Mild Embarrassment In Strategic Innovation

Today is the first day of Mod III classes. Like many of my classmates, my course schedule is still very much up in the air. As a result, I haven't bought any of my (non-returnable and obscenely expensive) course packs and have only invested time in the courses that I know that I'm going to keep.

It remains unclear whether or not I'll keep Strategic Innovation , but not because I don't think the course is great. On the contrary, it would probably be a co-favorite along with Business Innovation in the Digital Age. (Notice the trend?) Regardless - my status in the course is uncertain, thus I didn't buy (or prepare) the case for the first day of class, nor did I submit the brief online questions.

I did, however, make the mistake of reading the online questions and entering "asdf" in the required fields such that I could advance to read all of the online questions.

At the time, I didn't think it would matter. In fact, I don't even remember clicking "submit". Turns out, Prof. Nerkar likes to include student responses in his class presentation...for all of the class to see. Consequently, my name appeared on screen several times in class as:

Eric Boggs: asdf

For good reason, Prof. Nerkar jokingly called me out...and laughter ensued. I'm pretty sure that I blushed - primarily because the class is 37/40 2nd year students, most of whom I don't know.

Luckily, he also lofted me a softball. He had just finished explaining to the class how our course will explore how organizations can "crack the code" of managing innovation. Thus, when he asked me what I meant by "asdf", I told him that it was "the code that organizations can use for managing innovation" - that I had actually cracked it.

I found my answer both strategic and innovative. Prof. Nerkar seemed to like it, as well.