Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions

HBS Home

  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Campaign
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Executive Education
  • Apply / Log-in
  • Program Finder
  • Subscribe
  • FAQs
Executive Education
Programs for IndividualsPrograms for OrganizationsHBS ExperienceFacultyAdmissionsParticipant Stories
  • Programs for Individuals
    Dropdown
    • Comprehensive Leadership Programs
    • Topic-Focused Programs
    • Regional Programs
    • Virtual Programs
    • Certificate of Management Excellence
    • Corporate Director Certificate
  • Programs for Organizations
  • HBS Experience
    Dropdown
    • The Value
    • The Learning Experience
    • The Virtual Experience
    • Alumni Network
    • Admitted? Plan Your Stay
    • Insights
  • Faculty
  • Admissions
    Dropdown
    • Admissions Requirements
    • Admissions Process
    • International Applicants
    • Payment, Cancellation, and Deferral
    • Already Admitted
  • Participant Stories
Executive Education
    ... Right arrow Harvard Business School Right arrow Executive Education Right arrow Programs for Individuals Right arrow Topic-Focused Programs Right arrow Leading Product Innovation Right arrow OverviewCurriculumTeaching TeamParticipant Profile
    ... Right arrow Harvard Business School Right arrow Executive Education Right arrow Programs for Individuals Right arrow Topic-Focused Programs Right arrow Leading Product Innovation Right arrow OverviewCurriculumTeaching TeamParticipant Profile

    Leading Product Innovation

    Leading Product Innovation
    • Upcoming Session
    • Carousel left arrow (1 of 1) Carousel right arrow
    • Dates: TBD
    • Format: In-Person
    • Location: HBS Campus
    • Fee: TBD
    • The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
      Download Brochure
      Download Brochure
    Stefan Thomke

    HBS's Leading Product Innovation program offers a concrete approach for dealing with the unknown.

    Stefan H. Thomke
    Faculty Chair
    Read More
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    Stefan Thomke

    HBS's Leading Product Innovation program offers a concrete approach for dealing with the unknown.

    Stefan H. Thomke
    Faculty Chair
    Read More
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    Shaoshan Liu

    "The program transformed me from a computer scientist into an innovative entrepreneur."

    Shaoshan Liu
    CEO and Board Chairman, PerceptIn, U.S.
    Read His Story
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    Shaoshan Liu

    "The program transformed me from a computer scientist into an innovative entrepreneur."

    Shaoshan Liu
    CEO and Board Chairman, PerceptIn, U.S.
    Read His Story
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    program participants socializing during break in the Tata Hall atrium at Harvard Business School
    Innovation Comparison Chart
    Compare programs at-a-glance to find what's right for you.
    Learn More
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    program participants socializing during break in the Tata Hall atrium at Harvard Business School
    Innovation Comparison Chart
    Compare programs at-a-glance to find what's right for you.
    Learn More
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    Download Brochure
    Program Finder
    Need Help? Contact Us:
    Program Advising team
    Email: executive_education@hbs.edu
    Print
    • Overview
    • Curriculum
    • Teaching Team
    • Participant Profile
    • Participant Stories
    • Participant Profile Dropdown down
      • Overview
      • Curriculum
      • Teaching Team
      • Participant Profile
      • Participant Stories
    Program Announcement
    The information below is based on the prior program session and does not reflect potential changes to faculty and course content for future program offerings. For a list of upcoming programs, visit our program finder.

    Summary

    What differentiates the world's most innovative companies? And how do you execute a cutting-edge innovation initiative? This program takes a deep dive into the latest innovation tools, operating models, and business strategies used by leading companies across the globe. With new insight into innovation processes, you will be ready to take action and lead a highly creative, innovation-focused culture that can consistently deliver results.

    Dropdown down Dropdown up

    Summary

    What differentiates the world's most innovative companies? And how do you execute a cutting-edge innovation initiative? This program takes a deep dive into the latest innovation tools, operating models, and business strategies used by leading companies across the globe. With new insight into innovation processes, you will be ready to take action and lead a highly creative, innovation-focused culture that can consistently deliver results.

