Creativity & Concept Development of New Business

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A key role of corporate R&D-labs is to translate novel technology into new products and new business. Customer feedback may also trigger product and business development. Envisioning how novel technology can be used to develop and market new products is an inherently creative process that should not only be mastered by business developers, but also by scientists and technologists. This course is focused on developing your competence at two important tasks for the creation of new business: [1] discovering (technological) opportunities, [2] developing product, business concepts and business models. Creativity plays an important role in several, if not all, aspects of what makes organisations work and flourish. Creative problem solving is therefore an essential skill for those that expect to find employment as scientists in industry and academia. It is also valuable to those that eventually may become corporate or self-employed entrepreneurs. During this skills course we will touch upon important aspects of creative problem solving. But, most of all, we will provide you with insights that will help you to develop your own creative skills. The starting point of the training is our belief that creativity is an ability that, to a certain extent, can be learned and trained. We will follow different paths to help you investigate your own creativity skills and to find the best way to improve them.