Fundamentals for Science
Business & Innovation
Professor Mike Ibba, Chair, Microbiology Department, Ohio State University
Professor Ken Boyer, Chair, Management Sciences Department, Ohio State University
Michael Bills, Executive Director, OSU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Fisher College of Business Executive Education
fisher.osu.edu
Introduction
Today’s scientists require both the general business expertise and specific innovation skills
required to harness scientific discovery in the creation of innovative solutions that address
problems of global dimension.
To accomplish this goal, primary investigators must understand the theory, tools and
practices which empower scientists to transcend their respective areas of expertise to create
solutions that are both useful for society and which can be monetized in a manner which is
financially sustainable.
The mastery of these skills will substantially improve the day-to-day management of labs,
and the pathway from bench to bedside for individual researchers, and the Ohio State
University Discovery Themes as a whole.
To accomplish this goal, Mike Ibba, Ken Boyer and Michael Bills have collaborated to design
two, integrated courses specifically to meet the needs of this audience.
These programs are being offered in collaboration with the Executive Education team at
Fisher, who has a 60 year history of designing and delivering custom educational programs
for audiences across disciplines and industries. This includes programs for the Ohio State
Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and the Academy for Excellence in
Healthcare.
Business
Fundamentals for Science
Innovation
Fundamentals for Science
Further, Fisher Executive Education was ranked #2 in the world for custom programs by the
Economist Intelligence Unit.
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Overview of the Programs
Program Structure
Coaching to Ensure Successful Application
Each of these programs is designed as a high-impact, in-person learning
experience held on the Ohio State campus at the Fisher College of Business.
Each is will be delivered as a three-day session, running 8 AM to 5 PM each day.
We anticipate scheduling this to run Tuesday through Thursday.
The program curriculum will be driven by an Academic Director, and will delivered
by faculty of the Fisher College.
An initial outline for each program, based on our meetings and collaboration to
date, is shown on the following pages.
Each Fellow will have quarterly sessions with their TIU sponsor and a Fisher
coach to discuss and apply principles from the program to their research,
collaboration and teaching efforts.
The third meeting will include all participants in the program and will meet at
the end of spring semester of their first year on campus.
Program Participants
We are seeking 30-40 great researchers who are ready to stretch themselves
beyond their core discipline. This includes Discovery Theme hires, existing hires,
and future leaders of science, many of whom will work outside of academia and/or
partner with external partners and funding sources for their research.
Participation in the programs will be by nomination/application only.
• One-page professional/personal biography: This should highlight professional
experience, and provide evidence of cross-disciplinary work and initiatives
typical of OSU’s emphasis on Discovery Themes.
• One Page on goals: This should describe how the fellow plans to apply the
skills that s/he learns in the program for greater breadth of collaboration with
Ohio State colleagues in the 3-5 years following the program.
• One page letter of nomination from TIU head.
Pricing
$3,000 per student, per program
We propose that the OSU Office of Research and the Discovery Themes
sponsor an initial cohort comprised of five (5) participants from each of the
seven (7) focus areas for a total of 35 researchers to complete both courses.
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Business Fundamentals for Science
Key Learning Objectives
Course Description
• Build a solid foundation in the modern principles and practices of
This course is designed specifically to meet the need that our graduate
students in sciences—many of whom will work outside academia—have to
learn and leverage core business knowledge and skills. As Ohio State
endeavors to create the science leaders, and applied discoveries, of
tomorrow, these are the critical skills that faculty, students and even grant
providers recognize as essential to success.
The Business Fundamentals for Science program draws on the highly
successful Fisher MBA program, and the excellent faculty at Fisher, to
teach these scientists to effectively collaborate, communicate, and make
effective decisions in environments of uncertainty and discovery.
By teaching and building on the core fundamentals of business, this
program will develop key skills:
• How to work in a team without losing their own individual sense of
contribution
• How to work effectively in teams, as members and leaders
• How to make decisions in uncertainty
• How to engage in effective conversations with team members, sponsors
and others
• How to build ambidexterity—the ability to seek new products while fine
tuning the processes to deliver them.
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business.
Provide tools and methods to facilitate development of a business
mindset and data-driven decision-making.
