Chief Information Officers and other senior technology leaders are often able to see across their companies in ways that few other executives can. As the leaders of technology enablement and suppliers of innovation, they are often intimately familiar with the details of how the business works across all functions as well as what the critical customer and supplier issues are. This puts them in a unique position to drive change and leverage technology broadly across the enterprise. The Chief Information Officer's ability to drive change by leveraging both technology and process innovation will differentiate the good from the great technology leaders.

Global economic trends are having a significant impact on business in the US and abroad. This program offers information on current, as well as future, economic, political and social trends that are driving innovation. Cloud computing, tablets, smartphones, social media are all innovations that are not only the drivers of growth over the next decade, but will substantially change how businesses operate in the 21st century. The CIO and other information technology leaders must be equipped with the tools to not only understand these innovations, but to leverage them for competitive advantage for their respective firms.

Design thinking is an ideation process that combines creative and analytical skills with collaboration across disciplines to solve problems. This method can be applied to not only product design but to process design. The ability to observe and understand the needs of users and customers, develop fast experiments and prototypes with users, and implement strategies to reduce bureaucratic processes are all critical tools for CIOs and other technology leaders. Understanding design thinking and how to apply it can help to support innovation through the development of an ambidextrous culture.

To be successful, CIOs and technology leaders must be able to develop knowledge partnerships with peers, vendors and customers. Such partnerships should exist globally to reflect the global nature of technology change. This program offers a chance to spend three days understanding not just how innovation is happening in Silicon Valley, but also how this interrelates and is affected by what is happening in China, India, Brazil, eastern Europe and beyond. Discussions with professors, venture capitalists and successful startup executives will create an exciting and thought-provoking environment to explore these and other relevant points.

This highly customized executive education program focuses on providing Chief Information Officers an opportunity to learn in a world-class academic environment with peers from around the world. Innovation and change is happening in every organization, and successfully leading organizations in this frothy environment requires fresh ideas, shared perspectives and a new set of frameworks that can be applied to solve real-world problems.

Effective CIOs have a good understanding of the global economic, political, and social environment in which their company operates, and are constantly assessing how their company can best take advantage of rapidly changing technology in this landscape. The effective technology leader must use a variety of resources to provide a “safe” environment where innovation can flourish. This program is designed to provide data, tools and techniques to enable deeper thinking about innovation relative to the participants’ particular situation. Time is spent understanding some of the more important frameworks that can be used to help foster innovation, and considering the critical role the CIO or senior technology leader provides in creating a culture of innovation.

• Understand the global economic, political, and social trends that are driving innovation
• Explore how current technology changes in cloud computing, mobile devices, social media and other areas are driving global growth. Learn how to leverage these changes for competitive advantage
• Gain knowledge and skills to observe and understand the needs of users and customers, develop fast experiments and prototypes with users, and develop prediction markets
• Develop new skills on the psychology of engagement and how to engage employees through novel technologies
• Strategize on how to reduce bureaucratic processes and create an ambidextrous culture to support innovation
• Recognize how to build personal power and influence in the organization