Antwerp management school

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By Walter van Andel, Researcher Antwerp Management School, and Prof. dr. Marianne van der Steen, Academic director Master Innovation & Entrepreneurship Antwerp Management School.

Design Thinkers in Corporations
Recent research shows that executives of most innovative companies, like Steve Jobs at Apple, act differently than other CEOs. While at most companies the top executives feel solely responsible for facilitating the innovation process, executives of innovative companies don’t delegate creative work; they actively participate in the creative design process(*1).  They actively combine different and unexpected bodies of knowledge, insights and skills in the innovation team, resulting in unexpected niche markets, path breaking products, services etc. These CEOs display a high level of ‘Design Thinking’, an emerging prospect in which management problems are approached in the same way as designers approach design problems(*2).  

Developing a Design-thinking mind-set at Antwerp management School
Being at the entrepreneurial front end, Antwerp Management School is looking for ways to incorporate the Design Thinking further in our training programs. To further encourage the development of relevant Design Thinking mind-set and skills, the international students of Antwerp Management School’s Master of Innovation & Entrepreneurship will partner up with Master Product Development students of Artesis Hogeschool Antwerp in an unique pilot study.
In a two-day workshop in the highly inspirational location of the MAS Museum Antwerp (28th and 29th of February)(*3)  students will work in cross-functional teams on developing innovative business models to solve societal challenges.  During the workshop, the students will follow a design-embedded innovation process from observing and interpreting the context to developing solutions (*4).  The challenge is to collaborate with students from a different background and a different mindset and skills set – business ‘versus’ creative. The question is if and how this will result in a distinctive problem-solving mind, and innovative Design-Thinking business models. It is a unique occasion for the students to experience Design Thinking and to develop the necessary competencies - combining an entrepreneurial sense with a designers approach.

• (*1)Dyer, J. H., Gregersen, H. B., & Christensen, C. M. (2009). The Innovator’s DNA. Harvard Business Review, 9, 61-67.
• (*2)Dunne, D., & Martin, R. (2006). Design thinking and how it will change management education: An interview and discussion. The Academy of Management Learning and Education ARCHIVE, 5(4), 512-523.
• (*3)The workshop is a partnership of a research project conducted by the Antwerp Management School - Flanders District of Creativity Knowledge Center and Vlerick. The workshop is also a component of the Artesis Hogeschool Antwerp Innovation Week, a yearly event in which students and (industrial) organizations congregate to find durable solutions to existing societal issues.
• (*4)Beckman, S. L., & Barry, M. (2007). Innovation as a learning process: Embedding design thinking. California Management Review, 50(1), 25-56.