The BREAK|THROUGH Game: A new way to learn innovation practices

This paper will highlight the results of a collaborative research project carried out by CEMEX Research Group and the Instituto Tecnologico and Studios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) to develop a new game to share and diffuse Innovation best practices to CEMEX employees. In fact, during the last years there has been a growing interest to learn how the innovation process can be optimized by teaching innovation best practices to CEMEX employees in a different way rather from the usual on-site trainings or virtual courses. As a consequence, taking advantage of the INNOVATEC program from ITESM where researchers and students from this academic institution collaborate with companies to develop new products, a joint project was realized during one year by three professors, four students from different backgrounds together with a team in CEMEX. As a result, a prototype, both paper based and software, for the Breakthrough Game was developed and tested. For its development, the CEMEX LEAD framework to manage collaborative research projects was applied.