Design Thinking and Managerial Education, from theory through practice.

Abstract

Throughout this final dissertation thesis, we will address the Design Thinking subject — a systematic approach to problem-solving — from different perspectives, with the final aim of determining its role within the managerial education context.

The research is structured as follow: we will start first by analysing the subject, providing briefly its theoretical and historical background, focusing mainly on the managerial sphere. Then we will provide the various tools, necessary to lead the design thinker through the action of thinking out-of-the-box are analysed in much detail. The instruments will be explored individually, addressing both their linkage with the process execution and the motivations behind their efficacy. Thereafter we will collocate the subject into the organisational area. Here the main aim would be to demonstrate which are the advantage — and disadvantages — of using the Design Thinking method in the firm’s environment. We will also provide which are the barriers and difficulties that inhibit the Design Thinking application into the organisational environment.

After having explored the Design Thinking importance in the organisational environment, we will deep into the real objective of this thesis: how Design Thinking can be included and learned in the business school. Here the determinants and the necessities that had led for the necessity of the inclusion, as long as the boundary conditions that must be accepted and the effective skills that can be acquired by the students will be explored.

Finally, we will provide a real application of Design Thinking in the educational environment, with the objective of addressing difficulties and frictions encountered by students, and offer a basis for future researchers.