We challenged ourselves to create an immersive experience that allowed the students to not only hear about, but apply and internalize the lessons of Silicon Valley. The outcome is our “Innovation Leadership Immersion Program.”
We believe a “learning by doing” experience is required to truly understand how innovation works in Silicon Valley. Instead of a safari we seek to lead the participants on a guided journey of the innovation process.
We recognize that in the course of one week, you can only scratch the surface, but we wanted the students to have a “hands-on” experience as innovation practitioners, and not just observers. So what does this journey look like for the students?
The program begins at their “home” MBA program with 1-2 days of training on various theories and models of innovation, the culture of Silicon Valley, Opportunity Identification and Value Propositions. During this period the participants will form teams of 3-5 who will work together throughout the program. Each team is responsible for generating an idea for a product or service and developing that idea over the course of the program.
In keeping with the spirit of Silicon Valley, the program is intense. The day typically begins at 9am and the teams work well into the evenings.