Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Faculty
Nicholas Berente
Associate Professor, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
email nberente@nd.edu
twitter @nberente
Youngjin Yoo
Professor, Design & Innovation, Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Professorship in
Entrepreneurship, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
Email youngjin.yoo@case.edu
Twitter @youngjinyoo
Course Objectives
Everything in business is designed. The role of design has become even more important as digital
technology continues to disrupt traditional business models. In the digital economy, the ways by which
companies innovate and create value is fundamentally shifting from products to experiences. As
demonstrated by the phenomenal success of Apple, for example, rapid convergence to digital
technology opens up new opportunities to offer new products and services that did not exist before. At
the same time, emerging and ubiquitous technologies such as mobile computing, social networks, and
smart “things” make new forms of organizing possible. The convergence of computing,
communication, content, and entertainment are resulting in new business models (“digital business
models”). Industries such as banking and financial services, entertainment, and retailing have been
transformed through digital innovations. Today, we are witnessing dramatic transformations in media
industries because of the digital innovations. The health care industry increasingly looks to digital
capabilities for transformational models in the delivery and management of health care costs and
quality. At the same time, technological innovation has fueled a dramatic surge in entrepreneurial
activity around the world. The Internet and other information technologies have become a platform for
entrepreneurial activity and given rise to prominent success stories such as Google and Facebook, as
well as innovative internet- based platforms for social development such as e-choupal. In India, with the
availability of technical talent and the rapid proliferation of mobile computing, the opportunities for
digital innovation are on the rise.
The goal of this course is to provide students with concepts and frameworks for learning and thinking
about how innovators can produce radically new products and services in this increasingly digital world.
In doing so, the course takes a design approach to innovation. The course will be of particular interest to
students who are seeking to develop competencies and careers at the intersection of technology,
strategy, entrepreneurship, and marketing.
Digital innovation involves the following activities: (i) identifying innovation opportunities based on
keen understanding on human needs, (ii) scanning and recognizing the capabilities of current and
emerging technologies, (iii) designing solutions for the identified problems by creating new products,
services, business processes, and business models, and (iv) managing the competitive, financial, and
behavioral elements associated with the market launch of such innovations.
The course integrates concepts from digital and business strategy, marketing, and economics to
provide students with insights about the following ideas:
1. Why is innovation particularly important in the digital age? Students will learn about the idea of
creative destruction and how digital technologies are accelerating the pace of disruptive
innovation.
2. What is the process for generating digital business model innovation? Students will learn about the
concept of a digital business model and the process for blending analysis of markets, technologies,
and finances in designing business models. In particular we explore how digital business models can
be different than traditional business models, and highlight some of the key digital business
models. Case studies and analyses of emerging business models will be used to provide concrete
frameworks for digital business model innovation.
3. What is the process for creating digital product or services innovation? Students will learn how to
focus on customer experiences and the role of digitization in creating new and valuable experiences
for product or services innovation. To this end, students will be introduced to approaches for design
inquiry, involving tools to frame problems and explore possible solutions. This method builds on
emphatic and contextual observation, different approaches for ideation, visualization, scenario
planning, prototyping, and stake- holder analysis. This approach is a radical departure from the
traditional innovation strategies that is based on core competencies, strategic resources, and
industry analysis. This relentless focus on customer experience allows companies to adopt
an“outside-in” approach to exploring innovation opportunities.
4. How do firms successfully manage digital innovation? Students will learn about the importance of
managing digital innovation networks and collaboration ecosystems with other firms in developing.
In addition, discussions about open innovation will also be covered to help understand the
successful management of innovation.
The pedagogical approach for the course will include lectures, case discussions, hands-on activities and
workshops, and a group project. The lectures will integrate concepts from different literatures and will
provide students with the basic frameworks. Case discussions will include analysis of digital innovations
in industry-leading organizations. The centerpiece of the course will involve various design exercises
and a series of creative design workshops whereby groups will design a digital product or system
innovation following a design inquiry process.
• Students seeking consulting careers will gain knowledge about technological innovation,
transformation, and competitive advantage across firms and industries. This knowledge will
also help them develop expertise in assessing firms’ innovation port- folios and pinpoint new
opportunities.
• Students seeking positions in strategy will gain knowledge about how information
technologies, economics, and strategy intersect with each other in the development of new
business models
• Students seeking business development or strategy positions in the information technology
industries will gain knowledge about product and services innovation strategies in a
technology business
• Students interested in entrepreneurship will gain knowledge to discover technological
entrepreneurship ideas and develop them into potential ventures.
