Innovation and Industrial Management

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”

Charles Darwin had it right in his famous statement. In business terms, if organisations do not change what they offer and the way they create and deliver it, they may not be around for long. The Innovation and Industrial Management (IIM) programme is concerned with analysing problems and designing solutions for organisations operating in changing markets with evolving technologies.

Modern organisations face complex industrial and financial challenges when doing business domestically as well as internationally. Organisations need to constantly adapt to changing customer preferences, technological development, workforce characteristics and global competition in ways that will positively affect their future profitability and competitiveness.

The IIM programme therefore focuses on management within the frameworks of short-term and long-term objectives and of investments in relation to industrial dynamics and innovation. The rationale for combining these frameworks is that organisations make trade-offs between ‘efficiency’ and ‘innovation’. Modern managers must learn to utilise and mobilise existing resources for current activities, at the same time as they must develop existing and new resources in order to develop new businesses and services.

Hence, the overall objective of the IIM programme is to provide theories, methods and tools to students as potential managers in organisations operating under uncertainty in complex and rapidly changing markets and with constantly changing technologies.

MSc Programme Coordinator: Professor Maureen McKelvey

Deputy MSc Programme Coordinator: Lecturer Johan Brink

Programme Administrator: Karin Jansson

About the programme

Modern companies face complex industrial and financial challenges of doing business domestically as well as internationally. Companies face particular demands in adapting to these technological, financial, consumer and other changes, in ways which positively affect their future profitability and competitiveness. Global competition requires organizations to develop internal and external analysis of industrial processes and market conditions with particular emphasis on innovation, industrial dynamics and investments.

The IIM programme therefore focuses upon management within the frameworks of short-term and long-term investment in relation to industrial dynamics and innovation. The rationale for combining these frameworks is that organizations make trade-offs between "efficiency" and "innovation". The modern manager must learn to utilize and mobilize existing resources for current activities, at the same time as she and he must develop existing and new resources to develop new businesses, services, and the like, through internal and external processes.

In order to successfully implement a new strategic, tactical or operative business plan resources must be available in the right amounts, at the right time, and to the right capital costs in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The timing of financial funding is as important as the timing of purchasing, production and sales activities. In terms of an industrial dynamics and innovation framework, modern managers are involved in the longer-term development of the services and products. They therefore need to make decisions about innovation processes, business development, and intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship inside the organization). Different types of ideas and knowledge are becoming increasingly valuable to the organization - but using them to renew the business requires analysis and planning to identify, implement, and test those ideas. Ignoring renewal and innovation poses long-term threats to the survival of, in particular, the large organization.