    Key Benefits
    As you explore the prototyping and experimentation practices of the world's top product developers, you will lay the foundation for transforming your business and sustaining growth through innovation the moment you return to work.

    DetailsExpand AllCollapse All

    Align product plans with your firm's strategyAlign product plans with your firm's strategy
    Dropdown down
    • Improve your company's overall positioning
    • Reevaluate your portfolio of products and services as market conditions evolve
    • Design a strategy for deciding which projects to pursue
    • Bring new offerings to market faster and more efficiently
    Create new opportunities for innovationCreate new opportunities for innovation
    Dropdown down
    • Build powerful innovation initiatives across business units
    • Understand the potential of disruptive innovation
    • Integrate your customers into the innovation process
    • Take advantage of digital transformation
    Expand your personal and professional networkExpand your personal and professional network
    Dropdown down
    • Extend your network by living and working with accomplished executives from various backgrounds, industries, and countries across the globe
    • Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can provide wide-ranging insights into your business challenges and career decisions

    Key Benefits Dropdown up

    Key Benefits Dropdown down

    As you explore the prototyping and experimentation practices of the world's top product developers, you will lay the foundation for transforming your business and sustaining growth through innovation the moment you return to work.
    Details

    Align product plans with your firm's strategy

    • Improve your company's overall positioning
    • Reevaluate your portfolio of products and services as market conditions evolve
    • Design a strategy for deciding which projects to pursue
    • Bring new offerings to market faster and more efficiently

    Create new opportunities for innovation

    • Build powerful innovation initiatives across business units
    • Understand the potential of disruptive innovation
    • Integrate your customers into the innovation process
    • Take advantage of digital transformation

    Expand your personal and professional network

    • Extend your network by living and working with accomplished executives from various backgrounds, industries, and countries across the globe
    • Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can provide wide-ranging insights into your business challenges and career decisions

    Who Should Attend

    • Vice presidents, directors, and other senior managers who have responsibility for developing new products, services, and customer experiences and who come from functional areas such as research and product development, engineering, product management, marketing, operations, finance, or strategy

    Attendance by multiple company representatives will foster teamwork and amplify the program's impact. Cross-functional or intradepartmental teams of four to six managers are encouraged to apply.

    Program for Leadership Development participants earn 4 PLDA Points on completion of this program.

    Dive Deeper into the Experience
    Image/@Alt Play video
    Image/@Alt Play video
    Inside the Classroom
    See how exchange with faculty and peers yields new insights into critical business trends.
    Watch the VideoWatch the Video
    Image/@Alt Play video
    Image/@Alt Play video
    We Celebrate New Ways of Thinking. Are You Ready?
    Thrive in a learning environment that welcomes diverse ideas and perspectives.
    Watch the VideoWatch the Video
    Stefan H. Thomke, an authority on the management of innovation, faculty member, HBS Executive Education
    How to Design a Better Customer Experience
    Using design principles to solve problems and find opportunities.
    Learn More
    Dropdown down Dropdown up

    Who Should Attend

    • Vice presidents, directors, and other senior managers who have responsibility for developing new products, services, and customer experiences and who come from functional areas such as research and product development, engineering, product management, marketing, operations, finance, or strategy

    Attendance by multiple company representatives will foster teamwork and amplify the program's impact. Cross-functional or intradepartmental teams of four to six managers are encouraged to apply.

    Program for Leadership Development participants earn 4 PLDA Points on completion of this program.

    Dive Deeper into the Experience
    Image/@Alt Play video
    Image/@Alt Play video
    Inside the Classroom
    See how exchange with faculty and peers yields new insights into critical business trends.
    Watch the VideoWatch the Video
    Image/@Alt Play video
    Image/@Alt Play video
    We Celebrate New Ways of Thinking. Are You Ready?
    Thrive in a learning environment that welcomes diverse ideas and perspectives.
    Watch the VideoWatch the Video
    Stefan H. Thomke, an authority on the management of innovation, faculty member, HBS Executive Education
    How to Design a Better Customer Experience
    Using design principles to solve problems and find opportunities.
    Learn More

    Learning and Living at HBS

    When you participate in an Executive Education program on the HBS campus, you enter an immersive experience where every aspect of the learning model has been carefully designed to facilitate your growth. Your learning will take place on your own, in your living group, and in the larger classroom, driven by the renowned HBS case method.

