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October 16, 2007
The rise of the D-Schools
In yesterday's posting on China and the intangible economy, I mentioned in passing the new ranking of top design schools. That ranking was recently released by Business Week as a special report entitled "The Talent Hunt":
The Second Annual BusinessWeek survey of the best design schools highlights the growing role they play in supplying creative managers to corporate and nonprofit organizations. Our list includes joint programs among business, engineering, and design schools as well as revamped curricula within traditional design programs. The driving forces of innovation and globalization are pushing companies to revamp their managerial ranks and hire people with new skills. Surprised by the rise of consumer power, companies are seeking people who can connect with customer cultures online and overseas. And in an era of constant change, they want people who are comfortable with complexity and uncertainty. Schools that teach design thinking, with its emphasis on maximizing possibilities rather than managing for efficiency, are in high demand.
. . .
Attracting top-of-class talent is getting more competitive, and some companies are already offering sweeteners. Just as they have long been willing to underwrite MBAs for executives, they are now supporting students in design programs. At Stanford University's design school, where MBAs and engineers increasingly collaborate, consultants and companies line up for the best students.
As I've noted before, this wave of interest in design is not just about cool products. One discussion of design metrics put it this way, "designers see themselves more as strategic visionaries or problem solvers, not spreadsheet analysts or bean counters." A part of the Business Week special report goes into greater detail - The Cross-Discipline Design Imperative:
Conventional thinking divides design schools into two categories. There are schools like Art Center or Rhode Island School of Design, which are often rooted in art and approach design visually and intuitively. Then there are engineering schools like MIT or Stanford: Founded on technology, they have a strong logical bent and bring science and spreadsheets to bear on design problems. Engineering schools probably produce the largest number of professionals with the word "design" in their job title.
But the word "design" has different meanings in these different schools, and as these meanings intersect, design becomes bigger, something that sits well above vocational skills and techniques. Design is a set of principles and ways of thinking that help us to manage and create in the material world. It values creativity as much as analysis. It is a way of seeing and painting a new, bigger picture.
Now business schools and other interdisciplinary graduate programs are entering the fray under the banner of ":design thinking." They have recognized that the creative principles found in design can be used to develop new solutions for business—and they see this as the next cutting edge. They are distilling the essence of the thought process that arose from the craft of the traditional schools of design. The Rotman School in Toronto, the d.school at Stanford, and the Institute of Design in Chicago have been the boldest in claiming this new territory.
The concept of “design thinking” or “design method” is still almost beyond the cutting edge in business and engineering. They are still emerging as design schools and companies work through designing design. Bruce Nussbaum's discussion on Design Vs. Design Thinking captures some of this process (as does the rest of Bruce's excellent blog NussbaumOnDesign).
But the paradigm shift is happening. As we move further into the I-Cubed Economy, design thinking will certainly be one of the core concepts - like scientific management and industrial engineering were in the Industrial Age.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at October 16, 2007 9:12 AM
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