Programs goals Our MBI programs overall objective is to provide learners with knowledge, methods, tools and capabilities to shape them as managers in organizations operating under uncertainty in complex and rapidly changing market and technological environments.

The goals of the MBI program are to provide the knowledge, skills, tools and understanding required to:

• Identify and generate new ideas
• Evaluate benefits versus risks in business opportunities
• Select best opportunities
• Integrate theories and practices to strengthen innovative* dynamic capabilities of organizations**
• Operationalize (develop and launch) new processes, products and / or services
• Manage innovative projects and organizational development through new processes, new products and /or services
• Attract and retain the best people
• Facilitate the emancipation of dynamic capabilities* and the required change (human, process, technological) for your company or organization to become innovation centric

Our MBI program focuses upon management within the frameworks of short-term and long-term objectives. For many companies, a critical issue is how to compromise between efficiency and innovation in combining their short and long term aims.

For today's business leader, it requires the mobilization of existing resources to current activities, whilst seeking new resources to develop innovative businesses and services. Hence, our MBI program's overall objective is to provide learners with knowledge, methods, skills, tools and understandings to shape them as managers in organizations operating under uncertainty in complex and rapidly changing market and technological environments.

It is time to move on to the MBI. MBA is becoming a global commodity.

Education in general is facing issues regarding its capacity of adaptation towards our globalized world. There are still debates over whether business education is about teaching a profession, or a social science subject. That debate will continue.

Managers and employees are more and more asked to use their personal knowledge and skills to analyze contexts, characterize problematic situations, and provide suitable solutions. Therefore, managers and employees’ training should not involve scholar knowledge acquisition only. It should encompass experiences of applications of that knowledge to solve concrete corporate challenges.

Therefore, the MBI pedagogical approach integrates business challenges that students will have to solve by applying the delivered knowledge. To achieve such a goal, students work in small teams of 3 to 5 members. The composition of the teams is established to ensure the diversity and complementarity of profiles. The cognitive profile of each student is established at the start of the year by using a test determining the dominant traits of his/her personality.
The active resolution of multiple real corporate challenges helps students to strengthen their core competencies and more particularly their "soft skills".
The MBI program focuses on developing students' personal potential through the acquisition of actionable knowledge* and does not focus on filling their brains with theories.

MBA vs MBI?

Let us consider the differences between a traditional Master in Business Administration (MBA) and a Master in Business Innovation (MBI).

The MBA content and format evolved to address economical and industrial needs but it still remains focused on the core traditional business fields such as accounting, finance, marketing, human resources and operations.

The MBI is focused also on the current strategic/competitive needs of modern organizations.

It also covers the core business areas. However, it integrates them in a more pragmatic and transversal manner. For example, within the innovation projects feasibility course, the different aspects of product or service viability, risk and sustainability are addressed, taking into consideration strategic, economic, technological, legal and operational aspects.

The key differences are summarized in the following graphic.

Not only do organizations need to adapt to faster environmental changes, but they also need to develop new and creative forms of transformation. Successful companies are not those that go through a process of change, but those that generate and lead change through innovation.

The ten types of Innovation*

The 21st century is marked by the rise of life and work environments complexity.

To face this complexity, soft skills such as sense making, critical thinking, creativity, open-mindedness, interdisciplinary and experiential learning capabilities and communication have become increasingly necessary to resolve managerial and innovative issues (Ibarra, 2015*). Therefore, these soft skills are more and more required by organizations. They have become critical in student's education (Cf. P21's Framework for 21st Century Learning).

The pedagogical approach of the MBI program focuses especially on soft skills empowerment through real corporate challenges solving in order to

• Exploit critical thinking to define precisely the difficulties to overcome
• Enhance communication to improve transversal collaborations
• Develop curiosity and creativity to generate unexpected ideas and solutions
• Favor inter-personal exchanges to promote circulation and exploitation of new ideas

*Ibarra, H. (2015). The authenticity paradox. Harvard Business Review, 93(1/2), 53-59.

Framework for 21st century learning**

The 21st century is marked by the rise of life and work environments complexity. 

To face this complexity, soft skills such as sense making, critical thinking, creativity, open-mindedness, inter-disciplinary and experiential learning, communication and collaboration skills have become increasingly necessary to resolve managerial and innovative issues (Ibarra, 2015*). Consequently, today, these learning and innovation skills have become critical in student's education.

The MBI program supports students to enhance their hard and soft skills and help them better identify, analyze and generate new ideas and opportunities as well as develop innovation. The program is designed to leverage creativity capability all along the curriculum.

Innovation is nothing without creativity. Everything starts with an idea.

"Any creative idea getting implemented or realized successfully is innovation"

- Macies Soltynski

Creation was for long time considered as an act of god only. Nothing was possible to create as it was considered that the "creator" did everything. Even non-religious people were considering that human creation through art was only an imitation or a copy of "mother" nature. With the renaissance in Europe, more consideration has been given to the individual and his/her creative ability. Since then, creativity has been considered as a "gift" given to certain people.

Can creativity be taught?

Recent studies (Finch et al., 201510)* highlights that creativity can be nurture and enhance by tactics to push the boundaries of norms to become creative.

Nickerson** investigated different creative techniques developed by the academia and the industry as:

• Establishing purpose and intention
• Building basic skills
• Encouraging acquisitions of domain-specific knowledge
• Stimulating and rewarding curiosity and exploration
• Building motivation, especially internal motivation
• Encouraging confidence and a willingness to take risks
• Focusing on mastery and self-competition
• Promoting supportable beliefs about creativity
• Providing opportunities for choice and discovery
• Developing self-management (metacognitive skills)
• Teaching techniques and strategies for facilitating creative performance
• Providing balance