User:MicMicMic/Raphael Cohen

Raphael Cohen is a professor, lecturer, author, serial entrepreneur, business angel, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Switzerland.

He is the owner and managing director of Getratex SA, as well as academic director of the entrepreneurship & business development specialization of the eMBA at the University of Geneva.

He has been managing an international group of companies since before earning his Ph.D in economics in 1982. Both his career as an academic and as an active CEO and business angel have been factors to him becoming and expert in strategic analysis, business development, business management and other business related fields. Being an expert in in entrepreneurship and being very experienced, he lectures and offers consulting and coaching services to senior executives, bankers, directors and entrepreneurs.

Raphael has come up with the IpOp Model, a novel approach to innovation and corporate entrepreneurship which is used by companies such as Nestlé, Microsoft, Oracle and other organizations such as startups and public administrations. The model is a tool to be used by managers to prevent the waste of resources in allocating resources to innovation projects or to help them to innovate in order to bring competitive advantages to their company. It can be adapted for use in different kinds of organizations and specific industries. The IpOp Model has been extremely successful in Europe.

In addition to his active career in academia he has also been the Academic Director of the MBA Europe for Thunderbird School of Global Management and Director of the first course of entrepreneurship at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL.

Life and early career
Cohen started his career at Getratex SA in 1975, where his first intrapreneurial opportunity was to create a new business unit to sell fashion wear. This unit eventually became one of the most dynamic licensees of Walt Disney as the first to successfully sell Disney sportswear to adults in North America and Europe. To reduce his exposure to the fashion industry, in 1980 he initiated a diversification which led him to invest in several startups. Since he became a business angel Cohen has been involved in many businesses including tourist attractions, theming of public areas, surface treatments, financial derivatives, internet marketing, software, skin treatments, retail, real estate, construction and high-tech projects. As a trusted advisor for several large corporations he became an expert in corporate innovation and intrapreneurship. Cohen resides in Geneva, Switzerland and travels often, giving keynotes on innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, startups, business models, benevolent leadership, and human resources.

Management Boosters
Cohen started Management Boosters in 2001, as a division of Getratex SA, to provide corporate clients with consulting and training services focusing on the acquisition of competitive advantages. Managment Boosters offers training, consulting, mentoring & coaching, facilitation and lecturing. BizPlanBooster, ExecutiveBooster, InnovationBooster and LeaderBooster are a few of the seminars that Management Boosters provide. He has been designing and managing several AgilityBooster/MicroMBA MBTM programs for Fortune 500 companies like Oracle, Nestlé, Sanofi-aventis, Microsoft, banks, IT and industrial companies. To develop professional agility, these programs teach high-potential employees the tools to innovate and become more entrepreneurial in their current and future positions. One of their unique characteristics is that the measurable return of these programs is higher than their cost. Cohen works with businesses on innovation strategies and frameworks to boost their ability to acquire competitive advantages. His IpOp Model helps businesses and leaders to better allocate resources to innovation projects.

University of Geneva
Since 2001, Cohen has been the academic co-director of the entrepreneurship specialization of the eMBA of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, to design and run the first MBA in continental Europe focusing on innovation, entrepreneurship and business development. This post-graduate program mainly targets executives aspiring to create, develop and manage intrapreneurial business units.

IpOp Model
Cohen developed the IpOp Model as a roadmap during the pre-project/ideation stage of seizing an opportunity. The model helps innovators analyze and mature their idea to produce an opportunity case or a business plan to convince themselves and decision-makers, such as investors or management of the merits of the opportunity. The IpOp Model uses a specific vocabulary to clarify key concepts relevant for innovators, such as Pain/Need/Desires to be satisfied by a Solution, Competitive Advantages defined by Customer Decision Criteria, Definition of Success & Failure, Unknowns, Stakeholders’ Aspirations, Resistances and Constraints.

Opportunity case
The Opportunity Case is a concept used in Cohen's book "Winning Opportunities". The Opportunity Case is a document presented to the stakeholders along with a proposal to give them the right information about the proposal being made. It is to be used instead of a Business Plan. Cohen advocates the replacement of business plans for startups by a two-step approach consisting of an opportunity case followed by a separate implementation plan.

Management by Opportunity
Cohen coined the expression “Management by Opportunity” as a managerial best practice for stimulating internal innovation. It includes 4 pillars required to encourage and support innovative employees.

