Tuck

The Innovation Leadership Consortium is made up of world-class corporations committed to fostering innovation and leadership development for their organizations. The consortium is organized by the Tuck School in partnership with Eruditus, which delivers high quality executive education programs targeted at India’s growing leadership talent pool. This consortium draws on ten-plus years of experience with the Global Leadership 2030 Consortium as well as with its other executive education programs focused on strategic innovation and leadership. Read more about Tuck’s Reputation and Our Promise to you.

For the inaugural offering of the consortium program, teams of 6-10 executives from four corporations with major operations in India—HSBC India, Johnson & Johnson India, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Tata Consultancy Services—are taking part in three intensive weeklong modules. The program began at the Tuck School in Hanover, New Hampshire in April 2012; the second and third modules are taking place in India in October 2012 and January 2013. A key component of the learning is how company teams work on action-learning projects that continue across the three modules to address a significant company issue.

The program is designed to enhance the abilities of participants to lead strategic innovation in their companies. The consortium experience develops leaders who can identify future growth opportunities inside and outside of India and create a culture that embraces innovation to drive growth. The program builds participants’ leadership and functional skills for the rapidly changing global environment and enables them to effect positive change within their respective organizations.

Faculty Director Vijay Govindarajan (VG) brings new ways of thinking about strategy and innovation, including reverse innovation—where a corporation learns to generate successful innovations in emerging markets and then exports them to the developed world. Professor Govindarajan is joined by other top faculty from Tuck and select experts who share their innovation expertise and experience with participants.

What are the benefits of the consortium?

The multi-company consortium program combines the advantages of a custom program with the benefits of an open enrollment program. It facilitates the cross-fertilization of ideas among executives from different companies and different industries at the same time that it challenges participant teams to address pressing issues for their own organizations.

As they work on their action-learning projects, company teams conduct in-depth field research and analysis on company-specific issues related to innovation. For example, accessing rural markets is a theme that is important to most consortium members—and one that requires fundamental changes to their current business models. To that end, teams will delve into rural markets to help determine strategy.

Companies in India face both domestic competitors as well as global competitors. How can a consumer packaged goods company reach 40 million rural households that don’t consume its products today? How can a financial services company work within banking regulations to ensure growth? Only strategic innovation can get them there. That is the fundamental premise of this consortium.