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The DMBA program adds two Associate Chairs

August 19, 2010

The MBA in Design Strategy is set to start-up again next week with the first of our two new cohorts of students. To match the 100% increase in students, the program has hired two new associate chairs to help coordinate students, faculty, and services: Susan Worthman and Teddy Zmrhal

Susan is already the creator and lead faculty for the Leading by Design Fellows Program and will continue these responsibilities alongside her new ones to the DMBA program. She has a perfect background in organizational development and management, both in the for- and non-profit worlds and brings a wealth of experience to both the program itself and the students and faculty in it.

Teddy is a serial entrepreneur who has taught in several business programs in the past. He, too, brings a unique set of work and academic experience that will benefit the program and its community. his responsibilities include leading the Purple cohort as well as building new services for the program.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on August 19, 2010 4:49 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Recent Board and Director Accomplishments

August 12, 2010

We're excited to share a couple of great accomplishments that touch the MBA in Design Strategy program at CCA.

First, Program Director Nathan Shedroff and Board Member Sara Beckman have won the Academy of Management's MED Best Symposium in Management Education and Development Award for a symposium on teaching design thinking. Together with Jeanne Liedtka, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business; Heather Fraser, director of the Business Design Initiative at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, the group of educators proposed a symposium focused on how to integrate design thinking into business school curricula. Entitled "Finding the Right Side of the MBA Brain: Teaching Design Thinking," they received the award on Aug. 9 at the Academy of Management's annual conference in Montreal. The award is administered through the academy's Management Education and Development (MED) division.

The symposium looks at the practical and theoretical teaching of design thinking, the rationale for including it, the challenges involved, and the approaches used at the schools of the four presenters. The interactive session will also include specifics on course design and teaching materials.

For more details, click here for a press release by Haas School's Newsroom (Beckman is also a Senior Lecturer for the Haas School of Business).

Second, Nathan Shedroff has joined the Board of Directors of Teague, a Seattle-based, award-winning design consultancy internationally recognized as a discerning team with a talent for creating evocative designs. He joins the six-member board immediately. Click here for the full press release.

Congratulations to Nathan and Sara for their accomplishments in incorporating design thinking in business school curricula, and to Nathan for his new position at Teague!

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Posted by Nicole Chen on August 12, 2010 12:56 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

New book by DMBA faculty

July 24, 2010

One of our esteemed faculty, Naomi Stanford, has just published her third book. Organizational Culture follows-up her books Organizational Design and Organizational Design: A Collaborative Approach. The first two books are published by The Economist.


An organisation's culture either gives it a competitive advantage or a competitive disadvantage. It is a crucial factor in determining how successful a business is and how much people want to work for an organisation. That is why managers are putting more and more emphasis on getting their organisation's culture right.

This book provides a route map for managers who want to:
• Get a grip on why culture matters and the effect it has on success. • Understand, define and measure their organisation's culture. • Position their organisation's culture: aligning it with the business strategy. • Avoid the common mistakes of "culture change" programmes. • Keep their culture dynamic, responsive and resourceful.

Full of real life example from companies as diverse as Ikea, GE, Microsoft, Google, eBay, McDonalds, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Wal-Mart and Tesco, the book also includes a series of wide-ranging practical exercises that will help managers analyse and make their organisation's culture a powerful driver of success."

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on July 24, 2010 10:42 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

What is Marketing?

May 25, 2010

What is Marketing?

As an undergrad, I was introduced to the basic principles of strategic marketing through books like Steven P. Schnaars' Marketing Strategy, Kate Gillespie's Global Marketing, and Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy. I learned about the Four Ps, the internal and external forces within a market, differentiation and a host of other components that made up what I considered "marketing." However, it wasn't until I began following the discussion surrounding design and specifically "design thinking" that I started to think more critically about the relationship between marketing and design. This connection became more evident as I finished my first year in CCA's MBA in Design Strategy program when, for the first time, I was asked to explore this relationship closely and provide my definition for marketing and its relationship to design.

Let's begin with what marketing is. Marketing is a framework for the organized delivery of experiences designed to achieve a particular response or action. Within a business context, this framework is typically grounded in research, both qualitative and quantitative, and driven by a measurable goal or desired outcome. In most cases, this goal includes some form of economic gain but may include ancillary social benefits as well. Behind all marketing plans is an agenda or point of view that drives the message through various channels where they are eventually expelled at identified touch points. These touch points serve to inform the user of the intended message and help to deliver a meaningful experience.

