[video] Design Thinking as a New Core Competency in Innovation: “Design is the New Business”

In envisioning what kind of role I’d want to play in building new paradigms for the future “creative economy”, I came across this fascinating documentary about design thinking called “Design the New Business”.

There exists an entire body of scholarship, business management approaches, and cross-sector applications of what’s called “design thinking”, but what this particular student-created video does well is provide an overview with case stories that focus on practitioners who believe it is now, more than ever, a core competency of business. Some in the film advocate that all kinds of enterprises can benefit from embracing this new mindset and the idea of breaking the old business molds that clearly no longer work for people and society.

If you’re at all intrigued by design thinking (or even have a healthy, discerning skepticism about what its most passionate business proponents think its future holds), this film is still worth watching for some of its broadly insightful moments.

Excerpt from the film’s description on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/31678404#

Design and business can no longer be thought of as distinct activities with individual goals. Design the New Business is a film dedicated to investigating how designers and businesspeople are working together in new ways to solve the wicked problems facing business today.

The short documentary examines how they are joining forces by bringing together an international collection of design service providers, education experts and businesses that have incorporated design as a part of their core approach. Design the New Business features inspiring case studies and insightful discussions, helping to illustrate the state of the relationship and how it needs to continue evolving to meet tomorrow’s challenges.  This film is a Zilver Innovation initiative, and was created by 6 students from the Master in Strategic Product Design at the TU Delft in The Netherlands.

more > designthenewbusiness.com

[Notes]
A couple of counterpoint articles related to Design Thinking that I also enjoyed reading: 

• Design Thinking’s Timely Death by William Storage
• Design Thinking Is A Failed Experiment. So What’s Next? by Bruce Nussbaum