Creative Problem Solving: the path to new products and business

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course intends to provide an in-depth and practical understanding of how established firms and
startups can succeed in their efforts to formulate new products or businesses. (By “products”, we
mean products and services). In a world of exogenous shocks and fierce competition, the formulation of
new products and businesses is a must. Such new ventures may enable established firms to survive and
prosper and new entities to emerge and succeed. However, according to the literature, these activities are
challenging, as those attempts often fail in the marketplace. Thus, nowadays, individuals’ specific
competencies related to the formulation of new products and businesses are among the most critical
ones.

The CPS course is both science-based and action-oriented. First, based on state-of-the-art, scientific
research on Creativity, we this course provides an integrative theoretical framework to describe and
explain the creative problem-solving process underlying the creation of new products or businesses. It is
important to note that our course will strongly rely on concepts and perspectives emerging from scientific
research rather than on unsubstantiated (albeit popular) statements or inferences based on other sources.
As managers and would-be entrepreneurs act under bounded rationality conditions, we will not only
describe and explain the required main tasks but will also pay great attention to the psychological and
social processes that may render such tasks more (versus less) effective.

Second, the CPS course is an action-oriented learning experience. International business cases were
specifically built by the Instructor for these classes: the in-class discussion of these cases is expected to
provide the students with a familiarization with real-world (inspiring and informative) situations. In addition,
the course will offer to the students the opportunity to apply the concepts and models taught in the
classroom to a specific (current) business situation: week by week, students will be required to work on a
new product/business idea project in groups.

The CPS course requires substantial and continuous cognitive efforts through in-class active
participation (rather than passive attendance) and out-of-class work. Thus, the students likely to benefit
from the specific nature and contents of this course are those who are willing to commit the required time
and effort for the involved tasks. Moreover, a strong knowledge of Management concepts will be
important as this course relies on those concepts as the foundations to then develop specific
competencies in creative problem-solving (to be used in the creation of new products and businesses).
Give the specific nature of the course (i.e., fully based on the frameworks and models taught in class rather
than available in existing books, and requiring continuous engagement and participation), attending all the
classes is a must. So, students who anticipate having schedule overlaps with other courses or activities
should not enroll in the CPS course.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this course is to provide students with a unique opportunity to develop and consolidate their
ability to:
• Understand how hard - but rewarding - it is to succeed in the creation of something new in business
• Understand the creative problem-solving process underlying the formulation of new products or
businesses
• Understand the drivers of teamwork effectiveness.

TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGY
This CPS course will use concepts and theories drawn on the original (scientific) papers that created and
validated them (rather than popular books) and real-world cases that were specifically developed for these
classes and that fully connect with the taught concepts and theories. In addition, Students will have to
develop a group project based on the creation of one idea for a new product/service or business.
These methods will enable Students to improve their understanding about how hard - but rewarding - it is
to succeed in the creation of something new in business, the creative problem-solving process underlying
the formulation of new products or businesses, and the drivers of teamwork effectiveness.
Given the learning approach of the course, attendance at every class will be crucial.

Group project
This course includes the development of a new product/new business (group) project. Students will be
required to form groups during the first week of classes. The size of the groups will depend on the class
size but will not exceed 5 students. Students will be responsible for selecting their team peers.
Students will be free to choose the new product/business they intend to develop. During the project work,
they are expected to autonomously apply the concepts and perspectives taught in our classes. They will
have to deliver by email (until the day before the last class) a written report to the Instructor with their new
product/business proposal.

At the end of the course, students will be required to make a Powerpoint presentation of their group
projects. All group members must participate in their team presentation.

COURSE CONTENT
▪ What is Creativity? What is Creative Problem Solving?
▪ What are the main tasks of the process of new products/businesses creation?
▪ What are the sources of opportunities for new products/businesses?
▪ How do we identify and select opportunities for new products/businesses?
▪ How can we generate ideas for new products/businesses?
▪ How should we evaluate ideas for new products/businesses?