POST GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT

AY 2018-2019 Term VI
<MANAGING INNOVATIONS >>
Credits: One
Course instructor: Ramachandran Natarajan
Email: RNAT@tntech.edu | Phone: 931-349-7361
Consultation hours: To be determined
Course Introduction:
This elective second year course will provide the students with frameworks and models for
understanding the concepts and the practice of innovation. Understanding the concept and
practice of innovation requires integrative and systems thinking. The focus and the emphasis
will not be on functional disciplines such as marketing or accounting but the linkages between
them as demanded by the innovation context.
Course Objectives:
After taking this course student will be able to:
1. Comprehend the significance of innovation to businesses and the economy
2. Distinguish between the multiple meanings and definitions of the term innovation
3. Understand the relationships between innovation and entrepreneurship
4. Comprehend the differences between the following types of innovations: product;
process; business model; incremental; breakthrough; disruptive; reverse
open/distributed; managerial/organizational/institutional; social innovations.
5. Describe the characteristics of the process for managing the above type of innovations.
6. Understand the different metrics for measuring innovation performance.
7. Appreciate the challenges and opportunities in developing, financing, fostering,
implementing and measuring innovations.
Pedagogy:
Lectures, interactive discussions, case studies, real life examples and group presentations.
Course material:

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Text book: NONE
Collection of readings and cases will be used. The readings will be provided in print form as
course pack to the students. Other material will be provided electronically to students
Course prerequisites:
Students should have at least a year of work experience. Should have completed a summer
project/internship at the end of their first year.
Evaluation scheme:
Evaluation Component Type Weightage Remarks, if any
(Individual/Group)
3 written assignments Individual Varies from 10%-to Students will be
including end-of-term 50% adding up to completing two 30-
exam. 100%. Exact weight to minute written
be determined later. assignments in class
In-class presentations Group and make in class
group presentations.
There will be an end
of term in-class exam

Attendance requirement:
100% attendance is required for the course. A student not meeting the attendance requirement will
not get credit for the course. Under specified exigent circumstances, the programme committee
can waive off attendance up to 25%.
Session-wise course outline:
Session Topics covered Case (if any) Pre-class readings
Number
1 Introduction, Significance of Case details for each Details about Pre-class
innovation: Multiple Meanings session will be provided readings and discussion
and definitions; relationship to later questions for each
entrepreneurship session will be provided
later
2 Types of innovation: product;
process; business model;
incremental; breakthrough;
disruptive;
3 Managing innovation as a
process
4 Performance metrics

5 Open or distributed innovation

6 Reverse and social innovations

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 7 End-Term Exam.
Additional references:
A list of references will be provided.
Any other information:
1. Enrolled students will provide their profiles which will be made available to the
instructor no later than Monday, December 10, 2018. They will help in providing
personalized instruction and individual attention to students.
2. The course will provide an intensive immersion in innovation within a very short time
span. It requires serious commitment from students to keep up with and absorb a lot of
reading materials, participate actively in class discussions and complete written
assignments.
About the instructor: See below

RAMACHANDRAN (NAT) NATARAJAN, Ph.D., CPIM, CIRM

is currently the W. E. Mayberry Professor of Management and Associate Dean,
College of Business, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, U.S.A.

He received his B. Tech from IIT Madras, PGDM from IIM Calcutta, Master’s from Kellogg Graduate
School of Management, Northwestern University and his Ph.D. in Business from the University of
Kansas. He is certified by APICS, the Association for Operations Management.
His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Operations and Supply Chain
Management, Technology and Innovation, Quality and Performance Management.
He has published in journals such as the International Journal of Production Economics,
International Journal of Operations Management, and Total Quality Management, Decision
Sciences, Quality Progress, TQM Magazine, and in the Encyclopedia of Production and
Manufacturing Management. He has authored/co-authored books, case studies, and
monographs on manufacturing, supply chain management, quality and performance
management. In a study published in 1993 in Journal of Operations Management, recognized
as one of the “Top 100 Researchers,” in Operations Management during a five-year period.
Recipient of the College of Business Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding
Faculty/Researcher many times.
He has served as a senior examiner multiple times for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award and the Tennessee Quality Award. Has held visiting faculty appointments at IIM -
Bangalore, ASCI- Hyderabad, IFIM-Bangalore, SP Jain - Dubai, PHL-Belgium and IEEC- Argentina.