    Dropdown down Dropdown up

    Learning and Living at HBS

    When you participate in an Executive Education program on the HBS campus, you enter an immersive experience where every aspect of the learning model has been carefully designed to facilitate your growth. Your learning will take place on your own, in your living group, and in the larger classroom, driven by the renowned HBS case method.

    Admissions Criteria and Process

    We admit candidates to specific sessions on a rolling, space-available basis, and encourage you to apply as early as possible. Although most programs have no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on your professional achievement and organizational responsibilities.
    Read More
    Dropdown down

    Answering Your Questions

    Our Program Advising team can help you at any stage of the admissions process—starting with identifying the program that best addresses your learning and development goals. Contact a program advisor via email or call 1.800.427.5577 (outside the U.S., call +1.617.495.6555).

    Application Submission

    We recommend that you apply at least four weeks before the program start date. You may use our online form or download an application. HBS maintains all application information in strict confidentiality. We acknowledge receipt of applications via email. In the unlikely event that you do not receive an acknowledgment, please email us at exed_admissions@hbs.edu or call us at +1.617.495.6226.

    Application Review

    To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, our Admissions Committee makes selections that balance each participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds. We review applications monthly and will contact you via email with the Admissions Committee's decision.

    Fee, Payment, and Cancellations

    The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals. No payment is necessary until you have been accepted. Payment is required prior to the program start date. If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.

    Admissions Criteria and Process Dropdown down

    Admissions Criteria and Process Dropdown down

    We admit candidates to specific sessions on a rolling, space-available basis, and encourage you to apply as early as possible. Although most programs have no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on your professional achievement and organizational responsibilities.

    Answering Your Questions

    Our Program Advising team can help you at any stage of the admissions process—starting with identifying the program that best addresses your learning and development goals. Contact a program advisor via email or call 1.800.427.5577 (outside the U.S., call +1.617.495.6555).

    Application Submission

    We recommend that you apply at least four weeks before the program start date. You may use our online form or download an application. HBS maintains all application information in strict confidentiality. We acknowledge receipt of applications via email. In the unlikely event that you do not receive an acknowledgment, please email us at exed_admissions@hbs.edu or call us at +1.617.495.6226.

    Application Review

    To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, our Admissions Committee makes selections that balance each participant's experience, scope of current responsibilities, and type of organization. HBS seeks candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds. We review applications monthly and will contact you via email with the Admissions Committee's decision.

    Fee, Payment, and Cancellations

    The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals. No payment is necessary until you have been accepted. Payment is required prior to the program start date. If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.

    What You Will Learn

    Through interactive lectures, dynamic classroom discussions, and small group activities, you will discover new frameworks and operating models for developing breakthrough products and services. In the process, you will rethink your company's innovation system and begin to create a more customized and focused innovation strategy.

    Dropdown down Dropdown up

    What You Will Learn

    Through interactive lectures, dynamic classroom discussions, and small group activities, you will discover new frameworks and operating models for developing breakthrough products and services. In the process, you will rethink your company's innovation system and begin to create a more customized and focused innovation strategy.

    Key TopicsExpand AllCollapse All

    Exploring innovation systems and toolsExploring innovation systems and tools
    Dropdown down
    • Applying design thinking to drive innovation
    • Viewing the CEO as chief innovator
    • Improving product development and innovation strategy
    • Leading digital business experimentation
    • Examining best practices in prototyping and experimentation
    Linking innovation strategy to executionLinking innovation strategy to execution
    Dropdown down
    • Assessing the drivers of new product or service adoption
    • Determining when to change your channel or pricing strategy
    • Considering overall positioning in the context of existing product lines
    • Predicting demand and rates of diffusion when marketing new innovations
    Transforming your businessTransforming your business
    Dropdown down
    • Designing magical customer experiences that stick
    • Keeping up with changes in the digital marketplace
    • Controlling operational complexity
    • Enabling long-term growth through innovation
    • Recognizing the potential impact of open innovation
    Examining new innovation modelsExamining new innovation models
    Dropdown down
    • Leveraging artificial intelligence for new business models
    • Promoting adoption and predicting sales levels
    • Executing a new vision, delivering organic growth, and improving margins
    • Exploring the impact of disruptive technologies
    • Anticipating and responding to new technical trends
    Building an action agendaBuilding an action agenda
    Dropdown down
    • Launching and managing innovation initiatives
    • Ensuring that innovation continues in times of shrinking budgets and resources
    • Building adaptable project teams
    • Understanding how management myths can get in the way of innovation
    • Leveraging networks and ecosystems to share risks and increase reach