Learning Goals
Grading
Cases analyses will be graded for both form and content (5 points each writeup). The grading will be
based upon the quality of your analysis. Merely restating case facts will not help your grade and, in
fact, will use up valuable space in your brief. In writing your briefs, assume that you are a consultant
to the company who is being paid to analyze the company's situation and make a set of
recommendations. Students are expected to read and prepare all cases, but are only required to turn
in write-ups for two of their choosing.
Team Composition: Students will be free to form their own teams. Each team will have a maximum
of 5-6 members and must primarily be formed with students from within the same section. Instructor’s
approval is needed in cases where teams wish to have members across sections by providing the
appropriate rationale.
Due March 14 – Problem Statement Presentation: In the third week of the course, teams will have
collaborated to integrate the findings of their research and identified multiple interesting areas to
pursue further. These areas involve pain points and problems of stakeholder groups, challenges, or
opportunities posed by competitive actions. Presentations will be short (~5 min) and will summarize
the relevant findings from design research of individual group members, and conclude with 1-3 very
concise problem statement(s), stating:
What is the problem/opportunity?
With respect to which stakeholder?
Why is this a problem?
Due March 28 – Design Brief and Design Presentation: Teams will deliver a client-ready design brief,
and develop a presentation. More details to follow on the requirements for these deliverables.
Class Participation: One of the primary highlights of this course is that it facilitates learning through
discussion, interaction, and feedback. Informed discussions are central to the success of this class.
Please be prepared to participate fully in the class discussion. Good class participation includes asking
interesting and relevant questions, sharing personal insights and experiences, offering constructive
alternative points of view, and providing courteous and professional feedback to other people’s
opinions. You can also contribute to the shared learning experience by offering pointers to additional
articles or resources that add to the collective knowledge and learning of the class.
You should evaluate and comment on readings and cases throughout the seven weeks of this course.
The quality and appropriateness of your participation as well as your attendance and contributions to
class discussion will determine your grade for this component. Class participation grades will reflect
the assessment of your total contribution to the learning environment. This reflects both the
frequency of your contributions in class and their quality (ability to draw on course materials and your
own experience productively, ability to advance or sharpen in-class discussion and debate, willingness
to take risky or unpopular points of view, use of logic, precision, and evidence in making arguments).
In addition, I will consider the professionalism of your conduct (attendance, punctuality, preparedness,
respecting all students and their class contributions, and refraining from conduct that is distracting).
Please note:
Attendance Policy
ISB students are admitted partly based on the experiences they bring to the learning community
and what they can add to class discussions. Therefore, attendance is an important aspect of the ISB
Post-Graduate Programme in Management. ISB insists on 100% class attendance for all its courses.
Absence is only appropriate in cases of extreme personal illness, injury, or close family
bereavement. Voluntary activities such as job interviews, business school competitions, travel plans,
joyous family occasions, etc. are never valid reasons for missing any class.
What kinds of collaborative activities are allowed? What material can be referred to?1
References Can I discuss general Can I discuss specific Can I refer to Can I refer to the
/Coding concepts and ideas issues associated with external case-study solutions
Scheme relevant to the the assignment with material?2 or problem set
assignment with others? others? solutions?
4N N N N N
3N- a Y N N N
3N-b N N Y N
2N-a Y Y N N
2N-b Y N Y N
2N-c N N Y Y
1N Y Y Y N
0N Y Y Y Y
As a general rule:
Students are responsible for submitting original work that reflects their own effort and interpretation.
Remember that any submission should be your own work and should not be copied in part or verbatim
from any other source whether external or internal.
An honour code violation is an honour code violation. A violation under coding scheme 0N is not less
severe than others. A 0N coding scheme submission is judged against a 0N coding scheme, and a 4N
coding scheme submission is judged against a 4N coding scheme; therefore, any honour code violation is
equally severe irrespective of the coding scheme of the submission.
Students can discuss cases and assignments with the course instructor and the Academic Associate for the
course.
Required and recommended textbooks for the course and the course pack can be used to answer any
individual or group assignment.
Although not all submissions may be subject to academic plagiarism checker (e.g. turn-it-in), in
retrospect, if the Honour Code committee feels the need, any of the previous submissions of an individual
or a group can be subjected to turn-it-in or any other academic plagiarism checker technology.
When in doubt, the student should contact the instructor for clarifications.
1
Any referencing needs to be accompanied with appropriate citations
2
A non-exhaustive list includes journal articles, news items, databases, industry reports, open courseware
Week 1–Feb 26 & Mar 1
Design Exercise:
Stakeholder analysis and empathy map of stakeholders.
