HOWE SCHOOL ALLIANCE FOR TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

Managing Risk and Uncertainty in Pursuit of Innovation

The tension that exists between innovation and uncertainty has long been recognized. We could live in a safer world, but who would want to achieve it by abandoning innovation? The seventeenth annual HSATM Conference is devoted to the ways that organizations can achieve innovation while managing and minimizing the associated risks.

There are many risks that need to be managed in converting original or innovative concepts into innovation: the successful transformation of creative ideas into practical realities. Among these are the risks that conservative internal factions may erect stumbling blocks, that management may not have the staying power, that development time may be so long that the market need diminishes or disappears before the product can be introduced, that competition may come up with a better alternative, as well as a bevy of technical risks – that the product may not be technically feasible, that the process may not deliver the requisite quality, that the environmental hurdles may not be surmountable, that the costs may not be recoverable in the market, etc. These risks are usually greater the more radical are the underlying concepts.

The Conference treats the management of risk in innovation from various viewpoints and will provide specific examples of how to manage risk aversion in organizations, how to decrease risk in the implementation of radically new ideas, and, in general, how to manage innovation projects to make the risks more tractable.

Five distinguished experts shared their views and experiences (click on the links to see the videos):

• Aaron Shenhar, Institute Professor of Management, Stevens Institute of Technology,
  Controlling the Risk/Uncertainty in Implementing Innovation
• Richard Westerfer, formerly COO of WorldGate Communications, Risk Management in the Development of Radically New Initiatives
• Donald Stanford, formerly CTO and Technology Fellow, GTech and currently Adjunct Professor, Brown University, Confronting the Risk vs. Innovation Dilemma
• Jeff Krull, formerly VP of Product Development for Shure, Inc, The Enemy Within: Overcoming Internal Resistance to Innovation
• Michael zur Muehlen, Assistant Professor of Technology Management, Stevens,
  Balloon or Marble? Governance, Risk and Compliance vs. Process Innovation

 

The presentations and the panel discussion following will provide many practical ideas for managing the risk in innovation in your organization.

This conference will appeal to technology managers, product managers, marketing managers, new business development personnel, project managers, corporate and business unit managers – in short, to everyone concerned with innovation.

DATE:	June 4, 2008, from 8:45 - 4:45
LOCATION:	Babbio Center, Stevens Institute of Technology, 6th & River Streets, Hoboken, NJ

Click on the links below for the presentations of this conference:

• Aaron Shenhar, Institute Professor of Management, Stevens Institute of Technology, Controlling the Risk/Uncertainty in Implementing Innovation
• Richard Westerfer, formerly COO of WorldGate Communications, Risk Management in the Development of Radically New Initiatives
• Donald Stanford, formerly CTO and Technology Fellow, GTech and currently Adjunct Professor, Brown University, Confronting the Risk vs. Innovation Dilemma
• Jeff Krull, formerly VP of Product Development for Shure, Inc, The Enemy Within: Overcoming Internal Resistance to Innovation
• Michael zur Muehlen, Assistant Professor of Technology Management, Stevens, Balloon or Marble? Governance, Risk and Compliance vs. Process Innovation