Design Thinking Innovation and Business Strategy

Reflection on Course Concepts

This course has involved learning some critical concepts that are applicable to nearly any business setting in today’s business environment. Some of the concepts learned in this course include design thinking, building and sustaining an innovation strategy, and organizing and building organization. These concepts relate to today’s business environment in terms of their focus on promoting innovation, which is one of the keys to success for modern businesses. Through insights obtained from the concepts, the course has essentially prepared me to develop the necessary skills to drive critical business decisions and develop successful business strategies. I believe that the course has equipped me with knowledge and skills that would help me shape critical business decisions and strategies in my workplace.

Most Compelling Concepts

One of the most compelling concepts from this course is design thinking, which is an iterative process that seeks to understand users and redefine problems through challenging assumptions in efforts to identify alternative innovative strategies and solutions (Interaction Design Foundation, 2018). Strategies and solutions emerging from this process may not be immediately instant with the initial level of understanding. I find design thinking to be compelling because it creates a user-driven approach to innovation, which helps to avoid design bias that can be harmful and lethal (The Economist, 2021).

Building and Sustaining an Innovation Strategy and Organizing and Building Innovation are also compelling concepts learned in this course. Building and Sustaining an Innovation Strategy seeks to enhance the long-term competitiveness of a business through the creation of project plans (Wheelwright & Clark, 1992). The process of building and sustaining an innovation strategy entails effective management of the innovation portfolio. This concept is one of the most compelling because it provides insights on how business executives can avoid making dramatic interventions and vacillating strategies in response to global competitive pressures (Nagji & Tuff, 2012). Through insights obtained from the concept, business executives can respond to competitive pressures in the market and develop appropriate strategies through managing their innovation portfolio. On the other hand, the concept of Organizing and Building Innovation is one of the most compelling as it focuses on how successful innovation projects require the right combination of talent (Banholzer, Metzeler & Roth, 2019). Therefore, building innovation not only involves creating strategies but also entails identifying the right people to drive it. Creating agile teams to drive the process is critical for successful innovation (Comella-Dorda et al., 2020).

Applicable Concept to Current Work

My current work as an HR professional focuses on organizational growth and people development. I focus on developing functional teams in my workplace in order to enhance the overall success and profitability of the organization. The most applicable concept to my current work is Organizing and Building Innovation. From this course, I have learned that the successful execution of innovation projects requires creating agile teams to drive this process. Since my current work entails developing functional teams, the concept of Organizing and Building Innovation is applicable as it focuses on the creation of agile teams. The concept advocates for the adoption of an agile operating model in which business leaders ensure that individual teams are established to drive the innovation process. Agile teams created in the workplace should be able to execute their missions with minimum dependencies (Comella-Dorda, Handscomb & Zaidi, 2020).

Functional teams in my current work should have the capability to execute their missions with minimum dependencies while generating value for the overall organization. I believe that this concept provides insights into how I can use the agile operating model as the framework for developing functional teams in my current workplace. Using insights learned from the concept, I will ensure that the model is closely linked to the organization’s strategy. Through this process, individual teams in the workplace will carry out their activities in a manner that is linked to the overall organizational strategy, which will result in organizational growth. People development will occur as they participate in the innovation projects and are assigned relevant responsibilities based on their knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Applicability of Concepts to Future Career

These concepts are applicable in my future career in terms of organizational development, business development, and employee management (HR). Design thinking would be applicable to organizational development as it promotes a user-driven approach to innovation. In this case, innovation projects in my future career will begin with the end-user in mind. This will help promote organizational growth and development as business strategies will be developed in line with end-user needs and preferences. Moreover, the end-user will be incorporated in the design and execution of innovation. With regards to business development, the concept of Building and Sustaining an Innovation Strategy will be applied. Managerial decisions and actions will be based on a proactive rather than reactive approach. This implies that proactive approaches will be adopted to deal with competitive pressures through managing an innovation portfolio. Organizing and Building Innovation will be used as the premise for employee management by adopting an agile operating model. The model will be used as the premise for developing functional teams that work independently to execute their mission.