Learn Design Thinking with an MBA in Business Design

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Harness the Power of Design Thinking with an MBA in Business Design

23 Apr 2021
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Admissions, Business Design

Business Design and Design Thinking

The most comprehensive and encompassing definition of business design comes from the The Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto: –

“Business Design is a way of thinking and working that applies human – centered design to improving or transforming business activities. It draws upon social science, design and strategy to create business value – from innovative new products, services and processes to creative strategies and models. It involves developing a mindset to find, frame and ultimately solve business problems.”

Design Thinking is built on a continuous process of derivation and an understanding of the primary stakeholder i.e. THE USER. The design thinking process is built on an assumptive process leading up-to evaluation of the needs and requirements of the user. The premise of Business Design looks at entrepreneurs and managers to build their organization through a design thinking mindset, driven by innovation.

15 years ago, Instagram, Facebook, Uber, Tesla, Zomato, and other leading companies of the present did not exist. How did these companies manage to achieve so much in a short span of time? The answer is human-centered problem-solving. Companies that have understood the actual human problems and created services and products solving real issues are the companies that are leading the world.

When Design thinking integrates with Business Design, a synergy emerges that is innovative and transformative as opportunities are created and organizations go through redefining of objectives. The application of design tools leads to a better understanding of stakeholders and transformation through innovation is the ultimate outcome.

To sum up, design thinking is a human-centric and innovative, process driven approach that includes user Empathy, definition of issues through Brainstorming, Prototyping, Testing, and Implementation. Business design draws on a design thinking mindset to create value for the organization through innovative and successfully implemented processes and models. Thus, Business Design would include methods and processes that are dynamic and continuous, and available to organizations to maximise value in the long term.

Importance of Business Design

Most organizations design business models based on the perceptions of the leaders/ managers that run them. Visions are, sometimes, based on individual perspectives of these leaders. While these models are a good starting point, they may not be perfect. In a dynamic and fast changing business world, business models need to constantly be reviewed through testing, and fine-tuned in sync with stakeholder needs. The ultimate sustenance, survival and long-term growth of an organization is only possible through adoption of a process driven approach that focuses on the customer.

In the current marketplace, dominated by digital innovation and new models, understanding business design can be the difference in building a successful company.

Business Design helps businesses to effectively :-
- Deal with problems/ challenges that are not defined
- Finding out the current value propositions that could be leveraged
- Process of discovery of stakeholder’s needs and wants that remain unsatisfied.
- Rediscovery of the changing stakeholder cognitive process
- Finding areas of opportunity through a generation of new ideas
- Unravel business opportunities for further evaluation.
How Do I Become a Design Thinking Expert?

To deep dive into Design Thinking, a radical change in mindset is often required. This requires one to unlearn many of the traditional methods used in problem solving. Some of the attributes of a professional that challengess convention in traditional management could be :-
- Always begins with Stakeholders – Design Thinking professionals start their journey with their customers in mind. This is the opening point and fluency in communication is key.
- Stretches the limits of thought – These professionals look at extreme, sometimes, outlandish ideas and gather feedback while testing. The idea is to provoke strong emotions from stakeholders to their ideas. This helps in better clarity to the problem subset.
- Uses Prototyping as a learning process – Sometimes these experts use prototypes not only to test business models but to learn about their stakeholders as well. Testing prototypes gives them a wider perspective of the issue at hand and about their customers.
- Uses a hybrid of Qual and Quant – Qualitative and quantitative research is most effective when used together. Qualitative research helps to understand customer’s experience, attitudes, and perceptions. Quantitative research helps validate observations and quantify the assumptions through measurement of specifics. Sometimes quantitative research throws up questions that may require an in-depth study of key issues.
- Adopts Visual Thinking – One should be comfortable using tools to find solutions or ideas through visualization. Data and visual tools go hand in hand and sometimes tend to throw up innovative solutions.
MBA in Business Design – An Insight

The upcoming generation of managers must be leaders of the future and for that they need to be connected to users, strategize, and foster a culture of innovation and new opportunities. To address the need of inculcating a Business Design mindset, several higher education programs are being offered for students. The MBA in Business Design curriculum is designed to expose the students to management concepts combining management concepts, design thinking and liberal arts. The MBA focuses more on teaching through experiential skills and students undertake project work as part of their MBA program. This helps them to learn about and address real-world challenges.

An MBA in Business Design places focus in key areas like :-
- Business Expertise – This helps students to learn about core management functions such as Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Analytics, etc.
- Liberal Arts – Design thinking is about understanding human behaviours better which comes through communication and a study of subjects like Psychology, Philosophy, Anthropology etc.
- Design Thinking – The process of Design Thinking is inculcated through introspection and awareness. Students are also taken through the process and learn about research, building empathy, observation and defining, ideation, prototyping, testing and implementation.
- Experiential Learning Through Immersion – All of the above come together and students learn to integrate via real life project work which gives them first-hand, practical experience.
To Conclude

Taking cues from the top 50 successful companies around the world, the key to human centered problem solving is Design Thinking. Design Thinking is a new way of thinking of helping students in solving problems. The major focus of a design thinking mindset is the focus on a human-centered approach to innovation. It is about understanding the humans facing the problem more than the solution itself. It is about coming out of the traditional boxes with visual thinking, creativity, and innovation to find new solutions.

Business Design is making valuable contributions to business and management. Business Design in higher education offers to merge educational approaches that combine study in human-centric innovation, integrative thinking, design management and strategy. A primer on the core concepts and a fusion with business design concepts are offered by an MBA in Business Design with vanguard pedagogy.

The next generation of managers will be leaders who are well versed in Business Design and will be designed for the 21st century organization.

Become a leader and a Manager for the 21st century organization. Join the fastest emerging management program in Business Design. SOIL’s 2 year PGDM – Business Design looks at creating leaders of tomorrow who are innovative, think laterally and creatively in a dynamic environment. Take a step towards being the change agents of tomorrow by joining a program that is based on an interdisciplinary curriculum that merges liberal arts, design thinking and core management concepts.

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