So, if marketing is a framework for the organized delivery of an experience, design is the act of building the delivery mechanism for that particular experience. Within the marketing framework lives a set of constraints that inform the strategy, delivery and design of a particular experience. These constraints can include budget, timelines, resources or particular market segments and must be the primary motivator when exploring possible solutions. Within a business context, design without marketing is, perhaps, arbitrary. Since the marketing framework includes a research component built specifically to uncover unmet needs or desires, design should be driven by a strategy or intent to meet these needs in a meaningful and relevant way. Problems arise, however, when a particular agenda is pushed that is either not supported by findings in research or fails to address the desired outcomes of the "agenda."

In the business realm, marketing and design are more closely related as they serve to connect the desires of a particular audience to a product or solution. I believe the distinction between design and marketing becomes more apparent when you step beyond the world of business and a "market." In this sense, design has more freedom to explore possibilities by virtue of fewer constraints and becomes much more interpretive. Design more closely resembles art in this realm.

The question then becomes, do marketing plans lead to better design? In short, yes. Within a business context, I believe good design is achieved only when driven by a well-planned marketing strategy. A good marketing plan will serve to provide the tools, constraints and lens through which to design through but must also walk the fine line between "informing" and "dictating." One of the primary values of design is delivered through the subjective nature of interpretation. There may be several well-designed solutions that address a particular problem, but what makes one design "better" than another is usually decided upon closer inspection of the marketing plan.

As design continues to gain acceptance as a critical piece to corporate strategy, the relationship between the value design delivers to any business framework must be identified and continuously advocated. As a design thinker and graduate student, I am confident that the challenges I have been asked to confront at CCA are serving to build a case for not only the future of design, but my future as business leader.

Mike Funk
DMBA Class of 2011

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 25, 2010 1:34 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

What IS Design Thinking?

May 25, 2010

What IS "Design Thinkng"?

Although the term Design Thinking is common today in both the design and business worlds, what people mean when they utter this term can be vastly different. In addition to not having a standard definition (and, therefore, a common understanding), many in each world are reacting against the term--just as (and partly because) it has become popular--and new terms are being proposed to replace it. Some of these terms include: integrative thinking (from Roger Martin at Rotman), design doing (from David Kelley at IDEO), and design intelligence (from Bann Banerjee at Stanford). Each of these are true, of course, and none are mutually exclusive.

Perhaps, it's more important to create a shared understanding of what falls under these terms, rather than worry about the term anyone specifically uses. The following points illuminate how we teach "design thinking" in our program:

  • prototyping and iteration (it's surprising how many people, even in business, believe that solutions are simply created form specifications, ready-to-go in the first try)
  • integrative thinking processes, at appropriate times, combined with more traditional deductive, and analytic thinking and processes
  • systems thinking (and its application to strategy): you can think of all of thes rest as part of systems thinking
  • multi-disciplinary teams
  • multi-stakeholder engagement (this doesn't need to be full "participatory design" to be effective
  • deep/rich customer research (into emotions, values, and meaning ,not merely price and performance): need-finding instead of solution-finding (this is actually a part of stakeholder engagement)
  • experience perspective (and not merely a focus on the product or service)

It wasn't always this way, of course. In particular, the design world's history has been characterized by the sole designer's vision, often mythologized by both designers and the Press. Much like the architecture world's phenomenon of "starchitects," Design used to be about a singular, often one-way vision of the world, made real through (mostly) physical products and simply made available for consumers to purchase. The reality has always been different. Teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration has always been necessary to actually realize a designer's vision even if he (and it was usually a "he") had the influence to drive the development himself.

We know and teach better these days and even the Press is starting to recognize the design myths they often still promote.

By no means are all of these principles the sole responsibility or domain of design. Many of these are commonly practiced in other domains, like engineering and management. However, design approaches have initiated some and adopted many of these criteria and they are now almost uniformly part of the current design experience. In addition, all of these are becoming to be standard principles across the domains of engineering, business, NGOs, and the sustainability field. Even the government would greatly benefit by adopting and practicing these principle.This overlap is critical, however, as it forms a new basis for a shared conversation across all organizations.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 25, 2010 1:33 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

The birth of our second child

May 20, 2010



Today marks the start of our second offering, the Leading by Design Fellows program. This 6 month executive program begins with 24 experienced, dynamic professionals in search of more skills, new processes, and new perspectives informed by the intersection of design, business, and sustainability. These professionals bring years of experience into this process from companies such as Microsoft, SAP, Roche, Wells Fargo, Nokia, Adobe, and IDEO.

