Coles College of Business Introduces the Innovation Black Belt Program

Innovation is any idea or activity that makes an organization better and new. To have the greatest impact, the idea must create, deliver and capture value. In today’s competitive marketplace, innovation is what drives companies to produce higher quality products and services that perform better, sell for a higher price and cost the organization less to produce.

However, high-level innovation that drives growth is not easy to sustain. A large study of what causes companies to stall in their ability to create and capture value tracked the revenue growth of 503 companies that have appeared on the Fortune 100 list since it began in 1955. The study revealed that 87% of those companies stalled in their ability to grow revenue. In the three years after a stall in revenue growth, a company’s average growth rate drops 15.3%. What’s more, half of all companies never recover from their stall.

According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, innovation is now the No. 1 priority on the minds of CEOs, and 77% of senior executives find it difficult to get the creativity and innovation skills they need.

Innovation Black Belt Program at Kennesaw State University

We are here to help you transform new ideas into profitable realities through the Innovation Black Belt program. This unique program, offered through the Coles College of Business, is designed for individuals and organizations who are serious about mastering the skills needed to drive innovation and profitable growth.

“The Innovation Black Belt program is very popular with individuals and organizations who are serious about driving innovation and growth,” said Dan Stotz, Executive Director of Executive Education and Lecturer of Management in the Coles College of Business. “Program participants learn how to develop innovation strategies that lead to new, game-changing products and services.”

Through the Competing Values Framework (CVF), you will learn to how to master the four different ways of creating, delivering and capturing value: collaboration, creation, control and competition. The ultimate goal of the program is to help you reach your potential as a leader, innovator and change-maker.

The Hybrid Approach to Innovation Education: Online and Classroom Application 

The Innovation Black Belt program utilizes a hybrid experience, an approach to learning at KSU that was named a finalist for the Excalibur Award by the Technology Association of Georgia and also highlighted in the July 2018 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine. 50 percent of the program will be completed online at your convenience. During this portion of the program, you will learn through play and be introduced to “GAME-ification” and micro-learning techniques that will help you conquer quests, tackle to-do assignments, earn points and climb the leaderboard!

Once you have completed the online content, you will attend the first three-day, face-to-face session, where you will apply and practice what you have learned in an Innovation Application Lab. The program concludes with an additional three-day session where you complete a Strategic Innovation Project.

Program Instructors

As a faculty team, our goal is help you master the program’s techniques and tools so that you can teach and mentor others in your organization on how to drive innovation and profitable growth. The Innovation Black Belt program is taught by the following instructors.

Steve Olson, Ph.D., CPI

Steve is the program’s lead instructor in both the online and face-to-face sessions. He has been a pioneering leader in executive education for more than 25 years. Steve has won nine teaching awards during his career in academia and is currently a Distinguished Lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga.

Everett Darby, MBA, CPI

Everett is an instructor in both the online and the face-to-face sessions. He posts a proven 35-year track record in driving innovation and growth and building high performance teams. Everett is an expert in the areas of innovation execution and change leadership. He has held executive leadership roles at Monsanto and The Coca-Cola Company.

White Belt? Green Belt? Black Belt? The Choice is Yours!

The Innovation Black Belt program consists of three Belt levels: White, Green and Black. Depending on your needs, you may choose to earn one, two or all three Innovation Belt levels.

The Innovation White Belt can be completed online at your convenience, while the Innovation Green and Innovation Black Belt sessions are held on-site.

Innovation White Belt  $890/person

You will earn the Innovation White Belt when you complete 20 hours of highly engaging online content focused on understanding innovation best practices:

• Understand the three dimensions of innovation
• Design Thinking: Create innovations based on universal human needs
• Value Mapping: Set the stage for game-changing innovations
• Learn how Apple used Moore’s Law and Hick’s Law to revolutionize an industry
• Design business models that create, deliver, and capture new value

Innovation Green Belt  $3,900/person

Earn the Innovation Green Belt by completing the Innovation White Belt online content and attend a three-day face-to-face session with the faculty team, where you will:

• Clarify your passion for innovating and write an Innovation Challenge Statement
• Surface what you know and don’t know; Select your discovery methods
• Develop your interviewing guide; Create the Empathy Map for your innovation
• Select and pitch your prototype solution to the Innovation Challenge
• Master the CVF approach to building and nurturing a culture of innovation

 Innovation Black Belt   $8,900/person

Earn an Innovation Black Belt by completing both the Innovation White and Green Belt content, attending an additional three-day session and completing the Innovation Black Belt project:

• Bring a “live” innovation project to focus on during the Black Belt program phase
• Diagnose and overcome the systematic and political challenges
• Navigate the formal (and informal) stage gates; map the stakeholder priorities
• Build, lead, and inspire your Innovation Implementation Team
• Master the art and science of Business Model innovations to drive revenue
• Finalize the scope of your Innovation Black Belt Project

Registration

Now is the time to invest in you! Earn a new credential that can accelerate your career and has the potential to change your life. Get started here.