Hannah Coad, MBA candidate in the Career Track program, won the Design Management Institute’s (DMI) 2016 Student Essay Competition under COBE professor of design thinking, Christy Suciu.
In her essay, Coad highlighted the importance of implementing more design thinking within higher education specifically in business schools. She sited an example of the Hult Prize social enterprise competition in Shanghai, China, where Coad and her team implemented design thinking to come up with a solution to aid developing urban communities. Design thinking was a key factor in their team’s success.
“Putting creativity to work in business requires a number of skills, all of which are vital to design thinking. Having a degree in biochemistry, I liken design thinking to the scientific method, which utilizes a number of the same processes. Research, discovery, testing, collaboration, prototype building and evaluation are key to the cycle of success. Throughout idea evolution one must show openness to new systems, methods, and processes,” wrote Coad.
Also covered in her essay was the importance of design thinking in today’s markets.
“Training rising business professionals the skills of design thinking implementation is critical not only to their own well-being but to the success of our economy and the global marketplace. In an age of changing tactics, technology, and markets it is the design thinking process that will help keep our society progressing. Creatively solving the toughest business issues is intelligence at its best— intelligence having fun.”
As a winner, Coad will receive complimentary registration to the 2016 DMI Leadership Conference in Boston, Massachusetts and passes to the innovation workshop and DMI’s Innovation Walk, an award value of more than $2,000.
Coad looks forward to attending the Boston conference in late September.
“This is an incredible opportunity to be emerged in the design thinking environment with some of the top experts in the world. In my role as a graduate research assistant for the Department of Management, I have had some experience working on projects utilizing design thinking and found it advantageous to accelerating the business plan process” Coad said.