Provide frameworks and develop professional expertise in team-building,
influence, cross-functional collaboration, and leading change.
Build leadership competencies and frames for effective communications
and active engagement.
Stimulate passion and build confidence so that leaders are able to
energize teams and motive others.
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Business Fundamentals for Science
Day One:
Day Two:
Day Three:
Leadership Effectiveness
Managing Projects in
Uncertainty
Operational Ambidexterity
Why would anyone choose to
follow you? Be inspired to
define your leadership legacy
and learn how the best leaders
inspire others to follow them.
Decision-Making
Effectively using information,
data, and decision tools to
leverage the best thinking to
arrive at the best path to
success.
Welcome Reception
4:30-5:30pm
Managing the human and
process dimensions to drive
measurable progress of the
work, and teams, in advancing
projects to conclusion, all within
an environment of uncertainty.
Leading High Performing
Teams
Team leadership as an
integrated concept;
understanding team dynamics;
and getting the most from
individuals and from the group.
Innovation is one part product –
what are you going to offer –
and one part process – how are
you going to deliver it. The
ability to do both – to be
ambidextrous – is critical for
high performing organizations
and researchers.
Crucial Conversations
When people aren’t comfortable
with a conversation, they defer it
for later or avoid it altogether.
Preparing and practice ensure
associates are comfortable
delivering good and bad news.
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Business Fundamentals for Science faculty
Jeff Rodek is Senior Lecturer in Management and Human
Resources at Fisher, having joined the faculty in 2007. Prior to
Hyperion’s sale to Oracle in April 2007, he was the Executive
Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Hyperion Solutions.
Rodek is a recognized expert on business performance and
related topics, including innovation and leadership.
Dr. Larry Inks, is Clinical Associate Professor of Management
and Human Resources. He was formerly VP, Organization and
Leadership Development for Cardinal Health. He teaches
courses in Organizational Behavior, Talent Management, and
Leadership, and was just given the Alumni Award for
Distinguished Teaching at Ohio State.
Dr. Roy J. Lewicki, Professor of Management & Human
Resources Emeritus, teaches courses and executive education
programs in Organizational Behavior, Advanced Negotiation,
and Leadership, Values, and Decision Making. He is the author
of the market-leading textbook on negotiation skills, and
continues to do research in negotiation, trust development and
trust repair.
Dr. Aravind Chandrasekaran, Professor in Management
Sciences, has focused his research on innovation and
knowledge creation issues. He has conducted extensive field
work at various organizations including 3M, Motorola, Boston
Scientific, UC Irvine, Cleveland Clinic and the Ohio State
Wexner Medical Center.
Dr. Nicholas G. Hall, Professor in Management Sciences &
Integrated Systems Engineering, teaches project management
—one of the most popular MBA electives at Fisher—a modeling
course, and several advanced PhD-level courses. He won the
Fisher Pacesetters’ Faculty Research Award in 1998 and 2005.
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of the Peoples’
Republic of China.
Dr. Bennett J. Tepper, Dean’s Distinguished Professor of
Management & Human Resources, is also the Chair of the
Department of Management and Human Resources at Fisher.
His research interests focus on managerial leadership,
employee health and well-being, and the performance of
prosocial and antisocial work behaviors.
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Innovation Fundamentals for Science
Key Learning Objectives
• Build Identify the key challenges to innovation
• Understand types of innovation
• Learn design thinking and different ways to generate ideas
• Review emerging best practices in putting end-customers at the center
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of ideation
Align ideation with strategy
Develop a framework to maximize the value of an innovation
Recognize the disruptive forces of innovation
Explore the cultural implications of innovation
Consider the impact of organizational structure
Develop your leadership style to promote behaviors that yield desired
results
Course Description
Innovation Fundamentals of Science is designed for those responsible
for innovation efforts, lab leaders, and primary investigators. We provide
participants with the knowledge to design optimal processes and policies
that promote and facilitate innovation within their sphere of investigation.
This learning experience will infuse an innovation mindset and competencies
into organizations, and individuals, and is customized to address the specific
skills required to innovate in science—from ideation to commercialization—
and includes the collaborative, trans-disciplinary and horizontal skills
associated with design thinking, inductive thinking and critical thinking.
