Putting innovation into Kiwi ingenuity

By DITA DE BONI

A Masters course aiming for lift-off in September hopes to teach people the art of innovative thinking.

West Auckland-based Unitec is waiting for the final seal of approval from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for a degree designed to add cogs to the wheel of the fledgling knowledge economy.

The institute's Masters of Business (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) targets a niche market in postgraduates who might be looking for something different to the slew of MBA courses on offer.

The course focuses on start-up business hopefuls and division heads with decision-making latitude.

Phil Bretherton, head of Unitec's School of Applied Management, says the idea was cooked up two years ago, at a time when "entrepreneurship was still associated with people such as Alan Bond.

"But the term has gained currency during the time of the course's development, as has the idea that those kinds of skills will be crucial to New Zealand's development going forward."

Mr Bretherton - a jovial Englishman who has observed the natives for seven years - does not wholeheartedly subscribe to the idea that Kiwis are inherently innovative and entrepreneurial.

"Fixing a gate is ingenious, but it is not innovative. Designing a gate that closes and locks by itself is innovative," he says.

And successfully selling that clever locking mechanism is entrepreneurial, but again not something New Zealanders would necessarily do, he says.

"There is failure here to take innovation to the marketplace. Even when it is, it is not always maximised.

"People also need to have a more global view.

"A legislative environment which encourages these kinds of skills is important but innovation does not always come from a lack of constraints. It often involves working with, and within, constraints that may be self-imposed."

But is it possible to actually teach entrepreneurship and innovation, skills that most believe come as part of the genetic package?

Mr Bretherton says almost everyone has some degree of both, but many need to learn how to tease it out.

"I would hope all people were born with it but, sadly, employers do their utmost to discourage it."

The course - taking 15 months of part-time study to complete - will use some unconventional ways of teaching students to apply sound business and management skills to innovative concepts.

Using well-recognised entrepreneurs in the community, the course hopes case studies and interaction with the veterans of self-business will prove more enlightening than immersion in theory.

For students with the right prerequisites, including several years in the workplace, the full course will cost $15,000. It has three levels, a postgraduate certificate, a postgraduate diploma and the Masters degree.

And the future for the first entrepreneur and innovation masters graduates in New Zealand?

Mr Bretherton says it could be bright - especially in the area of agribusiness - "if we choose to go that route."

Global companies moving to acquire New Zealand businesses is a good sign and means more opportunities will be created.

"But whether New Zealand will choose to take advantage of those opportunities is another question."