Friday, October 16, 2009

Business Bridge - My Experience

During my last year in the Industrial Design program at Philadelphia University, graduation was coming quicker than I expected and before I knew it, it was decision time.

The Business Bridge really overcame my expectations. The Industrial Design program lacked business classes and I realized the Business Bridge would be a good opportunity to learn basic business skills (business model innovation, statistics & operations, marketing, finance & accounting).

The small class size promoted excellent discussions and I learned way more than I expected. There was quite an array of majors participating in the Business Bridge (interior, fashion, graphic), which expanded the classes awareness of different majors as well as educated everyone about subtle aspects of each major. We worked together to form business models, statistics and forecasts of our product or business, and determined effective ways of marketing these ideas.

During the Business Bridge I learned practical business skills I could directly apply to my previous designs from my undergraduate. Overall, I gained more knowledge in 8 weeks than I thought was possible! I recommend the Business Bridge to ANY design student looking to gain business knowledge and advance their designs further than ever before.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Bridge Alumni Matt Trigaux opens retail store

Matt Trigaux entered the bridge program with a t-shirt company already in operation. He used the course to explore his business through consideration of his business model, financial model, customer segments, value proposition, and more. Matt provided the real world example from his entrepreneurial endeavors which provided great fodder for discussion. Recently he launched a retail store which was among many of his planned expansions prior to the course.

Here are links to the Trickgo website and a link to follow Matt on Twitter as well as a link to the video on Matt's retail store opening.

WEBSITE

FOLLOW MATT ON TWITTER

VIDEO ON OPENING

The Credit Crisis Visualized

Data visualization is a great opportunity to mesh design and business. It utilizes design skills to communicate complex challenges, in this case business and finance.

Check out this video by a student that explains the credit crisis through animation. http://crisisofcredit.com/

IDEO President Speaking at Parson's on New Book: Change by Design

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO will be speaking at Parson's School of Design in NYC on September 30th, 2009 from 6-8PM

Tim's new book Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, is a must read for those interested in design thinking + business.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:00 p.m.
Parsons The New School for Design
560 Seventh Avenue (at 40th Street)

NYT Book Review of Change By Design (link)

CEO Compensation

As we have discussed, in the creation of a business model as well as financial models and business plans, the creation of value has multiple measures. Historically, large public companies compensation their executives based upon stock performance. Stock performance is, largely, speculative based upon historic performance, competition, and anticipated trends. In 2001 (dot bomb) and most recently during the housing bubble burst and related credit crisis, equity values of many of the bank and mortgage companies were illusions when compared to long term value.

In this article by the Dean of Rotman School of Business (the business school is based upon integrated/design thinking), Roger Martin argues that CEO pay should not be tied to equity as it is both an inaccurate long term measure and, given the short term personal gains to the executive, can lead to bad decisions.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Designing the Future of Business

View the overview of the bridge program from Summer 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Redesigning Business Education

Enjoy a summer of design and innovation.

Running from mid-May to mid-July 2010, the bridge program is divided into four unique modules:

· Value: Business Models;
· Customer: Marketing and Management;
· Decisions: Statistics and Operations, and
· Finance: What you need to know about numbers.

Design + Business = Innovation: The Formula for the Future