The business of innovation. Design. Engineering and technology. This “triangulation” is what Design London is about. I have to admit I was expecting to find an organization more like Design Vancouver which was a collaboration of all the design disciplines a couple of decades ago in an attempt to promote design in BC and in Canada.
But Design London is something quite different.
One of the joys of visiting these business schools is that you find yourself in a variety of neighbourhoods. Imperial College is in the Museum district — the Victoria and Albert, the Science Museum and so on.
It also has one of the longest underground tunnels from the South Kensington Tube Station which pops you out right at the Business School.
It is a ~7-year old building which still sits “new” on the street. The lobby (like SAID) is a bit cold and doesn’t feel like a place for students to hang out for sure. They just move through it quite quickly.
Entry foyer -- Royal Imperial College -- Business School
And just to right is the entrance to the Business School — and to Design London — with brochures, terminals for internet and poster info.
Nick Leon, the Director of Design London was kind enough to invite me for lunch to talk about the evolution of Design London and his role at the Imperial College Business School and the Royal College of Art.
The George Cox Review of Creativity in Business (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/coxreview_index.htm) was the impetus for Design London. http://www.designlondon.net/content.php
From their web site:
Design London at RCA and Imperial is based upon an ‘innovation Triangle’. The innovation triangle blends design (represented by the Royal College of Art), engineering and technology (represented by Imperial College Faculty of Engineering) and the business of innovation (represented by Imperial’s Business School). It has initial funding of £5.8 million from HEFCE and NESTA.
Design London is now well into its second year. More than 250 MBA students from Imperial College Business School and 80 engineers and MA Design students from the RCA have successfully completed its courses on Design Led Innovation, Service Design and Design Management.
What is very interesting to me about the program, which is unlike any I have visited so far, is that the Design & Entrepreneurship topic is not an elective — it actually comprises 20% of the MBA Program (1 year) at Imperial College. They have a mandatory 36 hours of lectures and a 4-month project in collaboration with designers from the Royal College of Art and engineers from the Imperial College Engineering Program.
Nick has a great background for leading this initiative — Engineering from Imperial College, Design from the Royal College of ARt, 20 years at IBM, and a Ph.D. from the Imperial College Business School.
I enjoyed getting his perspective on what was working and what was still a challenge. And some sense of what he might do if in my shoes.
I tested out the idea that design thinking should just be one of the “ways of thinking” that business students should be fluent in — don’t think he agreed with me on that approach. He was very practical about what business students expect and what their vocabulary is — he wasn’t sure it was possible to change that. I supposed a good dose of that approach is good for me to fold into the mix.
Here is Nick (in front of the Design London sign — the brand of which he notes was decided before his arrival!).
- Nick Leon — Director of Design London
This was a useful visit for me — made me realize yet again that I am very interested in how business students learn and what the mode of learning could or should be so the learning is really useful for the leadership we are expecting of them.
I am still not convinced that design should be handled separately from other ways of thinking. But need to keep an open mind!