MSc in Business Innovation

Course Overview

The MSc in Business Innovation at the London School of International Business and Management (LSIBM) is a one-year UK Master's for candidates moving into innovation-manager, transformation-lead and corporate-venturing roles at UK plcs, mid-market firms and consultancies. Sitting in the Business & Management faculty, the programme covers innovation-portfolio design, discovery and validation methods (Lean, JTBD, ethnographic research), change governance under UK Corporate Governance Code expectations, and a live corporate-innovation capstone defended before a working transformation director.

The MSc is shaped around the CMI Chartered Manager senior competencies, the APM change-management practice standard and the Innovation Leaders Forum applied model. Study runs one year full-time (two years part-time on the online or distance routes) and is available on-campus in central London, fully online with UK / APAC cohort calls, or by distance learning. Each student is allocated a dissertation supervisor drawn from a pool of working innovation and transformation leaders.

Key Features

• Curriculum designed around CMI Chartered Manager senior competencies, the APM change-management standard and the Innovation Leaders Forum applied model.
• Three study modes — central London campus, fully online with UK / APAC cohort calls, or distance learning.
• Live corporate-innovation capstone sponsored by a UK plc or scale-up transformation office.
• Fortnightly senior-practitioner clinic with a UK plc chief innovation officer, a scale-up chief of staff and a corporate-venturing partner.
• Portfolio-mapping and discovery-lab exercises modelled on Lean Startup, JTBD and validated-learning practice.
• Executive-application coaching for innovation-director and transformation-lead searches in the final term.

What You Will Learn

The MSc organises business innovation around the working questions a transformation office actually owns: which bets to back, which to kill on Friday, which to hand to a business unit, and how to govern the innovation P&L without a management team quietly re-badging BAU work as innovation.

• Innovation portfolio design — three-horizons, ambidextrous organisation, core-adjacent-transformational.
• Discovery methods — Lean Startup, Jobs-to-be-Done, ethnographic research, prototype-and-test cycles.
• Business-model innovation — Osterwalder canvas, unit-economics testing, viability gates.
• Corporate venturing — venture-client models, CVC funds, spin-out mechanics.
• Innovation accounting — leading-indicator metrics, stage-gate governance, kill-decision criteria.
• Change and transformation management — Kotter, ADKAR, APM change practice.
• Culture and psychological safety — Edmondson's research applied to UK firms.
• Regulatory-innovation navigation — FCA regulatory sandbox and UK Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum practice.
• Sustainability-driven innovation and B Corp assessment.
• Dissertation on an original innovation-management question, supervised end-to-end.

Who This Course Is For

• Innovation managers moving into director-level roles at UK plcs.
• Transformation-programme leads preparing for senior transformation-director tracks.
• Consulting managers building an innovation and change practice line.
• Corporate-venturing analysts moving into partner-track roles.
• Scale-up chiefs of staff formalising a UK senior credential.

Career Pathways

Graduates typically progress into innovation-director, transformation-lead and corporate-venturing roles across UK plcs, consultancies and scale-ups. The MSc supports applications but does not by itself guarantee any specific senior appointment.

• Innovation Manager
• Transformation Analyst (senior)
• Change Consultant
• Innovation Programme Lead
• Head of Corporate Venturing (junior)
• Chief of Staff, Transformation

The MSc articulates directly into the CMI Chartered Manager application and the APM Registered Project Professional route.

Entry Requirements

• A UK 2:2 honours degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent international qualification. Applicants with three years of substantive innovation, transformation or corporate-venturing experience may apply on a portfolio route.
• GCSE English Language at grade 5/C (or equivalent) is required for domestic applicants; international applicants meet the language rule below.
• IELTS 6.5 overall (no band below 6.0) for non-native English speakers.
• A short statement of intent (600 words) explaining an innovation project or research direction (a validated experiment or transformation case is a helpful example), plus two references (one academic, one workplace or professional-body).

Why Study at LSIBM

The London School of International Business and Management (LSIBM) is a specialist business-education provider based in central London and part of Harold International College. Postgraduate cohorts run in small tutor-visible groups, are shaped by working senior practitioners (partner-level at a Big Four firm, Fellow-level at CIM or CIPD, CFA charter-holders in investment routes) and close with a substantial dissertation, sponsor consulting project or applied capstone defended in front of a working panel.

London puts the City, Canary Wharf, Whitehall, Companies House, the FCA, the Bank of England, the West End and the major consulting, banking and multinational headquarters within a short tube ride of every classroom. LSIBM postgraduates attend a fortnightly senior-practitioner clinic and a structured executive-application coaching programme in the final term.

Apply for the MSc in Business Innovation

Step into the senior track with the MSc in Business Innovation. Click Enrol Now and admissions will reply within one working day with intake dates, dissertation supervisor allocation guidance and the current fee schedule. LSIBM postgraduates are supported by dedicated executive-application coaching in the final term.