Stanford Boot Camp Delivers Design Thinking for Executives

STANFORD, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford will offer a new Design Thinking Boot Camp: From Insights to Innovation July 14-16. The executive education program is aimed at organizational leaders who are responsible for tackling strategic challenges. Members of a team are also encouraged to apply.

“We have developed a specific problem-solving process that executives can practice and apply to creative change in products, services, or business planning.”

Developed and led by faculty from the Institute of Design at Stanford University, also known as the d.school, the short course uses hands-on projects to teach a design thinking method that helps executives escalate problem-solving and drive innovation. The method develops deeper user insights, such as a better understanding of digitally native Generation Y workers and consumers who are naturally and radically networked. The program employs a prototype-driven approach to create improved or new products or processes. The application deadline for the course, which costs $9,000, is June 21. For more information, visit http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/dtbc/index.html.

Participants will spend their days at the newly opened Stanford d.school facility on the Stanford campus. Customized studio spaces foster radical collaboration and allow participants to wrestle with big projects for innovative outcomes. Residents may stay at the Schwab Residential Center on campus if they wish.

Design expert Perry Klebahn, the inventor of the modern snowshoe and a consulting associate professor at the d.school, will direct and teach the short course. Klebahn is founder and former CEO of Atlas Snowshoes, former COO of Patagonia, and former CEO of Timbuk2. “Innovation can be taught,” says Klebahn. “We have developed a specific problem-solving process that executives can practice and apply to creative change in products, services, or business planning.” Klebahn will be assisted by master coaches and other lead faculty from the d.school.

Participants will leave the program with a guide that outlines the tools and methods they have learned so they can share the practices with others in their organizations.

Key takeaways will include:

• Development of deep consumer insights
• A reduction of risk and accelerated learning through rapid prototyping
• A drive towards innovation, not just incremental growth
• Empowered employees who initiate innovation

For more information, contact program manager Luz Deras at 650 724-6301 or [e-mail]

About Stanford Graduate School of Business

The Stanford Graduate School of Business has built an international reputation based on its two-year MBA Program, one-year Stanford Sloan Master’s Program for mid-career executives, PhD program, and short-course Executive Education programs for practicing executives. As a research institution, Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty bring cutting-edge management ideas into every classroom.

A highly collaborative culture, combined with a strategically small student body creates a vigorous intellectual environment and compelling learning experience. In 2007, the School introduced a new MBA curriculum that serves as a model of thought leadership for management education. A state-of-the-art business school campus will open in 2010-2011. It is expected to achieve the highest LEED Platinum certification for environmental sustainability from the U.S. Green Building Council. http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/

About Stanford d.school

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (informally known as the d.school) was founded in 2003. It is a multidisciplinary design thinking program that brings together Stanford students and faculty from throughout the University to collaborate and innovate by tackling large, engaging, difficult real-world projects. It is a school crossing, serving students from all of Stanford’s schools by adding the breadth of design thinking to the depth of each individual’s degree program. Design thinking is an innovation process that can be applied to nearly any challenge. It is human-centered and prototype-driven. The solutions that emerge from a design-thinking project may be products, environments, processes, experiences, policies, and more. A multidisciplinary approach ensures that solutions are technologically feasible, viable in the marketplace, and desirable and sustainable for human beings.