This program meets once every month, for a two-day weekend, of intense lectures, discussions, and lab work. In between, these professionals read and discuss challenging materials, and work on their personal projects through fieldwork and interaction online with each other.

Today, Bob Dunham, from the Institute for Generative Leadership, lead several exercises in generative communications and leadership. Tomorrow, Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, speaks on Design as an agent of change, the DMBA's own Nathan Shedroff, introduces the Systems Strategy Model, and Michael Barry, founder of PointForward, discusses Design Research. On Saturday, Linda Yaven, who teaches in the DMBA, will be discussing visual expression, and Derek Thompson will be leading a workshop on storyboarding.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 20, 2010 2:20 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Public Bikes Launches

May 19, 2010



DMBA advisor and DWR founder, Rob Forbes, launches his new "more livable cities" company, centered around bike culture. We're now dreaming of a new bicycle and wish them well on their new venture.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 19, 2010 4:45 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

2010 Venture Show

May 18, 2010



This year, our first graduating class presented their final venture projects to the public in our first ever Venture Show. The Venture Studio had 12 projects in development, including teams of 2, 3, and 4 as well as several individual projects. All students resented their 12 projects in 20minute "elevator pitches" and the top three projects as voted b the class, presented full 20 minute business plans. In addition, all of the projects had materials on display in the reception area. These included:

HEARPHILE: Tim Bishop & Kate Ranson-Walsh
LINEMONKEY: Erik Ehrke
THE GREEN EXCHANGE: Kathryn Hautanen, Henry Liu, Mattia Nuzzo & Vinitha Watson
GOPROTO: Mei Lan Ho-Walker, Jason Hui & Erin Jacobs
HOWTOONS: Ingrid Dragotta & Ayano Hattori
SIFT: Nicole Chen & Erica Meade
VERITE: Gwen Armbruster
THE THREAD UNION: Sara Kozlowski, Jennifer Pechacek & Carla Voorhees
SANSOU: Suzanne Randolph
LANDINGRAMP: Rowan Edwards
B! HEALTHY: Paul Colando & Adam Dole
INSTITUTE FOR RELAXED LIVING: Beth Berrean, Erica Frye & Heike Rapp-Wurm

The three projects chosen for the full business plan presentation were: THE GREEN EXCHANGE, THE THREAD UNION, and GOPROTO.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 18, 2010 10:50 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Commencement

May 18, 2010

Just a little over a week ago, the DMBA program reached a phenomenal point. Our first graduates, 24 pioneers, walked across the stage at graduation to accept their well-earned, and the school's first, MBA degrees. Surrounded by friends, family, faculty, administration, and peers, these students also walked into a unique future, for both the school and for the business world. In addition, the graduate student address to the school was given by the program's own Nicole Chen.

The end of the semester for this cohort was a blur. The students rallied to finish their venture projects in their final studio, picked the top three of the day, moved all of their work across the street, and made our first Venture Show a success. Then, they organized their contribution to the school's Graduate Thesis show (due just three days later when their final coursework was due) in which the entire SF main building in San Francisco was transformed into a gallery, showing the work of all of the Masters graduates for the year (and some of the undergrads as well).

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 18, 2010 9:53 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

DMI Re-Thinking... The Future of Design Conference

May 18, 2010



This June 16th and 17th, Roger Martin and Darrel Rhea will reprise their roles as hosts and creators of this fascinating conference focused on the intersection of Business & Design. It's one of the few conferences in the design community that illuminates thinking and work at this intersection. It will be held again in San Francisco, this time in the W hotel.

This year, the DMBA program's chair, Nathan Shedroff, will speak at the conference as well.

There are still a few seats left!

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on May 18, 2010 9:44 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Super-sized

April 30, 2010

This Spring, because of the enormous growth in interest in the MBA in Design Strategy program, the administration decide to double the size of the program. Our applications were up over 70% from last year and the quality of the applicants increased as well. Because the DMBA program is organized to run in cohort sizes around 30, it's not feasible to grow in chunks under 30. So, this Fall, we will be enrolling 60 students instead of the 30 in the last two years.

