The Talent Hunt

Design programs are shaping a new generation of creative managers

by Elizabeth Woyke and Maha Atal

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On the campus of the University of Cincinnati, Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) employees are brainstorming with design students to create a fictional green-leaning family of three that lives in an energy-efficient solar-powered home. "We imagined a prototypical family that might live in a house like this and want to live sustainably," says Bob Schwartz, associate director at P&G's Global Design Organization. "What products might support that lifestyle 24/7?"

P&G already employs lots of innovative minds. So why is its global design unit looking to a troop of University of Cincinnati students for ideas? "Students bring naive innovation and alien eyes," says Schwartz. "They can inspire in a fashion that is more difficult to do in big companies. That's probably why a lot of big companies engage in relationships with design schools."

The Second Annual BusinessWeek survey of the best design schools highlights the growing role they play in supplying creative managers to corporate and nonprofit organizations. Our list includes joint programs among business, engineering, and design schools as well as revamped curricula within traditional design programs. The driving forces of innovation and globalization are pushing companies to revamp their managerial ranks and hire people with new skills. Surprised by the rise of consumer power, companies are seeking people who can connect with customer cultures online and overseas. And in an era of constant change, they want people who are comfortable with complexity and uncertainty. Schools that teach design thinking, with its emphasis on maximizing possibilities rather than managing for efficiency, are in high demand.

Once again, BusinessWeek turned to a panel of innovation consultants, design academics, and corporate executives to select programs that have curricula they respect and whose graduates they hire. Then we conducted interviews with professors, students, and alumni to narrow down their recommendations to a list of the top global 60. Finally, in making our choices, we asked them to look for programs that combined design with business, engineering, or marketing, and we treated this mixture as essential to their teaching.

Who made the cut? Programs that enabled students to engage with the real world through sponsored projects and internships; that were tuned in to contemporary business issues, such as sustainability; and those whose graduates have proven themselves to be creative designers, strategists, and leaders.

TEAMWORK WORLDWIDE

Many schools are beginning to go global. To share resources, ideas, best practices, and academic talent, European, American, and Asian universities are setting up joint programs. Among the schools on our list, many are offering dual degrees from two or more programs or schools.

These programs zero in on one of business' major problems—the difficulty managers and creative types have working together. Innovation may now be as important as efficiency, yet people responsible for each function rarely understand one another and work poorly together on teams.

One obvious solution is to throw them together and teach them design thinking jointly. The Royal College of Art, for example, has a new program with the Tanaka Business School and the Imperial College London engineering school. Carnegie Mellon University puts design, engineering, and business students into teams to work on projects. And the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management pairs MBAs with design students in product development classes.

Another program that focuses on collaboration is Adcenter, the Virginia Commonwealth University graduate advertising program run by Richard Boyko. In his 30-year career at ad shops Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett Worldwide, and TBWA\Chiat\Day, Boyko found that "advertising creatives and account managers never spoke to one another." He says that "the businesspeople are the ones who pay the checks, but they aren't trained to look at creative content." Worst of all, "they aren't trained to collaborate, to rub elbows with those unlike themselves."