Design Thinking in the Business Studio

Abstract

Design thinking has found a place in business school curricula around the globe. Especially strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation courses tend to include design thinking exercises. In these courses, educators seek to balance analytical and creative thinking in business education to prepare their students for future work life challenges. The uptake of design thinking made it necessary to find or create conductive spaces for it. Some educators created pop-up studios for design thinking, i.e. re-purposed seminar and lecture rooms or moved their course outside of the facilities of their institution. Some schools went further and created dedicated business studio spaces. These physical business studios facilitated the adoption of design thinking in business schools, and at the same time attracted other educational forms and processes. The chapter includes the results of an interview and observational study in Denmark to explore the practices that have formed around design thinking in business studios over the past decade. We found that design thinking in business schools is less of a fixed toolkit or well-defined mindset and more of an enabler of a shift in the educational paradigm.