MicroMBA MB
To help organizations benefit from the innovative ability of their employees Cohen has designed and implemented the MicroMBA MB program. Combining the IpOp Model with the fundamentals taught in an executive MBA, the MicroMBA MB enables middle managers to become proactive agents of change. Participants in the program must identify and implement a real project that supports the strategy of their employer. These projects translate into a measurable return of investment for the organization, turning training into a profit center.

Teaching by humor
Cohen is an active promoter of teaching by humor. Convinced that humor helps the audience remember and anchor concepts, Cohen always includes funny videos or jokes in his lecturing and training sessions. It is also often the case in his publications. In “Winning Opportunities, proven tools for converting your projects into success (without a business plan)” each chapter starts with an adult joke illustrating part of its content.

Books
Cohen’s first book "Modèle de comptabilisation des transactions en devises", published in 1985 by Economica, presented a new way to manage foreign exchange transactions in accounting.

In 2006 Cohen published in French “Concevoir et lancer un projet”, which was the first book presenting the IpOp Model he has been teaching since 2001. The English edition contains a more refined version of the IpOp Model. In July 2011, Cohen published “Winning Opportunities, proven tools for converting your projects into success (without a business plan)” with an innovative pricing/business model for a business book: the book can be downloaded free of charge and readers are invited to pay whatever sum they feel is fair in terms of its effectiveness in their lives. The book presents the IpOp Model, explains why the Opportunity Case is more effective than a business plan, outlines the 4 pillars that are necessary to boost innovation in existing organizations and shows the decision tree that decision-makers should use to evaluate new projects.

Peer reviewed articles and other key articles

 * “IpOp – discovering Europe’s innovative alternative to the corporate business plan and how it boosts corporate entrepreneurship”, co-authored by Cohen, Raphael, Watzke, Heribert and Katz, Jerome; USASBE Conference 2011 proceedings: an article explaining some fundamental concepts of the IpOp Model and how it is used to promote internal innovation in a multinational corporation.


 * “La justice, le talon d’Achille des entreprises”, Cohen, Raphael, Expansion Management Review, September 2010 : an article in French with thought-provoking views on the role of justice in managing people.


 * “Comment dynamiser l’innovation émergente”, Cohen, Raphael, Expansion Entrepreneuriat, September 2010 : an article in French describing the key success factors of AgilityBooster/MicroMBA program for stimulating internal open innovation.


 * “Libérer l’inventivité dans les entreprises”, Cohen, Raphael, Expansion Management Review, 2008 : an article in French presenting the pillars of Management by Opportunity


 * “Faut-il brûler les business plans”, Cohen, Raphael an Ananou, Claude, Académie de l’entrepreneuriat conference proceedings 2007: an article in French explaining why business plans are not suitable for startups and suggesting opportunity cases instead.


 * “La formation des cadres comme vecteur du changement en milieu hospitalier ou comment réussir à former les cadres médicaux au management, alors que c’est la médecine qui les intéresse…, un exemple aux Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève”, Cohen, GISEH conference proceedings, 2004 : an article in French showing how a AgilityBooster/MicroMBA program could be used to teach MDs in a hospital the fundamentals of management.
 * “Opérations de change à terme et sincérité du bilan”, l’Expert-Comptable Suisse, 1986: an article in French showing how foreign exchange transactions can be used to manipulate financial statements.

Speaking engagements
In addition to lecturing as an invited professor in top business schools worldwide Cohen is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and public events.

Organizations
Cohen has founded the French speaking chapter of the Swiss Israeli Chamber of Commerce. He has also been active in different foundations and NGOs with a social purpose.

Awards and honors

 * 1971 - Topali Award for special research in natural sciences (biology)
 * 1972 - Gillet Award for the highest ranking Maturité graduating scientific student in Geneva
 * 1972 - Hentsch Award for the best French essay in Geneva
 * 1983 - Award from the Geneva Chamber of Commerce for Meaningful Contribution to Swiss Economy

Academic diplomas

 * 1975	Licence en Sciences Commerciales et Industrielles - Université de Genève
 * 1982	Doctorat en Sciences Economiques (Ph.D.), University of Geneva

http://www.hec.unige.ch/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=126&Itemid=423&lang=en


 * 1988	Diploma of the Institute of Real-estate Studies - post graduate degree in real estate, Geneva