making of EMW, including its pedagogical rationale and future directions.
• Describes the advantages and disadvantages of the EMW format
• Explains how to organise and deliver an EMW production

Mellalieu, P. J. (2009, July 1). Case study: An engaging user-centred learning environment designed for innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs: Enterprise MasterWorks. User-centred learning for enterprise. Retrieved July 4, 2009, from http://web.mac.com/petermellalieu/Teacher/Examples/Entries/2009/7/2_Case_study%3A_An_engaging_user-centred_learning_environment_designed_for_innovators%2C_creators%2C_and_entrepreneurs%3A_Enterprise_MasterWorks.html

Related video

Elements of an EMW learning adventure. (2011). . Palmerston North, NZ: Massey University Television Production Centre. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYya4gfcxs4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Evaluative questioning as a risk management tactic whilst innovating in teaching practice. (2011). . Palmerston North, NZ: Massey University Television Production Centre. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn_49OEpjhs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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