For students · International Innovation Management
Learn innovation by doing it — from Yverdon to Silicon Valley.
In the IIM course, you master Design Thinking and Lean Startup — and apply them to a real Swiss start-up preparing to enter the US market. The semester ends with two weeks in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
What you will learn
Four skills you build during the semester — and keep using long after it.
Innovation methods
Design Thinking and Lean Startup: user-centric problem-solving and efficient start-up development.
Innovation strategy
Types of innovation, their advantages and limits, and how to align innovation with a firm’s strategy.
International development
Critical success factors abroad, and how cultural differences shape innovation.
Multidisciplinary teamwork
Economists and engineers turning ideas into market-ready products — on time and on budget.
How the semester works
You work in three teams of four students — two economists and two engineers — each paired with one Swiss start-up.
Roles
Each team takes a role for the whole class: communication (contacting start-ups, promoting our work), organisation (schedules and deadlines) or media (running this website).
Call for start-ups
Together, the class finds the three start-ups the teams will work with during the semester.
Desk & field research
Each team works closely with its start-up, then presents its results after a design sprint.
San Francisco
You prepare your meeting schedule in the US, then pitch your start-up on site — with company visits in Silicon Valley.
The field study
Two weeks in San Francisco.
At the end of the program, you spend two weeks networking in the United States: managing meetings, presenting your start-up and visiting top companies in Silicon Valley.
And yes — catching a basketball game and walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is highly recommended.