Readings:
1. McKinsey (2012) “Capturing the upside of technology-driven threats” from Perspectives on
Digital Business, January 2012
2. Brown (2008) “Design Thinking” Harvard Business Review, June 2008
3. Blomberg et al “Ethnographic Field Methods and Their Relation to Design”
Readings:
1. Foster & Kaplan (2001) Creative Destruction; Chapter 1: “The Game of Creative
Destruction”p.1-24
2. May (2012) “Observe First, Design Second: Taming the Traps of Traditional Thinking,” Rotman
Magazine, Spring 2012.
3. Salvador et al “Design Ethnography,” Design Management Journal, Fall 1999.
Case:
Bonnier: Digitalizing the Media Business, HBS Case: 9-813-076, Date 11/30/2012
Discussion Questions:
1. Was the approach Bonnier chose to establish a centralized R&D department and to change its
innovation practices a sound business decision? Was it risky? Why or why not?
2. What is the nature of digital innovation, and how can fast-paced digital innovation processes
be handled in traditional and conservative business contexts and industries? How did Ohrvall
organize innovation differently from the traditional incremental innovators in the industry?
Readings:
1. Johnson et al (2008) “Reinventing your business model” Harvard Business Review, December
2008
2. Weill & Woerner (2015) “Thriving in an increasingly digital ecosystem” Sloan Management
Review, Summer 2015
Case:
Hindustan Unilever Mulls Over e-Grocery Market Option, Ivey Case: W15504, Date 11/9/2015
Discussion Questions:
1. Should HUL enter the e-grocery field? Why or why not? HUL had always been at the forefront
of using technology to reach consumers, but was e-commerce the best way forward? Can you
think of other digitally-enabled directions?
2. If HUL decided to enter the e-grocery field, where should it implement a viable online model
first? Should the company focus on metropolitan cities (Tier 1), which offer the benefit of
infrastructure, or Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which promised massive demand?
Session 4: Digital Platforms (Thursday March 7)
The goal of this session is to develop an understanding of how digital technologies are revolutionizing
products across industries. Students will learn about:
• Digital platforms and platform-based business models
• Creativity techniques
Readings:
1. Weill &Woerner (2013) “Optimizing your digital business model,” Sloan Management Review,
Spring 2013.
2. Edelman (2015) “How to Launch your digital platform,” Harvard Business review, April 2015
Case:
Philips Healthcare: Marketing the HealthSuite Digital Platform, HBS Case: 9-515-052, Date
9/8/2015
Discussion Questions:
1. Will the platform be attractive for app developers and providers? What could HSDP do to
improve this attractiveness?
2. What are some challenges to this platform strategy? Alternatives to this strategy? What are
the pros and cons of this strategy compared to alternatives?
Everything in business is designed. We will explore what is design and how it is different from
management and art. We will discuss design methods and design attitude. We will also discuss why
design-based approach is necessary for successful digital innovations. Design project will be
introduced in detail.
Readings:
• W. Isaacson (2012), “The Design, ” from Steve Jobs, pp. 125-134.
• Boland, Collopy, Lyytinen and Yoo, Managing as Designing: Lessons for Organization Leaders
from the Design Practice of Frank O. Gehry*
• How Might We: http://www.designkit.org/methods/3
Readings:
• Yuhgo Yamaguchi (2015), “Better Healing from Better Hospital Design”, Harvard Business
Review (https://hbr.org/2015/10/better-healing-from-better-hospital-design)
• Tim Brown & Roger Martin (2015), “Design for Action”, Harvard Business Review
(https://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/news/pdfs/DesignForAction.pdf)
• Jon Kolko, (2015), “A Process for Empathetic Product Design”, Harvard Business Review
(https://hbr.org/2015/04/a-process-for-empathetic-product-design)
Readings:
• Yoo, Y. (2010). "Computing in everyday life: A call for research on experiential computing." MIS
Quarterly 34(2): 213-231.
• Yoo, Y., O. Henfridsson, et al. (2010). "The New Organizing Logic of Digital Innovation: An
Agenda for Information Systems Research." Information Systems Research 21(5): 724-735.
Session 8: Persona and Service Blue Print –Thursday March 21
In this session, students will identify the areas of opportunities for digital innovations based on their
design research. Further, they will identify key stakeholders and their unmet needs.
Readings:
Service Blueprints: Laying the Foundation: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2014/08/service-
blueprints-laying-the-foundation
Service Design Tools: Personas: http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/40
Service Design Tools: Blueprint: http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/35
Readings:
Youngjin Yoo & Kyungmook Kim (2015), “How Samsung Became a Design Powerhouse”,
Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2015/09/how-samsung-became-a-design-
powerhouse