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2013/2014  KAN-CM_E35  Design-Driven Innovation Strategy

English Title
Design-Driven Innovation Strategy

Course information

Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Course period Autumn, Second Quarter
Changes in course schedule may occur
Friday 08.00-11.30, week 44-50
Friday 08.00-12.25, week 51
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Stefan Meisiek - MPP
Administrative contact: Karina Ravn Nielsen - electives.lpf@cbs.dk or direct phone: 38153782
Main academic disciplines
  • Innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Corporate and Business Strategy
Last updated on 03-05-2013
Learning objectives
At the end of the course the students should be able to:
  • Analyze the emotional and symbolic value of products and services
  • Assess the innovation portfolio of a firm and identitfy strengths and weaknesses in its design strategy
  • Create a design-driven innovation strategy by using the frameworks provided in the course
  • Select the most appropriate design process according to the type of innovation at hand
  • Explain how to identify and attract a network of best creative experts in the field
Course prerequisites
Students with diverse backgrounds and interests are welcome. The project developed in the course will provide opportunities for students to draw from what they have learned in other courses, as well as from their own experiences. The course is integrative and complementary with the offers of programs in strategy, innovation, and marketing.
Examination
Design-Driven Innovation Strategy:
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
Assignment type Project
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter Term
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure
15 pages individual project exam.
The project exam is the individual development of the team project developed during the year, following the feedback received by the professor and the firm.
Course content and structure

Design is increasingly becoming a major competitive weapon in today’s competition, especially in advanced economies. In any industry, whether in product or services, in consumer or industrial markets, firms are achieving a remarkable competitive advantage thanks to design, i.e. thanks to the capability to create products and services that are more meaningful to customers. Large and small companies such as Apple, Nintendo, Alessi, BMW, Starbucks, Whole Foods Market, STMicroelectronics, Bayer, do not compete only on technical functionality. They succeed by providing people meaningful experiences that are also superior in terms of emotional and symbolic value.
 

Executives who nowadays work in the field of strategy and innovation need to understand the role of design in business and how to create an organization with strong design capabilities. The course therefore provides the frameworks and tools for managers who want to master the power of design and become leaders in organizations that compete on design:

- part 1 of the course focuses on how to develop a design-driven innovation strategy (i.e. how to define a design vision for a company; how to identify and select projects that create new emotional experiences for customers; how to profit from design)

- part 2 focuses on the process to create breakthrough innovations based on design

- part 3 focuses on the role of top executives on building design capabilities in their organization,by structuring the internal innovation team and by collaborating with external creative talent.

The course is inherent to CBS’s current strategic focus on design in business.
 

The course's development of personal competences:

The course is intrinsically managerial: it is not a course on how to design, but on how to be an executive who make business through design. It is therefore targeted to students who want to become leaders in manufacturing or service firms that compete on design, with a position in the areas of strategy, innovation, marketing, R&D, business development. More specifically, the course develops capabilities to:
-Manage scenario-building projects, targeted at understanding the evolution of design, and how new emotional and symbolic values can be enabled by technologies
-Create new strategic visions that address those scenarios in terms of core values and identity of a firm brand, products and services
-Translate that vision into a strategic portfolio of design-driven innovations
-Define the design processes that allow to implement the strategy and deliver breakthrough products and services
-Be immersed into global design networks and identify, select, attract and nurture the most promising creative talents
-Lead an organization that creates breakthrough designs and know how to profit from design

Teaching methods
The course involves three complementary elements. :

a) Short lectures on design-driven innovation strategies, based on cases and frameworks.
b) Case presentations from industry guests, who will also provide subject-relevant challenges that students work on during class hours in the Studio at Copenhagen Business School (www.cbs.dk/studio).
c) Group projects of four (4) around developing a design vision for a company, transforming it into a strategy, and finding the relevant networks of creative talent with whom to cooperate. Students need to find existing firms who will provide them with a challenge on how to improve their design strategy and capabilities.

Because of the interactive learning moments, class attendance and participation is highly encouraged. Given the teaching approach, there is a limit in the maximum number of students.
Further Information
This course is part of the minor in Design Strategy
Expected literature

Michael B. Beverland, 2005 “Managing the Design Innovation–Brand Marketing Interface: Resolving the Tension between Artistic Creation and Commercial Imperatives.” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 22:193–207.
 
Kursty Groves, Will Knight, Edward Denison. 2010, "I Wish I Worked There!: A Look Inside the Most Creative Spaces in Business". Hoboken, New Jersey.
 
Per H. Hansen, 2010 “Cobranding Product and Nation: Danish Modern Furniture and Denmark in the United States, 1940-1970.” In T. Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid (eds.) Trademarks, Brands and Competitiveness. New York: Routledge: 77-101.
 
Andrew Hargadon, 2005 “Leading with Vision: The Design of New Ventures.” Design Management Review, 16, 1: 33-39.
 
Bryan Lawson, 2004 What Designers Know. Amsterdam; Elsevier.
 
Roberto Verganti, 2009 Design-Driven Innovation – Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating what Things Mean. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press. (textbook of the course)
Roberto Verganti, 2011 “Designing Breakthrough Products”, Harvard Business Review,89, 10: 114-120.
Roberto Verganti, 2006 “Innovating Through Design”, Harvard Business Review, 84, 12: 114-122.

Last updated on 03-05-2013