A joint AIM / MLab event: April 29th 2008, Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury, London

Speakers

Gary Hamel, Visiting Professor, London Business School, AIM Visiting International Fellow and co-founder of the Management Lab (MLab)

Julian Birkinshaw, Professor, London Business School, AIM Senior Fellow and co-founder of MLab

Torben Pedersen, Professor, Copenhagen Business School

Andy Sturdy, Associate Dean and Professor of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour, Warwick Business School
 
Innovation – the successful exploitation of new ideas – is widely recognised as a major strategic imperative for firms and for nations. Innovation has sometimes been viewed narrowly in terms of technological advances or new product introductions, but increasingly it is recognised that higher-order forms of innovation, with respect to a firm’s business and/or management model, are important sources of long-term competitive advantage.

The focus in this seminar is specifically on researching management innovation – the implementation of new practices, processes or techniques in the workplace that are designed to further the firm’s goals.  Management innovation refers to well-known cases such as Six Sigma or the Balanced Scorecard, and also the many incremental workplace improvements that are used to improve efficiency, effectiveness and quality of work life in firms.

Despite its importance to firm competitiveness, management innovation has attracted far less research attention than other aspects of innovation. However, this is beginning to change with a number of research groups currently active in this area.  The invited speakers will talk about their current research on management innovation, and they will also address the future research challenges in this area.   Issues that will be discussed include:

1.      How does management innovation happen? What are the processes inside and outside firm boundaries that lead to the creation, implementation and adoption of new management practices?

2.      How are new technologies and new social trends affecting the management practices of firms?  In particular, to what extent are firms using the new “Web 2.0” technologies to rethink their internal processes and systems?

3.      Can research help firms become more effective innovators?  How far does management innovation occur in a totally serendipitous fashion, or are there ways of accelerating its occurrence and/or dissemination?

4.      Can we make management research more experimental?  If the creation of new management practices is important, there is potentially an important role for academics in facilitating the process and researching it in an experimental way. Can we re-think the principles of action research to enable academics to reconcile the demands for practical relevance and academic rigour?

Programme and Venue Information:

14.30                        Registration - Booker Suite, Holiday Inn London-Bloomsbury
15.00                        Introduction – Professor Robin Wensley, AIM Director
15.20                        Gary Hamel
16.40                        Coffee break - Booker Suite
17.10                        Julian Birkinshaw
17.30                        Torben Pedersen
17.50                        Andy Sturdy
18.10                        Discussion
18.30                        Close - Drinks reception  - Booker Suite

Map and directions to Holiday Inn, London-Bloomsbury 

To register please complete the online form by clicking on the link below / or pasting the address into your browser:
http://forms.london.edu/form.asp?id=9147

Looking forward to seeing you on April 29!

Robin Wensley
AIM
http://www.aimresearch.org/                                  

Julian Birkinshaw
MLab
http://www.managementlab.org