A comprehensive playbook for applied design thinking in business and management, complete with concepts and toolkits

As many companies have lost confidence in the traditional ways of running a business, design thinking has entered the mix. Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation presents a framework for design thinking that is relevant to business management, marketing, and design strategies and also provides a toolkit to apply concepts for immediate use in everyday work. It explains how design thinking can bring about creative solutions to solve complex business problems. Organized into five sections, this book provides an introduction to the values and applications of design thinking, explains design thinking approaches for eight key challenges that most businesses face, and offers an application framework for these business challenges through exercises, activities, and resources. 

• An essential guide for any business seeking to use design thinking as a problem-solving tool as well as a business method to transform companies and cultures
• The framework is based on work developed by the author for an executive program in Design Thinking taught in Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Author Idris Mootee is a management guru and a leading expert on applied design thinking 

Revolutionize your approach to solving your business's greatest challenges through the power of Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation.

IDRIS MOOTEE is the CEO of Idea Couture, a global innovation rm with ofces in San Francisco, Shanghai, Toronto, London, Dubai, and Mexico City. He has worked with clients such as Amex, Burberry, BMW, Boeing, Cisco, De Beers, Kraft, Nike, Samsung, and Pepsi. A leading expert on applied design thinking, Idris speaks on strategic innovation, developing strategic foresight, and business model design through the application of design thinking. He is also the author of 60-Minute Brand Strategist, also published by Wiley.

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword Erik Roth x

SCENE 01 There’s No More Business As Usual viii

The Butterfly Effect and Long-Range Planning 12

Applied Design Thinking Is Strategic Innovation 16

Time to Think beyond Crisis Mode 18

Changing Management Paradigms 22

SCENE 02 What Is Design Thinking, Really? 26

Is Design Thinking a Science or an Art? 34

Design Thinking Has Been Oversimplified 38

SCENE 03 Applied Design Thinking in Business and Strategy 46

Design Thinking to the Rescue 56

We’ve Lost Touch with What’s around Us 58

Every Future Business Leader Needs to Be a Good Design Thinker 60

The 10 Design Thinking Principles That Redefine Business Management 62

SCENE 04 Introducing the Design Thinking MBA 76

Business Challenge 01: Growth 82

Business Challenge 02: Predictability 94

Business Challenge 03: Change 108

Business Challenge 04: Maintaining Relevance 118

Business Challenge 05: Extreme Competition 126

Business Challenge 06: Standardization 136

Business Challenge 07: Creative Culture 148

Business Challenge 08: Strategy and Organization 156

SCENE 05 Hiring Design Thinkers Is Not Enough; We Need to Create Design Thinking Companies 188

About the Author 203

Photo Credits 204

Index 205