360º Communication and Innovation

Objectives

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the success (or failure) of a company depends largely on innovation. However, between 40 and 90% of innovations fail in the marketplace. In this course we examine the adoption of innovation in the marketplace, taking the perspective of the "objective reality" and the "perceived reality" of decision makers. Below we offer some suggestions for delivering innovations with greater success in the marketplace.

Learning outcomes

• Understand the application of various creative techniques, as well as innovation models, gamification for innovation and open innovation through real cases.
• Solve problems and situations related to professional performance with entrepreneurial and innovative attitudes.
• Assume different responsibilities in individual or collaborative work and evaluate the results obtained.

Competencies

General skills

• Be able to analyze and summarize.
• Be able to communicate orally and in the languages of the community.
• Be able to organize and plan.
• Be able to use information: seek, analyze, select, organize and exploit information effectively.

Specific skills

• Be able to analyze and understand the operation of the market and its influence on the activities of a company.
• Be able to apply market research theory and instruments to implement business strategies.
• Be able to apply theoretical knowledge, skills and communication tools to create an integrated communication strategy for an organization.
• Be able to devise and implement integrated marketing plans.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.
• Students have demonstrated knowledge and understanding in a field of study that builds on general secondary education with the support of advanced textbooks and knowledge of the latest advances in this field of study.
• Students have developed the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of independent learning.
• Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) in order to make judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigor and quality.
• Become the protagonist of one's own learning process in order to achieve personal and professional growth and acquire all-round training for living and learning in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural, gender and economic diversity.
• Display professional skills in complex multidisciplinary contexts, working in networked teams, whether face-to-face or online, through use of information and communication technology.
• Exercise active citizenship and individual responsibility with a commitment to the values of democracy, sustainability and universal design, through practice based on learning, service and social inclusion.
• Interact in international and worldwide contexts to identify needs and and new contexts for knowledge transfer to current and emerging fields of professional development, with the ability to adapt to and independently manage professional and research processes.
• Project the values of entrepreneurship and innovation in one's academic and professional career, through contact with a variety of practical contexts and motivation for professional development.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Definition of the concept of creativity
   • Problems defining the concept of creativity
   • Origin and use of the term
   • Most common connotations
     1. Interpretation of a magical-religious nature
     2. Creativity linked to productive activity
   • Definitions of creativity
   • Multidisciplinary perspective
   • Main contributions
   • Beginning of research on creativity
   • Four important lines of research
     1. Study of the creative subject
     2. Study of the creative process
     3. Creative product study
     4. Study of the creative situation
2. The creative attitude
3. Intellectual abilities: Guilford
4. Creativity as a process
5. Stages of the creation process
6. Classic models of the creative process
7. Cognitive models of the creative process
   • Creativity understood as a cognitive activity
8. Research on creativity as a product
   • Criteria determining creative work
9. Creative thinking
   • Creative thinking processes
   • Barriers to creativity
   • Creativity Blockers
   • Brain and creativity
   • Split brain model
   • Divergent thinking
   • Convergent thinking
   • Revealing the triadic mental consciousness
10. Creative product
11. Key aspects in creativity
12. Characteristics of the creative person
    • Curiosity
    • The challenge to the established
    • Constructive discontent
    • Trust
    • The ability to not prejudge or criticize in advance
    • Paradox of creative personality
    • Creativity in children and adults
13. Measuring creativity
    • Flexibility
    • Originality
    • Preparation
    • Sensitivity
    • Redefinition
    • Abstraction
    • Summary
14. Creative process
    • Jack Foster Creative Model
    • How to be creative?
15. Creative techniques
    • Brainstorming
    • Googlestorming
    • Questioning or listing of questions
    • SCAMPER Method
    • Identification or empathy
    • Random stimulation, free association and forced connections
    • List of attributes
    • Consult strangers
    • Mind maps
    • Six hats for thinking
    • Relaxation techniques
    • The 7 pro-creativity strategies
    • Reversing assumptions
    • Reformulation
    • Morphological analysis
    • Technique 635
    • 4x4x4 technique
    • Nominal or discussion groups
    • Interview
    • Delphi method or panel
    • Anticipation
    • Psychodrama or role-play
    • Ideogrammation
    • Analogies
    • Bionic
    • The visualization
    • PNI aspects
    • SWOT technique
    • Problem trees / Ishikawa diagram
    • Bubbles
16. Acquisition of creative criteria in communication
17. The creative environment
18. Differences between innovation and creativity
19. Innovation: definition and related concepts
    • Innovation Objectives
    • Types of innovators
    • Basic principles for innovation
    • Types of innovation according to the degree of innovation
      1. Incremental innovation
      2. Radical or disruptive innovation
      3. Principles of disruptive innovation
      4. Reflections on disruption
    • Innovation and design
20. Requirements for having innovative ideas
    • Improvisation
    • Intuition
    • Invention
    • Talent
21. Creativity and innovation
22. How to innovate
    • Where to apply innovation in companies
    • Identify unmet needs in the market
    • Constant training and information
    • Spend time thinking
    • Propose challenges
    • Don't take anything for granted
    • Promote experimentation
    • Strengthening cross-functional work teams
23. Facilitators for innovation in companies
    • The company culture
    • Internal processes
    • Review and implementation
    • Performance measures
    • Learning
    • Customers, competitors and suppliers
    • Strategic partners
    • Investors
    • Government
24. Innovation and social media
25. Innovative companies
26. Innovation models
27. Innovation: OSLO Manual
    • Product innovation
    • Innovation in marketing or commercialization
    • Process innovation
    • Innovation in organization
28. Why innovate?
29. Innovation planning process
30. Tools for innovation planning
31. Gamification for innovation
    • And what is gamification?
    • Achievements and rewards
    • Progression or advancement
    • Scoring systems
    • Classification systems
    • And where do we find this type of dynamics?
32. Open innovation
    • Open innovation IN
    • Open innovation OUT
    • Toolkit for innovation
      • Stage 1: Explore
        1. Define your strategy
        2. Investigate the needs
      • Step 2: Extract
        1. Discover ideas
        2. Build prototypes
      • Stage 3: Explode
        1. Develops proposals
        2. Make business models

Evaluation

The evaluation process consists of:

• The development of practices during and outside of class (total practices: 50%)
• The application of the toolkit from Open Innovation to the practical case of developing a mobile application or an innovative social network (total: 50%)

No practice is recoverable.

In case of suspending the ordinary call, all practices carried out during the course must be submitted.

The evaluation system applies to any possible scenario in the face of Covid: in-person, semi-in-person and virtual.

Methodology

A variety of teaching methods are used throughout the course to encourage active learning.

Formal teaching is combined with projects, audiovisuals, role-playing games, simulations, case histories and gamification.

Specific tasks are carried out during the course and are requested of the attendees. These tasks may include writing essays and reports, as well as group project presentations.

Specifically, the Open Innovation case application project is developed at the end of the course.

In the event of a health emergency situation that entails a new lockdown, teaching will be fully transferred to virtual learning and the methodology will be adapted to this new context.

Bibliography

Key references

• Harvard Business Essentials (2004). Desarrollar la gestión de la creatividad y de la innovación. Ediciones Deusto.
• Peter F. Drucker, Dorothy Leonard, Jeffrey F. Rayport, Richard K. Lester, (2010). Creatividad e innovación, Ediciones Deusto (2010). Ediciones Deusto.
• Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman, (2010). Las diez caras de la innovación: Estrategias para una creatividad excelente. Paidos.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.