Designing Sustainable Systems

Catalog description

Sustaining competitive advantages is difficult. Remember Blockbuster, MySpace, Sears, or BlackBerry? Firms need to excel in the presence and prepare for tomorrow simultaneously. But preparing for the future is increasingly difficult due to the complexities of interdependent global and digital competition. Unparalleled recent political, cultural, and environmental challenges like rising nationalism, the rise of China, disrupted global supply chains, and global warming add further complications. How can leaders in organizations prepare for the future? How can they plan and design future proof new business models, structures, or solutions? In this research course we approach this future preparedness -- the design of sustainable organizational systems -- from a BDI (Business Design Initiative) perspective. Here the BDI perspective includes phrenetic thinking and reasoning, systems thinking and complexity science and two exemplary BDI tools: scenario planning and business model generation. Ultimately, we will, individually and collectively, apply the above to develop, document, and present business scenarios and derived business models based on students' current business contexts in support of real-world companies' future preparedness. Prereq: Enrolled in the PhD in Management: Designing Sustainable Systems program.