The D'Amore-McKim School of Business was recently featured in Poets&Quants highlighting its Master of Science in Innovation (MSI), a one-year program created in response to shifting business education requirements and the need for real innovation in the workplace.
The MSI program was launched fall 2014, addressing the need to educate a new, changing business leader, one equipped with the skills to innovate in their own company with the knowledge of traditional and current business ideals.
“Students will learn that innovation is a pie with many slices,” said Tucker Marion, associate professor and director of the program. “It's not just design or a new technology. It's business model innovation, service innovation, looking at finances in unique ways, process innovation, better understanding the human side of innovation, and also understanding the tools and methods to realize the innovation in a rapid fashion.”
Marion emphasized two major reasons why D'Amore-McKim decided to launch the program. The first, as previously noted, was in response to changing business needs. The higher education market now has more specialized master's degrees and a growing number of other programs such as certificates, making education experiences more modular and personalized.
Second, Northeastern alumni and business partners often highlighted the need for a program based entirely on corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. They believe it's not enough to see opportunity in a business; one must be able to execute on the opportunity too. The MSI program cultivates this forward-thinking approach to business.
“A good innovation leader is dynamic, open to change, new ways of thinking, and curious,” said Marion. “So I think business school students need to embrace this. The basics of a P&L statement are extremely valuable, and probably always will be. But as we have seen, most companies go through periods of innovation, then stagnation; then if they are lucky, an innovation cycle once again.”
The benefits of this program are different than those offered at other schools. D'Amore-McKim's Master of Science in Innovation program is “laser-focused” on developing corporate innovators within existing companies. As an experiential program in a renowned experiential institution, each student works on real projects within their own firms.
The program is now also available completely online, created in line with Northeastern's commitment to flexible, personalized lifetime learning. Once students complete the Innovation degree, they may be eligible to apply the 30 credits earned in the MSI program to either Part-Time MBA or Online MBA degree requirements.