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The current apparent pressure for companies to innovate and be global is the source of unprecedented problems. How is it possible to detect and develop an innovation when its sources are varied and scattered? How should it be deployed in different markets? What are the roles of management and subsidiaries in this deployment? In the École Polytechnique’s Master’s programme entitled ‘Projet, Innovation, Conception’ (‘Project, Innovation, Design’) taught by the speakers of this session, an original scheme enables students to spend between twelve and eighteen months in companies in order to gain hands-on experience about the innovation process. The students’ fieldwork observations are the basis for Florence Charue-Duboc’s and Christophe Midler’s research.