Another New D-School Rises--In Europe--Backed By Scandanavian Corporations.

Bruce Nussbaum

A severe global shortage of innovation talent around the world is leading companies to take an active hand in educating people in design thinking. Thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken for pointing to the fact that Nokia, Lego, Bang & Olufsen and four other Scandanavian companies are backing a new educational institution called the "180 degree Academy" that will teach innovation. It opens its doors in June 2007.

Inspired by the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago and the Stanford D-School, 180 will shift the focus from technology-driven innovation to consumer-focussed innovation. The program will follow an MBA model and be interdisciplinary. Students will learn all the ethnography techniques so essential today. More important, they'll learn how to think about possibilities and opportunities.

Bravo to the Scandanavian companies backing this big educational initiative.

At the recent IDSA conference in Austin, TX, it was clear that American design schools, by an large, need drastic change to keep up with the evolving field of design. There was a lot of discussion about how hard it is to change curricula, teaching and professors. My advice then was to stop trying to change existing programs and put new money into new programs. The Scadanavians prove this point. We don't have decades to change the design education students are receiving.

US companies should band together and finance new programs around the country that teach innovation and design thinking. It's time to finance new chairs for professors and perhaps new departments as well. And it's time to do this in both D-school and B-schools.