In addition to the 60 students, we've increased the size of the Dual Design Degree program to 8. These students will start the 3-year program this Fall and graduate with both degrees in 2013.

This growth isn't without its challenges, especially for such a new program. However, we're working hard to ensure that the program quality and student experience become better as a result. We're excited, in fact, that the diversity of students (in every way) will increase and contribute to even more vibrant student and alumni bodies. This year, we'll have students from Canada, China, India, Iran, Jordan, and Uzbekistan join the program.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on April 30, 2010 10:31 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

The Fellows Program Begins

April 30, 2010

This week, students in our Leading by Design Fellows Program began receiving bags filled with the first readings in advance of the first Fellows residency on May 20th. These bags are custom-configured by Rickshaw Bags, a local bag company that produced one of the most sustainable bags on the planet.

We selected Rickshaw's Zero bag because it's made with zero waste and can be recycled in one piece since it's made entirely with Nylon (and a few bits of metal).

The bags are filed with the following books:
• The Truth About Green Business, by Gil Friend
• Design is the Problem, by Nathan Shedroff
• Thinking in Systems, by Donella Meadows
• Resilience Thinking, Brian Walker, David Salt, & Walter Reid
• A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink
• Strategy for Sustainability, by Adam Werbach
• Change by Design, by Tim Brown

In addition to these books, there are several articles assigned before the first residency session. During the first residency, the following guest faculty will speak and lead discussion among the students and leaders:
• Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO
• Bob Dunham, Enterprise Perform
• Michael Barry, Point Forward
• Linda Yaven, CCA
• Derek Thompson, Pixar



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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on April 30, 2010 9:45 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Innovations in Sustainability: CIMS

April 13, 2010

Our program director, Nathan Shedroff, will be speaking at NC State University's CIMS Innovations in Sustainability Conference, May 25-27 in Raleigh, NC. Along with other thought leaders in sustainability and business, L. Hunter Lovins, president and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Dianne Fodel from IBM, Lee Woodard from Next Right Decision, and Nick Hamon from Bayer Crop Services, participants will be engaging in a three-day interactive conference examining the leading practices that companies are taking to design and implement groundbreaking initiatives pertaining to sustainability.

From the website:
This meeting will be a foundation for the topic of innovation in sustainability from business practices and principles to global concerns. The meeting will feature numerous subject matter experts in this field to help CIMS and its members shape future funded research projects. All sessions of the meeting are meant to interactive and discussion is encouraged by all.

For more information and to register, please click here.

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Posted by Nicole Chen on April 13, 2010 9:10 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

DMBA Student Commencement Speaker: Nicole Chen

April 12, 2010

This year, the graduate commencement speaker at CCA graduation will be one of our own DMBA students, Nicole Chen! This is especially significant since it's the first graduating class of the DMBA program at CCA. So, to have the program represented at this level, on the occasion of our first graduating class, is quite an honor.

Congratulations, Nicole!

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on April 12, 2010 4:52 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Paul Krugman's Excellent Article on Economics and Climate Change

April 8, 2010

This article by Paul Krugman is worth reading by everyone concerned with Sustainability, Climate Change, and Economics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html

Building a Green Economy, Paul Krugman (NYT)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 5, 2010

If you listen to climate scientists -- and despite the relentless campaign to discredit their work, you should -- it is long past time to do something about emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If we continue with business as usual, they say, we are facing a rise in global temperatures that will be little short of apocalyptic. And to avoid that apocalypse, we have to wean our economy from the use of fossil fuels, coal above all.

But is it possible to make drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions without destroying our economy?

Like the debate over climate change itself, the debate over climate economics looks very different from the inside than it often does in popular media. The casual reader might have the impression that there are real doubts about whether emissions can be reduced without inflicting severe damage on the economy. In fact, once you filter out the noise generated by special-interest groups, you discover that there is widespread agreement among environmental economists that a market-based program to deal with the threat of climate change -- one that limits carbon emissions by putting a price on them -- can achieve large results at modest, though not trivial, cost. There is, however, much less agreement on how fast we should move, whether major conservation efforts should start almost immediately or be gradually increased over the course of many decades.

