Businesses and B-Schools are shifting towards Design Thinking and Innovation

As technology advances and businesses change, conventional education systems may losethecapability to present companies with graduates who possess an appropriate mix of experience and skills. The recently heightened interest in Design Thinking and innovations as anapproachhas resulted in its adoption by non-design trained professionals too. These development procedures and requirements necessitate a process of new teaching with Design Thinking and its related skills.

Companies, such as Apple, Google, IBM, Toyota, along with many others, innovate because of their culture of Design-Thinking. When done correctly, this approach links delivery, enthusiasm, and inspiration - favourably affecting every aspect of the product and support.

Note:75% of organizations self-report that they are engaged in Design Thinking.
(Source : Parsons New School)

For you to be productive at your job, you have to understand how to think like a designer when approaching an engineering job (primarily when working with a group or managing a team).

By employing a design-centred approach, you'll be able to gain the following capabilities:

  • the ability to come up with some radically innovative alternatives,
  • deeply understand who your actual stakeholders are, and what they care about,
  • create a vision that gets buy-in from senior management and colleagues,
  • avoid dangers, and
  • develop solutions that people love both intellectually and emotionally.

Design Thinking and Innovation for Businesses

With frequent advancements in the processes of how companies are conducting their business, numerous business and social challenges are to be dealt with. Most of these challenges are complex and can't be solved by one single group of experts in one specific discipline. A lasting solution can only be generated through interdisciplinary thinking and working. Such an approach is developed with design thinking; although it relies on methods from product design, it can also be applied to business processes and services.

Design thinking emerges as a solution to most of the complex problems that businesses are dealing with right now. It's useful in keeping organizations more-agile, more-resilient, and, most importantly be open to imagination and innovation.

Further, design thinking renders an opportunity for employees to go beyond their comfortzoneand think outside the box. They can also present their ideas and put their creative foot forwardtofind a solution. Design thinking encourages each employee to continually upgrade theirskillsand expand their knowledge by learning new technologies and tools.

Design thinking proffers a win-win situation for all stakeholders - A business, its employees, and its customers.

Three elements for central importance in Design Thinking:

  • Teamwork : Innovative potential is created through open, interdisciplinary collaboration. A team with diverse team members is selected for tapping their creative potential.It'salways important to keep a team as diverse as possible in terms of theirprofessional,disciplinary, and cultural backgrounds.
  • Work Environment : The focus is on the team and cooperative work. All thanks tothenew trend of mobile work furniture and equipment, team members can set uptheirworkplaces free from the team if required. This contributes to an open work atmosphere and helps to sustain staff energy at a consistently high level. To further provide support,arange of group and moderation techniques are offered, which helps give ideas form.
  • Process : Generally, the design thinking method comprises six interrelated work phases that include: understand, observe, define a point of view, ideate, prototype, andtest.These phases collaboratively make it possible to apply the findings obtained by observing and questioning the users to apprehend new interrelationships.

Note:69% of design-led firms perceive the innovation process to be more efficient with designthinking.
(Source : Parsons New School)

Design Thinking and Innovation at B-Schools

While design thinking has a lot to do with unique and creative thinking, it also obeys particular principles and techniques. There are numerous workshops and practical online courses,whichcan help you learn design thinking.

If you are looking to join a business school offering management programs, you must ensure that the curriculum is inclusive of a module on design thinking.

CBS aims at encouraging creative thinking with its management programs. We believe 'design Thinking And Innovation' has turned out to be the keyword in the business world today where this orderly thinking process empowers even the most traditional thinker to develop novel, innovative solutions to the problem at hand. Emerging business leaders at B-school will have human-centred creativity to come up with doable and out of the box solutions.

CBS takes new initiatives in fostering creative thinking for its students. We have a specially designed and well-thought three-day program that explains almost all the fundamentals of the

design thinking approach. The program immerses the participants in collaborative exercises and dynamic discussions through an engaging workshop.

Design thinking is the future of business and a prerequisite parameter in hiring prospectiveemployees. If you want to land a rewarding job and boost your career advancement opportunities, you must learn this skill.

Sudeshna Ghosh
(Asst. General Manager)