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Is design thinking really a hot business concept?

Reflecting on language is always fun.  What we label an idea is amazingly important to its success and evolution.  We all struggle with the word sustainability — to use (because it has been around since Gro Brundtland in 1987 and there doesn’t seem to be another good word) or not to use (because it has […]

More design thoughts…

Design thinking is certainly about envisioning the future and imagining how to create more effective results in terms of products, services or systems.  The annual forecast issue from Monocle has the tag line of “Prescriptions for a Better 2010”. The Monocle Manifesto of 10 ideas for a change agenda provide a diverse set of actions […]

Design Thoughts for 2010 .. part 1

Call them “manifestos” for 2010 — although I have put own design thinking spin on them.  In the Dec 09/Jan 10 issue of Monocle, several writers teamed up to produce “A Better Blueprint” — a 10 point agenda for change in 2010.  It strikes me as a good example of using a bit of design thinking […]

Design Thinking… a working definition

In the beginning there was product and architectural design-thinking (Peter Rowe, Design Thinking, 1987, John Thackera, Design after Modernism: Beyond the Object, 1988). Then there was business integrated thinking, now there is business design-thinking (Roger Martin, The Business of Design, 2009). Evolving a working definition… Business design-thinking is the process of bringing people and diverse […]

Sustainable Business by Design:  MBA conference

Sustainable Business by Design: MBA conference

On Monday and Tuesday of last week the UBC Sauder Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation hosted the Frontiers of Management Conference – the “capstone” for the full-time MBA program. The theme this year was UBC 2.0: Sustainable Business by Design. The conference was my opportunity to bring a designer’s perspective to the global buzz […]

Design Thinking:  integrating business, design & sustainability

Design Thinking: integrating business, design & sustainability

Success comes in business by doing something better.  Diverse interests, duties and opportunities of today’s markets mean that “better” is an increasingly complex concept.   Sustainability layers in long-term obligations. Enter design thinking as a problem-solving approach: part creative-thinking for new ideas, part innovative thinking for new ways of using existing information and systems. Sustained success […]