In what follows, I will offer a brief survey of the economics of climate change or, more precisely, the economics of lessening climate change. I'll try to lay out the areas of broad agreement as well as those that remain in major dispute. First, though, a primer in the basic economics of environmental protection.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on April 8, 2010 9:27 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

The Reverend Shane McCraig Revival

April 1, 2010

The Reverend Shane McCraig Revival

Thursday, April 1st, 7 pm
Timken Lecture Hall, San Francisco Campus, CCA
1111 Eighth Street



The Reverend Shane McCraig has toured the world unlocking the mysteries of design, reframing what it means to "be a designer" and saving young designers from essential business practices that can strip great design of its soul.

Through invigorating and inspired storytelling, McCraig (real name Joel Kashuba) reveals the emotive power of playfulness in the design process and uncovers how this process makes the connection between seemingly illogical product inspiration and the success of everything from pet rocks to hula hoops, cola bottles, and vacuum cleaners.

In this sermon, the Reverend will take his audience on a journey of insight and discovery about who we are as designers and what role we will play in the future of business. The good Brother will peel back the layers of a designer's existence to reveal a purpose that is alive and well in the hearts and minds of those who truly seek to change the world through the power of design.

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on April 1, 2010 6:25 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Fun and Play at Work

March 31, 2010

Fun & Play @ Work
Performances by the MBA in Design Strategy students from their Leadership By Design course
April 3rd, 7:30-9:30pm
Timken Auditorium, California College of the Arts, San Francisco

Please join us for these fun investigation into corporate culture.

Timken Reception Hall
7:00 pm Conversation



Visual Design: Timothy Morse

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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on March 31, 2010 9:42 PM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Bruce Nussbaum on Creative Intelligence (BusinessWeek)

March 29, 2010

Bruce Nussbaum's latest blog post on Creative Intelligence calls for a new way to assess creativity in schools and organizations...

IQ. EQ. We Need CQ--Creativity Intelligence. How Much Do You Have? How Much Does Your Organization Have?
Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 25, 2010

www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2010/03/what_is_your_cr.html


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Posted by Nathan Shedroff on March 29, 2010 11:57 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Mark Your Calendars! 2010 Venture Show, May 1

March 19, 2010

The MBA in Design Strategy proudly invites you to its 2010 Venture Show showcasing the work of our pioneering graduates. This is an important event for us and we hope to see many of you there!

Saturday 1 May 2010
7-10 pm
Timken Lecture Hall
San Francisco Campus

RSVP: nkakone [at] cca.edu
www.designmba.org

VentureShowInvites_2010.png

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Posted by Nicole Chen on March 19, 2010 9:06 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

Upcoming MBA in Design Strategy Events

March 18, 2010

We have a bunch of events coming up through our MBA in Design Strategy program in the next two months, so here's a list in advance. We'll post dedicated announcements as the dates draw closer. Hope to see you all at all these events!

***
Lecture by the Reverend Shane McCraig
Presented as part of CCA's Graduate Studies Lecture Series
Thursday, April 1, 2010, 7 pm
Timken Auditorium, CCA SF Campus
More details

The Reverend Shane McCraig has toured the world unlocking the mysteries of design, reframing what it means to a designer, and saving young designers from essential business practices that can strip great design of its soul.

Through invigorating and inspired storytelling, the Reverend reveals the emotive power of playfulness in the design process and uncovers how this process makes the connection between seemingly illogical product inspiration and the success that is found in everything from pet rocks and hula hoops to cola bottles and vacuum cleaners.

***
Fun&Play@Work
Saturday, April 3, 2010, 8:30 - 10:00pm
Timken Auditorium, CCA SF Campus
More details

MBA in Design Strategy students perform scenarios from their Leadership in Design course, demonstrating how specific companies can integrate play into their strategies to promote better results.

***
DMBA Venture Night
Saturday May 1, 2010, Time TBD
Timken Auditorium, CCA SF Campus
More details

The first graduates of the MBA in Design Strategy program showcase their venture projects. Some are group ventures and others are individual, but all seek to make changes in the world that are sustainable, meaningful, and profitable.

***
Graduate Thesis Events
Exhibition: May 6-13, 10 am-7 pm daily
Design MBA Studio, CCA SF Campus
More details

The best work of CCA's graduate class of 2010, featuring works in all media, from painting to sculpture, photography, installation, media arts, design strategy, and more.

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Posted by Nicole Chen on March 18, 2010 8:17 AM | | Comments (0) | Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)


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