Business design

Recently we went to Milan together to host some events around our book Boardroom Creativity. One of our favorite sessions was at the Domus Academy, the school where Fennemiek got her master’s degree many years ago. At that time the school was pioneering design direction with people like Stefano Marzano, Andrea Branzi and Mario Trimarchi. The current director, Giorgio Lospennato, invited us to do a Masterclass on Designing the Future for the students of the Masters in Business Design program. In the same way you can learn to design products and services, Domus teaches you how to design a business.

We both very much enjoyed interacting with this group of international ‘whole-brain’ students. Design and business students worldwide are working together in an innovation lab to design purpose-driven new business propositions. We were asked to inspire them with our insights and review their cases – which in turn inspired us. All of the cases showed such a drive to change business for the better and their enthusiasm was contagious. When it’s time to design the future of your business be sure to invite the next generation to think along! 

Do you approach business innovation as a design challenge? How often do you make time to interact with future talents?