Beyond ideation, the course will provide scientists with a deeper
understanding and command of how to organize for, effectively lead, and
facilitate innovation in their labs.
In this immersive 3-day program, participants will learn and apply concepts
from ideation to application to commercialization, and come away thinking
differently about the challenges of delivering innovation within a scientific
context.
A unique format of six, half-day class sessions, plus workshop modules,
allows for immediate team and project-based application of learning from
lectures, case studies, and article discussions. Each session is led by faculty
who are experts in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Participants leave with an action plan to improve innovation processes and
results in their labs and on their research initiatives.
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Innovation Fundamentals for Science
Day One:
Day Two:
Day Three:
Defining Innovation & Innovation Strategy
Restructuring, Change Management,
Organizational Structure, Cultures &
Incentives
Financial Implications and Operations –
Monetizing and Commercializing
Innovation
• Types of innovation team and organizational
• How process innovation complements and
• Causes, types and levels of innovation
• The role of creativity, intuition, and patient/
care provider -centric development
• Design Thinking processes
• Why traditional approaches to product and
service development are less successful in
the face of increasing consumer control over
the purchase process
• The causes, types, and levels of innovation
and their relationship with organization
• Identifying managerial challenges that need
to be overcome when fostering innovation in
uncertain and dynamic environments.
• Introduce a portfolio framework to guide
resource allocation decisions and an
organizational framework to create a “market
for ideas.”
• What are the share of profits inventors
structures
• The successful transfer of knowledge and
learning from labs and how to integrate it into
day-to-day operations
• Culture: The most formidable challenge,
reasons for inertia, and how to address it
• Best practices in Performance Risk
Management
• The cultural implications of innovation,
including team-building, leadership style, and
incentives that encourage employees to
pursue and model innovative behavior that
yields desired results
supports product innovation
• Process innovation in service manufacturing
settings
• Approaches to organizational structure and
rewards systems that support innovation and
how these approaches differ based on
industry and organizational culture and
history
• Organizational change that help
institutionalize positive innovation practices
• Commercialization processes monetization
strategies from private equity to venture
capital through patenting and IP protection
• Innovation implications on organizational
structure
receive?
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Innovation Fundamentals for Science faculty
Mike Bills, Executive Director, Center for Innovation &
Entrepreneurship, is leveraging 25 years of private sector and
academic experience in consumer-led innovation to advance
student learning and elevate partnerships across the university,
with entrepreneurs, and with corporations.
Dr. Aravind Chandrasekaran, Professor in Management
Sciences, has focused his research on innovation and knowledge
creation issues. He has conducted extensive field work at various
organizations including 3M, Motorola, Boston Scientific, UC
Irvine, Cleveland Clinic and the OSU Medical Center.
Dr. Michael Leiblein, Associate Professor of Competitive
Strategy, teaches competitive strategy, innovation strategy, and
innovation management. His research describes the resource
allocation & organizational strategies firms can use to improve
innovation activity and economic performance.
Jeff Rodek, Senior Lecturer of Management and Human
Resources, was the former chairman and CEO of Hyperion
Solutions that was acquired by Oracle. He created market-leading,
enterprise performance management solutions in a demanding
and fast-paced industry filled with innovative competitors.
Dr. Deborah Mitchell, Clinical Associate Professor of
Marketing, has taught at Wharton, Stanford and the University
of Wisconsin. Professor Mitchell has leveraged her research,
consulting, and expertise in Design Thinking to help marketfocused organizations embrace and drive innovation.
Dr. Karen Wruck, Dean’s Distinguished Professor and
Professor of Finance, joined Fisher from Harvard. Her work
includes research in the fields of financial and organizational
economics; teaching in our Executive MBA and executive
education programs; and consulting with major corporations.
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Contacts
Professor Ken Boyer
Chair, Management Sciences Department, Ohio State University
boyer.9@osu.edu
614.292.4605
Professor Michael Ibba
Chair, Microbiology Department, Ohio State University
ibba.1@osu.edu
614.292.2120
Michael Bills
Executive Director, OSU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
bills.36@osu.edu
614.226.0072 mobile
Gretchen Goffe
Director, Executive Education
goffe.1@osu.edu
614.292.8963
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