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October 17, 2006
Scandinavia gets it
From Bruce Nussbaum's blog -- Another New D-School Rises--In Europe--Backed By Scandinavian Corporations.
A severe global shortage of innovation talent around the world is leading companies to take an active hand in educating people in design thinking. Thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken for pointing to the fact that Nokia, Lego, Bang & Olufsen and four other Scandinavian companies are backing a new educational institution called the "180 degree Academy" that will teach innovation. It opens its doors in June 2007.
Inspired by the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago and the Stanford D-School, 180 will shift the focus from technology-driven innovation to consumer-focused innovation. The program will follow an MBA model and be interdisciplinary. Students will learn all the ethnography techniques so essential today. More important, they'll learn how to think about possibilities and opportunities.
Scandinavia gets it. What about the US? Nussbaum thinks it is time to do more:
US companies should band together and finance new programs around the country that teach innovation and design thinking. It's time to finance new chairs for professors and perhaps new departments as well. And it's time to do this in both D-school and B-schools.
I agree. And why can't we get some government money into this as well - similar to the NSF funded Engineering Research Centers.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at October 17, 2006 10:02 AM
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