Entrepreneurial Design Thinking

Summer Academy Course

Google, FaceBook, IKEA, or McDonald’s are famous examples of how to make money out of an innovative idea. However, these examples represent notinnovative ideas, but innovative problem-solution, focusing on real-life customer-needs. These kinds of firms have one thing in common: they are innovation-driven and user-centred in their scope of research and action. Entrepreneurial Design Thinking is a tool that enables its users to gain a deep understanding of people’s problems and answer them with customized solutions, which trigger new venture creation. Reflecting the growing importance of the global marketplace and the
increasing number of business opportunities, this course offers insights into founding sustainable firms out of an innovative idea through entrepreneurship and design. The course will take place at the “KO-ED-School- School of Entrepreneurial Design Thinking”. Participants will work in multidisciplinary teams and use creativity-fostering methods to accomplish their various tasks. At the end every team will present their prototype and associated business concept.

www.uni-koblenz.de/summeracademy

Adressees

Master students in Information Management and Information Systems

Master students of all other disciplines

PhD students of all disciplines

Overview

This course in Entrepreneurial Design Thinking will cover, but is not limited to, the following areas: Design Thinking, Scientific  Entrepreneurship, Business Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Sized Companies, Start-ups, Teamwork, Creativity, Invention, Innovation, Personality, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Business Plan, Financing the new Venture. By the end of this course students should have:
1. A competence of feeling empathy and switching into the user-perspective of a problem
2. An understanding of how the interaction of teams, creativity, invention, personality and motivation lead to new business models
3. The ability to present an idea in an innovative way
4. The basic knowledge to write your own Business Plan
5. An ability, in any business situation, to identify the critical issues and to predict possible evolutions

The form of the exam are presentations in between the course and in the end and the delivery and assessment of a business concept (limited to ten pages).

For University of Koblenz students: The Summer Academy course Entrepreneurial Design Thinking is equivalent to the lecture Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation Management in module IMHK04. For those students who are interested in a completion of the module IMHK04 Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation Management, a tutorial will take place PRIOR to the Summer Academy. For further details about the Summer Academy click here.

 Literature

• Brown, T.: Change by design. How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. HarperBusiness, 2009.
• Hisrich, Peters, Shepard: Entrepreneurship, McGraw-Hill, 7th edition, 2005.