    Key Topics Dropdown up

    Key Topics Dropdown down

    Exploring innovation systems and tools

    • Applying design thinking to drive innovation
    • Viewing the CEO as chief innovator
    • Improving product development and innovation strategy
    • Leading digital business experimentation
    • Examining best practices in prototyping and experimentation

    Linking innovation strategy to execution

    • Assessing the drivers of new product or service adoption
    • Determining when to change your channel or pricing strategy
    • Considering overall positioning in the context of existing product lines
    • Predicting demand and rates of diffusion when marketing new innovations

    Transforming your business

    • Designing magical customer experiences that stick
    • Keeping up with changes in the digital marketplace
    • Controlling operational complexity
    • Enabling long-term growth through innovation
    • Recognizing the potential impact of open innovation

    Examining new innovation models

    • Leveraging artificial intelligence for new business models
    • Promoting adoption and predicting sales levels
    • Executing a new vision, delivering organic growth, and improving margins
    • Exploring the impact of disruptive technologies
    • Anticipating and responding to new technical trends

    Building an action agenda

    • Launching and managing innovation initiatives
    • Ensuring that innovation continues in times of shrinking budgets and resources
    • Building adaptable project teams
    • Understanding how management myths can get in the way of innovation
    • Leveraging networks and ecosystems to share risks and increase reach

    Special Session: Making Innovation Magic

    What makes some customer experiences seem magical, while others attract little attention? In this session, you will discover the magic of innovation under the guidance of renowned magician and mentalist Jason Randal. By rethinking what makes a "wow" factor, you can develop products and services that put your customers in the spotlight.

    Dropdown down Dropdown up

    Special Session: Making Innovation Magic

    What makes some customer experiences seem magical, while others attract little attention? In this session, you will discover the magic of innovation under the guidance of renowned magician and mentalist Jason Randal. By rethinking what makes a "wow" factor, you can develop products and services that put your customers in the spotlight.

    The HBS Advantage

    Our Executive Education programs are developed and taught by HBS faculty who are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Through their board memberships, consulting, and field-based research, they address the complex challenges facing business leaders across the globe.

    Faculty Chair
    Stefan H. Thomke
    Stefan H. Thomke
    Stefan H. Thomke

    Stefan H. Thomke

    William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Faculty
    Karim R. Lakhani
    Karim R. Lakhani
    Karim R. Lakhani

    Karim R. Lakhani

    Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Gary P. Pisano
    Gary P. Pisano
    Gary P. Pisano

    Gary P. Pisano

    Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Ariel D. Stern
    Ariel D. Stern
    Ariel D. Stern

    Ariel D. Stern

    Poronui Associate Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Dropdown down Dropdown up

    The HBS Advantage

    Our Executive Education programs are developed and taught by HBS faculty who are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Through their board memberships, consulting, and field-based research, they address the complex challenges facing business leaders across the globe.

    Faculty Chair
    Stefan H. Thomke
    Stefan H. Thomke
    Stefan H. Thomke

    Stefan H. Thomke

    William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Faculty
    Karim R. Lakhani
    Karim R. Lakhani
    Karim R. Lakhani

    Karim R. Lakhani

    Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Gary P. Pisano
    Gary P. Pisano
    Gary P. Pisano

    Gary P. Pisano

    Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Ariel D. Stern
    Ariel D. Stern
    Ariel D. Stern

    Ariel D. Stern

    Poronui Associate Professor of Business Administration

    HBS Unit:
    Technology and Operations Management

    Read Full Bio

    Your Peers Expand Your Learning


    Global Perspective Map Desktop