International Webinar on “Design Thinking”
The Objective of the Webinar
Innovate for the Better Future! That is the mantra of many fast moving and successful companies and industries, especially in this world of high-speed interconnectivity.
Design thinking, an approach to both innovation and creative problem solving is becoming the go to approach for forward thinking organizations. Design thinking is an approach to solving problems with cross-functional teams led by facilitators.
The webinar is scheduled to immerse students into the world of innovation as a systematic process of tackling relevant business and social problems and also to provide a social and thinking space for the recognition of innovation challenges and the design of creative solutions.
This webinar will provide the exercise idea with foresight and insight muscles in the process of opportunity identification and creation.
This webinar ensures participants to enable primary and secondary research in the introduction to design thinking and can apply the design thinking approach and have ability to model real world situations.
Design Thinking – An Overview
By K Rajeswar Rao
Strategy Guru, Design Thinking MIT SLOAN, d-School Stanford
How many times have you left a formal meeting and doubted that anything was going to change in reality? So many times, we get together to solve a problem and nothing is accomplished—it’s frustrating. Sadly, many approaches to solving business challenges are misaligned for various reasons—pick your poison. Innovative, business changing ideas can be fleeting at times, but that’s the gist of what design thinking helps address.
I’ve been trying various elements of design thinking and have become passionate about it because it works. Design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve big results. Design thinking combines creative and critical thinking that allows information and ideas to be organized, decisions to be made, situations to be improved, and knowledge to be gained. It’s a mindset focused on solutions and not the problem. Design thinking combines creative and critical thinking that allows information and ideas to be organized, decisions to be made, situations to be improved, and knowledge to be gained. It is a mindset focused on solutions and not the problem.
Design Thinking is not an exclusive property of designers—all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. So, why call it Design Thinking? What’s special about Design Thinking is that designers’ work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply these human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way – in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, in our lives.
Design thinking is a process for solving problems by prioritizing the consumer’s needs above all else. It relies on observing, with empathy, how people interact with their environments, and employs an iterative, hands-on approach to creating innovative solutions.
Design thinking is “human-centered,” which means that it uses evidence of how consumers (humans) engage with a product or service, rather than how someone else or an organization thinks they will engage with it. To be truly human-centered, designers watch how people use a product or service and continue to refine the product or service to improve the consumer’s experience. This is the “iterative” part of design thinking. It favors moving quickly to get prototypes out to test, rather than endless research or rumination.
In contrast to traditional problem-solving, which is a linear process of identifying a problem and then brainstorming solutions, design thinking only works if it is iterative. It is less of a means to get to a single solution, and more of a way to continuously evolve your thinking and respond to consumer needs.
Design thinking is now the core of strategy development and organizational change in order to create a culture that’s focused on this way of solving problems. This way of thinking can be applied to products, services, and processes; anything that needs to be improved.
Some of the world’s leading brands, such as Apple, Google, Samsung and GE, have rapidly adopted the Design Thinking approach, and Design Thinking is being taught at leading universities around the world, including d.school, Stanford, Harvard and MIT.
Importance of Design Thinking for School Students
You must be wondering why you need to learn Design Thinking skills.To answer this question, consider the rapidly changing working environment and the path which the future of work is headed towards. To succeed, thrive, and be a part of the future, you will need to be adaptable and skilled. You will need to be ready to cope with the situations you have never seen before. For this, design thinking plays a crucial role in your life. Let’s understand how:
Design thinking teaches you to question: Design Thinking starts with questioning the status quo, it enables you to be at the back front and center of the story and use creative methods to come up with ideas, suggestions, and solutions to various situations, problems, and questions.
Questions like: I have a challenge but how do I approach it? I learned something new but how do I interpret it? I have an idea but how do I build it? II tried something new, but how should I evolve it? It transforms the way you approach the world and allows space for imagining and creating new solutions.
Importance of Design Thinking for School Students
You must be wondering why you need to learn Design Thinking skills.To answer this question, consider the rapidly changing working environment and the path which the future of work is headed towards. To succeed, thrive, and be a part of the future, you will need to be adaptable and skilled. You will need to be ready to cope with the situations you have never seen before. For this, design thinking plays a crucial role in your life. Let’s understand how:
Design thinking teaches you to question: Design Thinking starts with questioning the status quo, it enables you to be at the back front and center of the story and use creative methods to come up with ideas, suggestions, and solutions to various situations, problems, and questions.
Questions like: I have a challenge but how do I approach it? I learned something new but how do I interpret it? I have an idea but how do I build it? II tried something new, but how should I evolve it? It transforms the way you approach the world and allows space for imagining and creating new solutions.
In the webinar I will be focusing on the five-phase model proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, which is also known as d.school. We’ve chosen d.school’s approach because they’re at the forefront of applying and teaching Design Thinking. The five phases of Design Thinking, according to d.school, are as follows:
- Empathize – with your users
- Define – your users’ needs, their problem, and your insights
- Ideate – by challenging assumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions
- Test – solutions
It is important to note that the five phases, stages, or modes are not always sequential. They do not have to follow any specific order and can often occur in parallel and repeat iteratively. Given that, you should not understand the phases as a hierarchical or step-by-step process. Instead, you should look at it as an overview of the modes or phases that contribute to an innovative project, rather than sequential steps.
