Innovation is a Must

My Innovation Coursework at ESMT

As our elective courses came to an end, I understood how invaluable experience I got from those courses. We watched movies about real companies who were in the challenging process of developing their new breakthrough products and how they brought those to market and how they became successful. We also discussed all the different pros and cons of being a first-mover or a follower in a market, analyzed case studies of highly successful business initiatives, business models and also dramatic failures.

Innovation in Companies

As part of one of our courses, we visited two car companies (BMW and Porsche) in Leipzig. It was amazing to see the whole production process of cars in these 2 companies, and to feel the difference and/or similarities of the processes. Besides enjoying the cars, this field trip was valuable especially when we mentally imagined the big picture of the company itself, and all the pieces of the product development concepts we learnt started to fit into the company’s reality. Key learnings are in our minds.

In another, course we learned the difference between various types of innovation, and discussed the challenges companies face when they try to incorporate innovation into their normal business processes. It is so hard and challenging for the companies to always be in close interaction with their current customers, but also predict the needs of the future customers.

My visit to IFA 2012

As a supplement to our active learning process about innovations and new product creations, I decided to visit an innovation fair in Berlin – IFA 2012. This is a special event which holds every year, and different companies from all over the world come to Berlin to show their innovative products and solutions. If you are lucky to be in Berlin during this fair, you shouldn’t miss it. It was an amazing experience for me.Simplicity, great design, effective solutions, beauty, convenience, care – these are the associations I had in this innovation fair. All these companies push themselves beyond the customers’ imaginations of what they want to have, and offer customers new products/services that surprise, amaze them, and also make their lives easier, more convenient and more beautiful. And the future belongs to those companies who are able to innovate continuously and not fall in love with their current products so as to be able to kill those products and cannibalize them with their new products when time for new products comes.

About Sona Rostomyan

Sona Rostomyan recently graduated from ESMT's MBA program and was nominated as one of the Kofi Annan Fellows in 2012. Prior to joining ESMT as an MBA student, she started her career at one of the most rapidly growing banks in Armenia (Ameriabank CJSC) working first in the customer service department and then in the back office. She has more than four of years experience in the banking industry (including customer transactions formalization, and account management). She enjoys solving mathematical puzzles, reading books and has a passion for photography.