Executive Education English

CEL™ Corporate Entrepreneurial Leadership

    EMBA Class 26

    Innovation: From idea to fully completed business venture in 6 months

    CEL™ is a success proven business innovation programme for leaders who want to turn opportunities, intentions and ideas into sustainable business growth. In order to be a frontrunner and a winner in an increasingly competitive market space, companies need to be better at renewing their business opportunities while optimizing their core business.

    CEL™ is a high impact action learning programme for participants and their corporate sponsors. Theory and practice are combined by utilizing your company’s new business opportunity as the basis for learning throughout the 6-month programme with 16 days in class.

    During the programme, experts in corporate entrepreneurship will teach and coach the participants on how to apply the learning objectives to their specific project.

    CEL laid the foundation for FLSmidth’s corporate venture into Alternative Fuels, which has since resulted in the implementation of alternative fuel projects and technologies at numerous cement plants worldwide.

    Personally, I have consistently benefited from the structured CEL approach to innovation and entrepreneurship.

    Lars Skaarup Jensen
    CEL™ Graduate
    R&D Specialist at FLSmidth

    Outcome for your company

    Expanding a company’s core business can be more challenging than optimizing it. Leaders attending the CEL™ Programme will learn how to discover and clarify ideas, incubate these into businesses and accelerate them for company growth. This will be done through a specific project creating direct value for the company. 

    Outcome for Companies and Leaders – CEL

    Testimonials from our participants on their personal and professional outcomes from our programme.

    Value creation

    Companies bring projects with pre-evaluated maturity levels and scope to the programme. While working on these projects, CEL-participants become expert facilitators of Corporate Business Innovation. Through the programme, we ensure that participants create value for the company while expanding their entrepreneurial toolbox and leadership mindset.

    The CEL™ Programme is based on a constant mix between classroom lectures, teamwork and coaching/feedback sessions. Through the programme content and by peer coaching among company teams, CEL™ participants become experts in New Business Creation.

    Since its inception in 2007, CEL™ has graduated 16 classes from the programme resulting in the development of 95 projects from 27 companies.

    Other takeaways are:

    • Strengthened partnerships and networks
    • Organizations develop projects with partners in a neutral setting
    • Valuable learning and networking across sectors and industries
    • Participants and sponsors strengthen and develop their respective positions.

    “The main aspect that I take from the programme is that the management style and methods taught at CEL™ are not only applicable to innovation projects but also to any complex project that we meet in our daily life. Core team structure, business learning plan, implementation strategy, and targeted communication style to name a few that I keep using daily on strategic projects within our company.”

    Agata Gallas-Hulin
    DBI

    Personalized for your company’s outcome

    The sponsors and the participants of each company bring a project that is important to their organisation and their team. Bringing their project to the CEL-programme equip the participants with the ability to clarify ideas, incubate and mature these ideas into businesses, and ultimately accelerate them to enhance company growth.

    Projects in CEL™ are often highly innovative, of strategic importance to the company, and supported by top management. The projects encompass all levels of maturity and scope and are:

    • based on actual projects from the participating corporations
    • taken from a broad spectrum of industries
    • always treated with confidentiality

    I would say that every company working or wanting to work in innovation should send their employees, who have project ideas, to participate in a course such as the CEL™ programme. The programme offers them an accelerated start at these projects by giving them the tools and frameworks that they will not pick up otherwise.

    Georg Timper
    FLSmidth

    Participants’ learning and development

    CEL-participants sign up in teams of 2-6 people representing different stakeholders both internally and externally. The participants come from various positions such as Research and Development, Programme Management, Business Development, Sales, Marketing, HR, Supply Chain or Finance.

    New knowledge will be applied immediately

    Genuine learning occurs when knowledge is applied to projects in collaboration with peers and key stakeholders. That is why the programme is based on a mix of lectures, teamwork, coaching, feedback, and dialogue with corporate executives.

    “The education targets a process. The benefit of the programme is that it is a journey and this journey aspect of the programme is in focus. What has been obvious to me, is how much of the material can be applied in my daily job. The greatest asset of the programme has been understanding the environment that I am already in. I had previous training within leadership, and I think the financial aspect of the CEL™ programme is what really brings me to the next level.”

    Catherine Smitt Meyer
    Haldor Topsoe

    Partners and alumni

    The participating companies become corporate partners and alumni.

    Our corporarte partners are characterised as being:

    • In pursuit of new profitable and sustainable growth
    • Medium and large-sized companies
    • Knowledge-intensive
    • Tech focused

    Every company that considers innovation and growth to be important should enroll a team in the CEL™ programme.

    Kim Hedegaard Andersen
    Haldor Topsøe A/S

    Programme design

    The CEL™ programme is divided into ten modules of 1-2 day’s duration over a time period of 6 months with 16 days in class. The modules are grouped around the four distinct phases of the Business Innovation Project process:

    1. Discover – creation, recognition, articulation, and elaboration of opportunities
    2. Incubate – experimentation, technical, market, resources and organisation
    3. Accelerate – how to successfully go to market and scale up the growth
    4. Implement – change, leadership and communication

    The ten modules are as follows:

    Module 1 – Change, leadership, communication 
    Module 2 –  From Idea to Opportunity
    Module 3 – From Opportunity to Experiment 
    Module 4 – From Experiment to Venture
    Module 5 – Planning for Implementation and stakeholder engagement
    Module 6 – Presenting convincingly
    Module 7 – From venture to business
    Module 8 – Financials for the internal venture
    Module 9 – From business to core business
    Module 10 – Competition & Graduation

    The two most important aspects I take from this course are that teamwork is very important and that often the technical aspects of a project are less important than other aspects such as resources and organisation.

    Benoit Bidoggia
    FLSmidth

    Admission, finance and practicalities

    Admission to the CEL™ Programme is exclusively through corporate sponsorship and by invitation only. To arrange an introductory meeting, please e-mail Teresa Sabrina Salvati (tesal@dtu.dk). Your company applies for admission to the programme by sharing information about the team and the business idea project.

    Workload

    The workload for the CEL™ programme varies greatly from project to project. In general, most teams should expect to spend at least one day per week during the programme. This includes attending courses, preparation, assignments, and work on the advancement of the project.

    Language

    Teaching, discussions and educational material are in English. Assignment submissions, papers and videos are expected to be in English.

    Price system

    The price is based on the number of participants in the team participating – send an enquiry email (tesal@dtu.dk) for information on prices.

    The price includes tuition, meals and materials, executive network and sponsor activities.

    Venue

    The teaching requires physical attendance at the following address:

    DTU Learn for Life
    Building 421, entrance C
    Kollegiebakken
    2800 Kgs. Lyngby (Directions)

    Contact


    Teresa Sabrina Salvati
    tesal@dtu.dk
    (+45) 53 66 97 99

    Innovation: From idea to fully completed business venture in 6 months

    An experienced group of corporate entrepreneurship experts from the world’s leading business schools, teach and coach the CEL-participants in how to apply the educational material to their specific projects.

    Faculty list

    Staff list

    Registration

    Duration

    6 months with 16 days of on-site teaching

    Location

    On-site on DTU Lyngby Campus in Denmark

    Format

    Part-time

    Participation

    Company teams of 2-5 persons

    Registration