CASE 1: Strategic Repositioning of a Trade Association

A trade association representing the Printed Electronics Industry faces a set of urgent problems to solve.
Its General Delegate just quitted, leaving day-to-day operations untackled creating an emergency management crisis.
Continuous Loss of membership due to various reasons, including difficult business conditions in the industry, operational priority settings, dissastifaction with some remaining members, etc .. creating tensions on available cash and reducing therefore room to maneuver
Printed Electronics being a relatively young and novel Field of Additive Electronics requiring access to a very large technology base and consequently a complex ecosystem of actors (Materials, Inks, Printing Equipments, Quality Control, Integrators, End-users, R&D Labs, Schools & Universities) the stabilization of recruitement for new members turns out to be a long term and continuous effort aligned with a strong strategic vision. No quick easy fix for a solution.

Transition Management Approach to handle urgent operations while preparing for the future.
Direct day-to-day management of all activities with the Association Directory Board in particular in the organization of key communication events (Trade Shows, Conferences, Techdays).
Outsourcing of non-core activities and partnership with key tradeshow organizers and agencies in France and Europe.
Reshuffling and rejuvenating all Web and Social network Communication tools.
Expansion of the ecosystem to ‘cousin industries’ embedding Printed Electronics , in particular Polymers & Plastics (smart plastics) and Textile (e-textile) to find new partners, suppliers and customers leveraging new applications.
Looking actively for a viable path to merge the Printed Electronics Association into a larger, more stable and perennial structure to enable cost & management synergies while keeping Association ‘s DNA and culture.

Growing Participation to international shows & conferences dedicated to Printed Electronics in Europe and USA enabling access to a larger base of customers, suppliers and partners.
Renew Participation to Joint Events with ‘cousin’ industries looking for innovative collaboratie projects , new actors recruitement and access to new funding schemes.
Stabilization of memberships, as the Association finally merges into the Historic Incumbent Electronics Association as a dedicated Printed Electronics Club. This recognizes by this same strategic move, the perceived maturity level of printed electronics systems by the Electronics Industry.

CASE 2: Designing a MBA Innovation Management Program

A Business Graduate School launching a new MBA program dedicated to Innovation Project Management looks for new course modules that can be taught by innovation practitioners and seasoned professionals.

Based on a bibliography of about 100 academic books and several hundreds of business articles dedicated to innovation management, a Prior Art and a Syllabus of an innovation course were structured. A Market Research was carried out to map Innovation Management Courses in competitive training Institutions, Colleges and Business Schools for benchmark.
Key identified themes include for the course:

The role of Project Management Processes in a fast changing and ever more complex world
The role of Innovation Ecosystems as partnerships and collaborative works are crucial in a fast and complex world
The role of Project financing and their actors at the different phases of an innovation adventure.
The role of Patents all along an Innovation Project from the exploratory phase to commercialization in particular for High Tech Businesses

Each module relates to real world experience testimonials from the teacher with actual examples.

A course content of about 15 hours of teaching and 4 modules of 100 slides each were generated to enable MBA students have a complete introduction to innovation management processes. These include :

A global & historical assessment on innovation management processes, from closed/linear project management to open and iterative ones (invent, build, test, repeat) and its benchmark. This stresses in particular the role of project portfolios in a risky real world.
How to access quickly and tap into innovation ecosystems to beat competition. Open world means more collaborative works.
How Patents are strategic elements of negotiation in real life collaborations , to raise fundings and to protect the future of a business.
How key actors in the funding value chain can help the Intrapreneur / Enterpreneur survive . Business Angels, local or international Financial Institutions, participation to contests for grants & awards (Horizon-EU) , better access to Innovation tax shield mechanisms (CIR).