Chief Speaker
Shri. K. Rajeswar Rao
Strategy Guru, Design Thinking MIT SLOAN, d-School Stanford
Rajeswar brings in a very unique combination of creativity, process compliance and global methodologies which helped him evolve into a firm believer of the tenet “Inspiring everyone to do things they never thought they could”, Challenging status quo has been his greatest strength and was rewarded for the past 3 decades of progressive management of global technology and business organizations at CXO levels across various geographies and cultures.
His unique ability to articulate the strength of core values, vision and purpose of an institution at C-level have helped him built large technology and IT services businesses that have created consistent significant shareholder value.
Rajeswar brings in diverse and deep experience expertise on global strategy, design thinking – a strategic initiative for active differentiation, balanced score card, enterprise business excellence-Baldridge, EFQM and CII-Exim. Leadership, mentorship. Setting up frameworks for achieving sustained leadership is his forte. Some of the key responsibilities were
- A strong proponent and ambassador of organization culture and vision for lasting client and stake holder value.
- Design and implemented business strategies, plans and procedures by analysing various elements of strategy formulation and implemented strategies across all layers of the organisation from the Board level to the entry level employee. leveraging the time-tested Balanced score card
- Considered as one of the very few experts of Balanced score card and enterprise excellence model of EFQM and Malcolm Baldrige
- Set comprehensive goals for performance and growth aligning with the strategic objectives and set up leadership teams aligned with the Leadership development of strategy of the organisation and individual career aspirations
- Overseeing daily operations of the business, transformation projects and employee productivity within the business unit, running the planned tasks with ease, driving high degree of automation and continuous productivity improvement
- Build a highly inclusive culture ensuring team members thrive and organization outcomes are met, aligned ti the ethos of the organisation and establishing a thriving, mutually successful and a vibrant diverse work culture.
- Lead staff to encourage maximum performance and dedication & evaluate performance by analysing and interpreting data and metrics.
- A strong advocate of continuous innovation and future proofing the business and people by creating a knowledge driven decision making as a culture, encourage continuous upgradation of knowledge, skill and competencies.,
- By establishing innovative strategy where enterprise is always learning, adapting and adopting newer and improved work methods, to drive industry leading productivity as well and work standards.
For the past few years Rajeswar has been well sought after regularly as Industry Advisor across various industries, investment houses and brokerage firms on global, regional market shifts in a rapidly changing VUCA world of business. He is also a visiting prof at IIM– Amritsar and other leading B-Schools on Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance for the past 5 years Rajeswar has been a highly active contributor at multiple technology forums like the CSI, IEEE and various Universities and colleges. He is very regularly invited for industry expert perspectives on IOT, Industry 4.0, Edge Computing and Design Thinking.
Rajeswar for the past 5 years has trained about 200 plus independent directors on Strategy and Balanced score card , He has been associated with multiple Ivy League firms to train and mentor their Sr and middle management teams on Strategy , Managing Change, Intraprenuership and Leadership.
Rajeswar served as Member of Management council Infosys from 2009-2014 and led very large delivery organization delivering IT solutions including consulting services to G2K clients in BFS, MFG and Discrete Technologies. Rajeswar Delivered about $2 Bn USD during the period. Led business from the front managing globally spread client and also 30000 + diverse work force of various nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Rajeswar won multiple Chairman award for delivery, client and employee excellence and was also the top 1% future leaders identified across Infosys.Rajeswar has over 33 Years of over IT experience spanning 4 generations of technology and business transformation and is well respected for his forthright views, untarnished reputation for being Value driven, we grounded to values and always walked the talk on his principles, and commitments in the process groomed many future leaders in the organizations he was associated with.
Special Guest
Ms. Pushpa
Peak Performance & Leadership Mentor, Australia
Pushpa is an internationally recognised expert in developing leaders, authors, and executive coaches in transformational leadership, business success, and holistic cultural change with over 40 years of experience. Pushpa has helped thousands of leaders worldwide from all walks of life and professions, before and during the crisis, to strengthen their leadership capacities leading to outstanding outcomes. Government departments, Conference planners, Multi-Cultural and corporate organisations bring Pushpa in as a keynote speaker to help delegates, executives, leaders, and stakeholders. Pushpa hopes to navigate change in culture where the participants take on a new perspective and make lasting behavioural changes.
Pushpa believes that successful leadership only begins from within and is available to anyone willing to make a conscious choice to develop the skills. While some may appear to be natural-born leaders, the reality is that the skills that make a leader great can be taught and learned. As a leading expert in innovation, creativity, and leadership, Pushpa inspires audiences to shift their thinking about succeeding in the innovation leadership age.
