Identifying New Business Opportunities (INBO)

Identifying New Business Opportunities is a fast-paced, hands-on, experimental workshop where participants
identify and refine disruptive business opportunities. As a group we will follow a step by step process, the
Renaissance Innovation Method that will help us reach this end. This method is based on two key principles that
guide the substance of the opportunities generated and the process of developing them:

1) Substantively, we will focus on opportunities that disrupt an industry by reinventing the operating model
of the industry. Typically, this entails revolutionizing the way in which the industry makes or sells the
product. It does not necessarily require developing new products or addressing any new markets, though
the changes in the business landscape are often as revolutionary.

2) From a process point of view, we will follow a systematic, risk limiting procedure to develop business
opportunities. Our method prescribes recipes to generate a large number of potentially disruptive
operating models, a framework to evaluate them, leveraging the power of the crowd for fast feedback,
and a risk limiting sequence of steps to bring these innovations to life.

Taken together, this structured renaissance innovation method leverages the participants’ industry expertise and is
uniquely adapted to executive participants.

In addition to generating potential leads for entrepreneurial ventures, participants can expect to learn and deploy
key principles of the Renaissance Innovation Method at their organizations. Alumni of the workshop have gone on
to launch independent ventures based on opportunities identified in this workshop, others become corporate
entrepreneurs within their organizations to pursue and develop these opportunities, and some run similar
workshops at their organizations.

From a pedagogical standpoint, the course is largely hands-on, experiential and involves multiple in-class ideation
and idea-pitching exercises. The sequence of sessions is

Module 1: Identifying disruptive business models: Based on a series of techniques, each participant will identify
multiple (i.e. > 5) opportunities for disrupting existing business models. We then use an online feedback system to
provide feedback on the opportunities.

Module 2: Opportunity Selection Workshop: Each participant pitches their opportunity to the group. As a group, we
help identify the best opportunities.

Module 3: Business Model Canvas: We define different elements of our new business using the business model
canvas. The group will help us identify the most critical unknowns in the proposed business model.

Module 4: Planning for success: Using the groups’ feedback, we develop a prioritized list of tasks to bring the
model to life while limiting our (and our organizations) risk exposure.

Instructor Biography

Karan Girotra is Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD. In his current
research and teaching, he is developing a novel toolkit for realizing business model innovations.

Karan has received multiple teaching and academic awards; most recently he was awarded the prestigious
Dean’s commendation for excellence in teaching at INSEAD (2010, 2009), Management Science
distinguished service award (2010); the Wharton Outstanding Scholar Award (multiple years), and the
2007 M&SOM Meritorious Service Award.

Karan’s research has appeared in top academic journals such as Management Science, and has been
featured by publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, MIT Sloan Management
Review, etc. His recent consulting engagements include Merck Pharmaceuticals, Lundbeck
Pharmaceuticals, Mckinsey Consulting, NTTDoCoMo, Dell Computers, Delhi Transport Corporation, and
Costume Gallery.

In addition to teaching and research, Karan enjoys entrepreneurial endeavors. He has co-founded and
mentored multiple early-stage businesses; most recently he served as co-founder of TerraPass, a provider
of environmental impact remediation services, that went on to receive multiple rounds of venture
financing.

Karan holds a PhD in Managerial Sciences and Applied Economics from the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania, an AM degree from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Technology degree
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.