Goals

This course has the following objectives:

  1. Understand the reasons that drive more and more entrepreneurs to evolve their current business models.
  2. To understand the main concepts related to technological innovation and their impact on the innovation of business models.
  3. Discover the major current digital trends in order to foresee the business opportunities that are opening up to entrepreneurs.
  4. Understand how the digital economy seeks to reinforce, even replace, the industrial economy.
  5. Be inspired by different business models by understanding what they are based on.

Finally, it aims through its work to give the desire to ENTERPRISE. This is why an important part of the course consists of group work aimed at introducing one of the technologies presented in the course into a new (start-up) company or into an existing company. Practical use of the concepts and tools presented is required.

 

Content

The course is generally divided into 3 main parts.

Part I - Business Models innovation: this part, the most consequent of the course, presents:

  • a set of concepts and tools useful for the introduction of new technologies within a company, thus leading to the modification of its business model. These concepts include: the business canvas, the business model navigator, the value curve, the 7 directions of the value proposition and the value architecture, the 60 models of the business model map, etc. Each tool is accompanied by a set of examples to clearly illustrate their use.
  • The gestation process to be put in place in order to allow a successful implementation of a new technology within a company as well as its impact on the business model.

Part II - The main digital trends: this part, animated mainly by the students, takes place in parallel to part I. It seeks to present the major digital trends in 2022. A dozen trends are proposed:

  • From Cloud computing to Quantum computing
  • Analytics, Big Data, Data Lakes and Data Mesh
  • Internet of Things (IoT) to Edge AI
  • Artificial intelligence: machine learning
  • Artificial intelligence: deep learning
  • Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and Metaverse
  • Robotics - RPA
  • Raspberry
  • Blockchain
  • Nanotechnologies
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cryptocurrencies

Part III - From the industrial economy to the digital economy: this part, inspired by Chinese authors, defines the 10 main types of economy that lead to a shift from the industrial era to the digital era.

 

Teaching methods

Parts I and III are mainly taught in a lecture format with a PowerPoint presentation (syllabus = presentation material). Examples and illustrations from the world of practice are omnipresent.

During one of the courses, an external speaker, specialized in the implementation of technological innovation in companies, presents some recent cases of technological breakthroughs in Belgian companies and proposes an exercise to put them into real conditions.

Part II of the course is presented by pairs of students. This is followed by a question-and-answer session and an in-depth discussion.

 

Assessment method

There are two practical works:

  1. Presentation of a new technology in student pairs whose content is :
  1. Functional and technical concepts 
  2. Impact on the usual business model
  3. "Part of three": 3 fundamentals to remember, not to do, to follow, etc.
  4. Presentation of the business model canvas of a company based on this technology (and if already seen the patterns according to the business model navigator)

Mode : a 30 minute oral presentation during a class.

  1. Presentation of a business model based on an original idea. The topics covered in this assignment will be:
  1. Presentation of the concept
  2. Type of economy
  3. Business canvas
  4. Patterns of the business model navigator uses
  5. Ideation process
  6. Mock-up
  7. Draft business plan

Mode : One hour oral exam in groups of 4-5 students. This is a long term project, i.e. over a good half of the semester. Two classes are scheduled to allow students to talk freely with the professor about the progress of this work and thus ensure that the students obtain a conclusive result.

 

Language of instruction

English