Guest Speaker
Mr. Gurmeett Singh
Member - John Maxwell Team (USA) , Life & Career Coach
Gurmeet, is a certified John Maxwell Coach, Teacher, Trainer and Speaker. He is licensed to use the following curriculum and programs -
- 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth
- Everyone Communicates, Few Connect
- How to be a REAL Success
- Put Your Dreams to the Test
- Leadership Gold
- Becoming a Person of Influence
In addition to the above, Gurmeet is also a certified -
- Positive Psychology Coach
- Life Coach
- Happiness Coach
- NLP Practitioner
- Emotional Intelligence Practitioner
Gurmeet is a Computer Science Graduate and MBA with specialization in Finance, he comes with more than 25 years of corporate experience across various organizations (National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, Polaris Software, Wipro, HCL Technologies). Currently he is part of Refinitiv – London Stock Exchange Group.
He has been instrumental in transforming the lives of all his colleagues who have worked with him during his professional journey. He is blessed to touch and transform the lives of all those wonderful souls who call themselves “The happiest people” on the earth today.
He has successfully conducted sessions on Stress Management, Conflict Management, Happiness 24/7, Emotional Intelligence & JMT licensed courses for people coming from varied professional backgrounds and different age groups. He has always ensured that each of his participants not only learn from his life experiences but also demonstrate their learning then and there in the session as he believes that “Learning by Doing” is the BEST way to practice the same once you are out of his session.
His sessions are always intense, but he ensures that fun element is not missing in his sessions as fun makes learning Easy – Energetic – Effective (3Es). He ensures that each of his participants leaves his session with a BIG SMILE
His trademark is: “There is always a humor in all scenarios of life – one has to find that and move on with a SMILE”
Chief facilitator and Session Moderator
Dr. C Manohar
Sr. Director - ISBR, Bangalore
Regional President, IACC
Dr C Manohar, with two Masters degrees in Management & Commerce, obtained his Doctorate in Management for a thesis on Technology Management in India, with focus on policy development and the practices adopted in industry, verifying and validating factors that contributed to the growth of industry during the early phase of globalization in India. Topping up with advanced programs on leadership, entrepreneurship and management excellence from best of institutions in Asia, Europe and America, Dr. Manohar brings extensive experience of over three decades in Industry, Government, IIMB, B-schools and Universities, research and consulting organizations, industry bodies and international development agencies.
An Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and a visiting faculty to European Universities, Served as Senior Director and Dean, Chairman of Board of Studies at renowned B-Schools and Institutions, guided PhD Research Scholars. Designed and implemented capacity building projects under UNDP/World Bank/Multilateral funded programs in Asia, Africa and Europe.
As Secretary/CEO of FKCCI, he promoted strong Industry-Academia linkages. Instrumental in establishing EDP cells creating channels for collaborative partnerships to promote entrepreneurship. Served on the EXIM Bank Advisory Committee on Research & Planning and as Chairman of Institute of Management Consultants of India. Nurtured young entrepreneurs, mentored and co-founded Start-Ups. Facilitated business negotiations, moderated task forces and interest groups. Co-Founder of Parentof.Com, he is Chief Mentor of StartUp India Forum Bangalore.
Highly networked in business and professional bodies, Regional President of Indo American Chamber of Commerce for South India, Chairman of Vision Group of Karnataka/Kerala Chapter of Association of Indian Management Schools, Co-Chairman of ASSOCHAM National Council for Education, serving on management councils of organizations, Indo French Chamber of Commerce, Indo Italian Chamber of Commerce, Swiss India Business Council, Indo Netherlands Business Council, contributed to BCIC, PRCI, BMA, NIPM, NHRD, QCFI, ABCI and others. Member of Association of Management Development Institutions of South Asia.
An ardent speaker, a prolific writer, he has authored many occasional papers and addressed international conferences. Widely traveled on scholastic missions and business delegations, Dr Manohar has a passion for visioning and institution building.
DR. P. SHRINIVAS RAO
DIRECTOR, FIREBIRD
Dr. P. Shrinivas Rao is a proficient professional with 31 years of experience in carving academic institutions through technology and strategic planning right from inception, covering various functional areas like academic administration, power branding, and integrated campus development. He spent his preliminary career with multinational corporations and started his academic journey in the mid of 1990. He was a vice president and CEO in reputed intuitions with International collaborations, Dean of the first global MBA program in India, Coordinated academic exchange programs, attended many global summits and conferences in the Indian School of Business, BHU, IIFT, XLRI, IIM Kolkata, IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmadabad, MDI Gurgaon and leading institutions and universities of the country. Dr. Shrinivas has spent his last 31 years as a Regional Head in the corporate sector,Principal, Vice-President, Dean, Director, Director-Technical campus, Executive Dean for both general and technical institutions with a particular focus on integrated development. Some of the research areas of concentration are work-life balance, managing transfer of knowledge, crisis management, learning organizations, the impact of motivation, service marketing, tourism services. His current interest is in mentoring millions of students using technology in education and social media platforms and resourcing the right education inputs to the country’s young minds. Toward this excellent initiative, the Mission Mentors group has conceived. Dr. Shrinivas is the founder and CEO of Mission Mentors. His academic credentials include MBA in Marketing, MBA in HR, and Ph.D. in management, currently working as The Director of Firebird International Business School, Coimbatore, India.