Managing Innovation and New Technologies in the Extractive Industries

Extractive industries—including the mining and oil & gas energy sectors—have become more technology-intensive over the years, and the pace of their technological change is only accelerating as the years role on. Despite this increasing importance on technology, however, the companies, government agencies, and stakeholders connected to these industries frequently struggle with how to manage these kinds of change.

This MOOC will give participants an awareness of how innovation and R&D happen within these sectors and, by teaching them how to apply a broad range of tools and fresh ideas from other industries that have historically been more comfortable with technology, shows them how they can get better results from innovation-related activities.

In so doing, participants from these industries will become more adept at inventing and deploying innovations, thereby enabling them to make significant progress towards SDGs 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and 13 (Climate Action).

Target Audience

Anyone who is connected to the innovation-related aspects of their organization, who works in decision-making roles that are frequently impacted by the emergence of new technologies, or who wants to play a role in creating a more innovative environment within their business, government agency, or stakeholder group related to the extractive industries.

Learning Objectives

Develop an appreciation for the role of innovation in the success of energy and resource firms.
Understand the unique and industry-specific challenges of R&D in the energy and resource sectors.
Understand the different types of innovation.
Understand “open innovation” and know a few ways that they can become open innovators who successfully leverage innovations and good ideas from other organizations and industries.
Know how to articulate and calculate the potential value of energy and resource technologies, and to recognize the limitations of different valuation methods.
Understand how/why dominant designs emerge in the marketplace, but not always (and the market conditions that typically give rise to each scenario).
Know how to connect your technology strategy to the larger strategic aims of your organization.
Know how organizational structures impact innovation processes, thereby helping them to design organizations that are more innovative and successful in managing novel technologies.
Understand tools and approaches for managing and tracking new product development and their organization’s R&D portfolio.