Business Project "Organizing for Innovation in Transforming Industries"

CORPORATE PARTNERS: This business project offered by WU’s Energy & Strategy Think Tank provides students with the opportunity to work with two of Austria's leading corporations, OMV and Wien Energie, as well as with etventure, a leading consulting firm for the implementation of digital transformation and innovation projects with offices in, amongst others, Berlin, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Munich, New York, Stuttgart, and Zurich.

FOCUS & IMPACT: This project focuses on how incumbents in transforming industries can organize to constantly innovate their products, processes, and business models. Equipped with several state-of-the-art analysis and creativity tools, students will take the role of top-management consultants. Working in teams, they will analyze firms, markets, and trends and develop concepts, thereby generating outputs with real-life impact and high managerial visiblity.

COURSE EXPERIENCE: Mirroring the approach of top management consultancies, teams will be compiled based on education, competences, and experiences. For that purpose, each registered student needs to submit his/her CV. The compiled teams will be announced at the first day of the two-day-long kick-off that will provide key insights and lay the ground for successfull and joyful teamwork. Each team will have a team coordinator who, upon successfull completion of the course, will receive an individual certificate of his/her leadership skills and tasks. Registered students can state if they want to assume the role of the team coordinator. More details will be provided in time.

After completing this highly interactive and practice-oriented course, students will have advanced their knowledge of and skills in…

Strategic Management, Innovation Management, & Organization Design
- Analyze the implications of technological innovations, trends (such as digital transformation and renewable energies), and industry changes for incumbants
- Use creativity tools (such as design thinking) and state-of-the-art concepts (such as ambidexterity, capablity monitoring, ecosystems, and innovation hubs) to develop innovative organization designs tailored to client needs
- Develop roadmaps for implementation

Top Management Consulting & Project Management
- Succesfully work with high-profile clients in consulting projects
- Apply tools to organize and coordinate complex consulting projects
- Know how to build industry-related knowledge on a complex industry

Team Management & Communication Management
- Succesfully work in interdisciplinary and international teams
- Present with impact in front of senior executives
- Communicate complex findings in a structured and easy way

Mandatory attendance for ALL for kick-off (first two days), mid-term presentation and final presentation.

Mandatory attendance of a minimum of members per team for remaining sessions (Details at kick-off).

The course combines various interactive and state-of-the-art methods:

• Interactive theory inputs and best practice inputs
• In-class discussions
• Group work
• Team and 1-on-1 coaching
• Design thinking
• Presentations in front of senior executives

40% Project Deliverables (Group Assessment)
20% Mid-term Presentation (Group Assessment)
20% Final Presentation (Group Assessment)
20% In-class Discussions and Activity (Individual Assessement)