EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
May 6, 2021
6 weeks, online
4-6 hours/week
Special pricing up to 20% discount is available if you enrol with your colleagues. Please send an email to group-enrollments@emeritus.org for more information.
Innovation never takes the path of least resistance. It is a challenging journey with setbacks, switchbacks, and roadblocks that can make you wonder if you’re even advancing. Luckily, there is a kind of GPS for innovation, offered to you in Rotman’s six-week online Business Design Thinking program.
Under the guidance of business design expert Dr. Angèle Beausoleil, you will master a progression of steps leading to new processes for creative thinking and problem solving. Using the four stages of sustainable innovation, you will move from initiation to implementation, revolutionizing your company’s products, services, and processes. You will learn to approach business problems from a more human perspective by way of the principles of design thinking. Through collaboration, prototyping, experimentation, storytelling, and reflection, you will gain insights into your customer’s pain points and proceed confidently in the direction of thoughtful, effective, and innovative solutions.
Source: The Financial Times 2020
This intense six-week online program provides a 4-step framework to navigate the innovation process. You will learn strategies to leverage existing business frameworks and new design techniques to find, frame, and solve business problems in contemporary ways. Key outcomes include:
Organized to help you develop concrete plans for professional collaboration and creative problem-solving, this program guides you through the well-researched process of innovation. The goal is for you to arrive at the intersection of strategy and design.
As you develop your own personal strategies, you will explore the critical skills of 21st century innovators; identify the four stages of innovation; and practice Business Design processes: finding, framing, and solving.
Kickstarting an innovation process with an intent and quickly building your innovation team requires you to learn more about the mindset and behaviors associated with innovators and to identify individual and group faces and types. The initiation phase leads to drafting an Innovation Design Brief in the context of a business challenge.
As you acquire new methods for the investigation stage, including field and online research and data collection, you will learn to describe design research methods in the context of need finding, develop observation skills, and develop empathy interview skills.
In this phase of innovation, you will move from needs analysis and collecting data from field research to the synthesis stage, or framing the right problem. Methods in the integration phase include describing the value of an insight and designing a “How Might We” statement.
The final stage of the 4-stage process guides you to transform insights into ideas. You will generate ideas, test prototypes as business solutions, develop metaphors and analogies from your “How Might We” question, and assess your ideas through the three lenses of innovation.
As you prepare to present your final project, you will learn to tell powerful stories to affect change, solve complex business challenges, and demonstrate the importance of reflection.
As you develop your own personal strategies, you will explore the critical skills of 21st century innovators; identify the four stages of innovation; and practice Business Design processes: finding, framing, and solving.
In this phase of innovation, you will move from needs analysis and collecting data from field research to the synthesis stage, or framing the right problem. Methods in the integration phase include describing the value of an insight and designing a “How Might We” statement.
Kickstarting an innovation process with an intent and quickly building your innovation team requires you to learn more about the mindset and behaviors associated with innovators and to identify individual and group faces and types. The initiation phase leads to drafting an Innovation Design Brief in the context of a business challenge.
The final stage of the 4-stage process guides you to transform insights into ideas. You will generate ideas, test prototypes as business solutions, develop metaphors and analogies from your “How Might We” question, and assess your ideas through the three lenses of innovation.
As you acquire new methods for the investigation stage, including field and online research and data collection, you will learn to describe design research methods in the context of need finding, develop observation skills, and develop empathy interview skills.
As you prepare to present your final project, you will learn to tell powerful stories to affect change, solve complex business challenges, and demonstrate the importance of reflection.
For full details about the curriculum, including the session schedule, please download the brochure.
Download Brochure
Interactive workbook activities
Collaborative group work
Peer review & peer feedback
Innovation challenges
Interviews, field research, sort & interpret data
Weekly reflection/application activities
Live webinars
Self-assessments
Readings
Capstone project: 3-Act Storyboard
This program is designed for business professionals who want the skills and insights to become innovative leaders by solving business problems by crafting integrated solutions, addressing the needs of the customer and the goals of the stakeholders. This program is particularly applicable for:
C-Suite Executives, Entrepreneurs, and Business Heads in general management, operations, or marketing and/or sales focuses on leading an organization or a business vertical. Representative roles include:
Mid-Level Functional Managers whose work focuses on leading a function within an organization, or a smaller team within the function. Representative roles include:
Product Managers who focus on innovation and research and development. Representative roles include:
Consultants in a strategy or business consulting context. Representative roles include:
Dr. Angèle Beausoleil
Assistant Professor of Business Design and Innovation at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Dr. Bausoleil refers to herself as a “pracademic” who teaches design methodologies for business innovation and leads research on organizational innovation process design, navigation, and management. A former communications designer, senior strategist, and innovation lab executive, she applies her extensive industry experience to crafting high impact student-centred learning experiences. At Rotman, Dr. Beausoleil is the Academic Director of the Business Design Initiative, an emerging education and research centre focused on design-led innovation leadership. She also teaches human-centred design, innovative leadership, and creativity to executive, MBA, and commerce students. She has worked on corporate brands such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Sony, The Gap, Telus, and global initiatives such as the 2010 Winter Olympics and the Society of Digital Innovators (SoDa). Prior to Rotman, she taught at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and remains a visiting lecturer of Applied Innovation at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Dr. Beausoleil is Canada’s first PhD to focus on innovation literacy (innovative leadership) using design processes and methods.
Dr. Beausoleil holds a BAA in Communication Design and Commerce from Ryerson University; and the MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Innovation Intermediaries Studies) and PhD in Innovation Pedagogy from the University of British Columbia.
Upon successful completion of the program, you’ll earn a digital certificate of completion from the Rotman School of Management. This program counts toward a Rotman Excellence in Executive Leadership Certificate.
Download BrochureFlexible payment options available.
