Overview
Now more than ever, innovation and big ideas are essential ingredients to a business’s ability to flourish. And, as any innovator knows, it’s not enough to simply have the idea – you have to know how to implement it. Using proven methods of innovation and design thinking as a framework, students in this unique program will learn new ways to generate ideas, gain deeper insights into their clients, manage creative teams, and drive growth in companies large and small.
Benefits
- Utilize creative thinking methodologies to generate new ideas, recognize innovative business opportunities, and solve complex problems
- Examine the business models used by great business leaders in a variety of industries and learn to apply the underlying strategies to today’s economic landscape
- Develop a written marketing plan suitable for bringing an innovative product or service to market
- Create and present a business plan for an innovative product or service
- Demonstrate functional business skills in collaboration with entrepreneurs from the business community
- Gain a competitive edge in the global job market with an internship in a U.S. company
Who Should Attend
This program is designed for those coming from a variety of backgrounds: international students and professionals who want to bring innovative solutions to market; entrepreneurs who have a desire to grow their business through applied innovation and new technologies; motivated individuals looking to start up a new venture that will thrive in today’s global marketplace; business managers and leaders who wish to shape their business to make a social impact to benefit the community and beyond. Whether working in a large corporate environment, mid-size company or as an entrepreneur, this program will equip all of those in innovative fields to take it to the next level.
Certificate Requirements
To earn a certificate at UCI’s Division of Continuing Education, students must complete all required courses with a grade of “C” or better.
Curriculum
Leadership Workshop: Understanding Yourself & Your Teams for Better Results
Design Thinking & Innovation
Imagining innovative solutions to complex problems is a critical skill for today’s workforce. In this course, tenets of design thinking and innovation methodologies will be practically applied to a variety of challenges across a broad array of industries. Students will learn mind-opening techniques to recognize hidden opportunities, better empathize with customers, and rapidly test prototypes to minimize the time required to bring an innovation to market.
Business Model Design
Transforming a nascent idea into a profitable and sustainable enterprise requires the strategic application of the right business model. This course will take students deep into the economics of the most iconic businesses in recent history to understand how they turn a profit. A variety of industries will be explored to give students a broad perspective on the structure and importance of adopting a model that is carefully tailored to the unique needs and challenges each business faces.
Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and Economics
No longer do entrepreneurs have to go it alone. With an increased focus in entrepreneurship, new channels have developed to help entrepreneurs incubate their idea, develop their company, and provide funding. As a result, over the last decade, we have seen the evolution of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. In the course, we learn what this ecosystem is and how we can leverage it to launch our own ideas.
Marketing and Business Development
Explore innovative marketing and development strategies to increase awareness and profitability for today’s businesses. Learn to devise a comprehensive action plan that identifies customer needs, offers a unique selling proposition, aligns pricing and positioning strategy and outlines promotional assets and activities. Develop skills to recognize ideal strategic partnership and business opportunities across various product categories, channels and industries.
Managing Innovative Teams
This course will prepare students to manage an innovative team. Unlike a traditional management course, our focus is on management and leadership from the unique lens of an innovative product lifecycle. Students will learn practical strategies to hire and confidently supervise staff – creative and otherwise – to meet organizational goals.
Internships
As an optional last course and for an additional fee of $2,900, you have the opportunity to apply academic theory and gain practical experience in a variety of businesses and industries for 10 weeks. A research project provides additional training. Also included in the internship is the Résumé Writing and Interviewing Skills workshop.
Schedule
Students will be placed into a morning (9:00-12:00) or afternoon (13:00-16:00) schedule. Courses in the program are taken consecutively, completing one before proceeding to the next. Schedules are not guaranteed and are subject to change. A final schedule will be provided on the first day of the program.
