Vol. 2: design-management.de

So in case some of you might have been wondering about the relatively low posting frequency over the last couple of weeks I can assure you that I’m not suffering from idea drain. … In the meantime you might want to read some sources I’d recommend for some more general updates on things that interest me: Needless to say that I’m a fan of Erik ;-) and he’s got some new stuff posted recently on ‘ Design As a Strategic Ressource ‘ In case you’re studying Design Management and feel as if there is no place for you in these recessive times go and read his ‘ Open Letter to Design Management Students Across the World ‘ A real gem when it comes to the foundation of ‘ Wicked Problem Solvin g’ comes from Rotman’s latest issue of Rotman Magazine.

The purpose of giving ‘Design Thinking’ a prominent place in the 5 day course has been to make students aware of two things: a) Understand that human beings have different perceptions and understandings of the character of a ‘problem’ and b) That human beings (in this case managers and designers) are being educated with different approaches to solving problems. … While Erik might decribe the process far better than I (sometimes having a memory like a sieve ;-) for me such an approach also gives the ‘Brand’ as a carrier of cultural values (and not only as a means for creating an ‘Image’) a quite different (yet ‘abductive’) twist.

I’ve always been favouring the view that Strategy and Strategic Thinking mainly starts with identifying patterns on a general scale. Such patterns can be observed anywhere and they range from behaviour, opinions, speech, words. etc.
The ‘Strategist’s’ part (yet the most tricky and difficult) is to give these patterns a meaning and place them in a […]

While I can’t provide an online link yet I can confirm that the design magazine form reports in their latest edition that the Zollverein School of Management and Design is dead. I could comment a lot on this and some of the arguments that are provided these days by officials are more than questionable … […]

Again one of these posts I would have wished to have written myself ;-) Anyway I’ve skim read Kevin McCullagh’s posting on the Core77 Design Blog just before leaving to The Hague last week. Fortunately Kathryn Best reminded me on Kevin’s posting after my return last weekend!

I should share some snippets from last Friday when I’ve joined several of my peers in The Hague, NL. However please allow for some digesting of my impressions and thoughts! I will write a follow up for sure ;-)
After all what we’ve touched in our panel discussion as well as during the ‘after show’ talks […]

A recent email conversation has brought my attention back to a topic I’ve lectured about almost 10 years ago in my first job as an assistant professor: “Disruptive Innovation“.
In between and in the early days of Design Management education (somewhere in 1998 with the MBA Design Management at Westminster University/UK) I’ve developed some seminars about […]

In the light of my latest delicious bookmark posting today Core77 attracted my attention by pointing to a current online article in International Herald Tribune. Among others it sheds some closer light on Paola Antonelli’s view on design’s relationship with science and technology.
At the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, CH “… Alice Rawsthorn, […]

A great piece perfectly describing my very own journeys between academia and practice and written in a well articulated format has been published now by frog design consultant Jon Kolko over at Core77. Well, this has been exactly the kind of piece I would have wanted to be written by myself for a while … […]

Well, well I’m late with this one, but there are still 14 days to go with this job offer I’ve received via my design management network. Some days ago I got in touch with Darragh Murphy from the University of Wales. He’s been so kind to provide some background information about the person they are […]

Hat tip to Victor Lombardi over at “Noise Between Stations” Blog for the mentioning of Dan Willis’ Blog “UX Crank”.
Beside sharing scenarios on project and (client) management we’ve all came across once in a while I love his illustration of what I usually try to make my Design Management students understand: Separate the “How” from […]

Lucy Kimbell works as a fellow in Design Leadership at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford with a background in interaction design and visual/live arts.
I’m a regular visitor and reader of her blog not only because it is very nicely demonstrating an attempt to create transparency on what is actually going on in an […]

Via the folks of EURIB (a commercially run institute at the intersection of brand, reputation & design in Rotterdam/NL) I’ve just been pointed to a new book about Design Management written by Kathryn Best, Course Leader in Design Management at the University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham/UK.
In concert with other recent examples I’m still surprised […]

While my own posting frequency remains low due to various business projects I’m more than happy that some friends of my design management network take over some ‘responsibilities’.
Earlier this month I’ve written a posting about a former student of mine Roderique Duell (Operations Manager, Marketing & Industrial Design) now working for Johnson Controls Europe. Roderique […]

As some of you know I’m not solely working as a self-employed business consultant (Design Management & Social Innovation), but also as an academic/teacher for international graduate and post-graduate Design Management programs. And to be honest I really love this job even though the (necessary) mental switch between under-graduate/graduate and post-graduate students is quite remarkable.
However […]