Through this course, I want to be cable of being hired from consulting companies like Bain & Company, Boston Consulting, McKinsey & Company.
I think about the change in role of designers as well as the impact of design in business changed. Now many companies, governments, and society in general position Design as a problem-solving approach, and more and more companies include design as part of their primary focus, and as design starts to climb up the ladder on these corporations to become a central part of their strategy.
Also I see many design studios performing consulting and brand strategy with problem solving approach while they bring innovative idea and creat new concepts. The immediacy of the design seems great benefit for the companies which, i assume, is different from that of the traditional corporate environment.
But in same time, i wonder how designer brakes the competitive walls of business. I have a mentor who works in Bain & Company, I was talking with him the other day and realized some of their project were doing similar process as we do our design research. What is difference between us designers and business majored consultants or market researchers, as well as learning what we commonly share. Through that, i ‘d like to develop ideas what i as designer can specifically offer as a consultant to companies. In other words, why company need us, and not on the first list to lay off when economy go bad.
The very first sentence above mentioning top business consulting companies was my figurative expression of what i want to learn. I stand behind the fact that we need designers moving up to senior management decision levels to help business produce a new culture, rather than business selling new goods or services to make profits. I wish this class will work as a ground stone for me as a designer to develop business insights that will work well in practice which can be somehow differentiated from learning gained in MBA .
I ‘d like to share where i am. I took economic classes and read accounting books, but I don’t know how to embrace those in my design process. I’ve worked 5 years as a private tutor but i have few experience in company setting. I did 3 month intern in design studio, where i grasp ideas about brand identity while developing clients’ new product lines. When i was doing marketing intern for drink industry in Tokyo for a month. Their I could read their business model, which was pitching to young 20-30′ and their money-making products was main 2 items while others 4,5 were supporting the diversity of the product line to show off.
On the following syllabus Class 12, 13 seems most interesting to me. It seems it will help me to understand business more realistically that we designers may overlook or shirk our responsibilities. I believe it will give me a sense of how i can keep in mind of those cold facts while I am trying to produce a most innovative and creative work. I am very interested about IP in terms of legal issues and how commercial design can be differently treated than non-commercial design pieces. Also wonders similarity and difference between IP laws and Creative Common agreements.
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12. MONEY MATTERS (Budget) – Apr 11 Lecture: Rules of thumb for small business budgeting; what is a revenue model? How to build an operating budget
Nuri Kim 