Design Thinking And Project Management

There are always multiple ways to solve problems to one specific question, or there can never be an answer at all. The process of solving problems is not always as straightforward as it seems when there are no definite answers. “Wicked” problems are not easily solvable, causing the process of solving them to be long and experimental. Many “wicked problems have multiple solutions or none at all, however a solution can be found by using design thinking, an approach to help discover innovative ways to resolve a business's challenges.

A wise man once said, “The only permanent thing in the world is change,” an adage that rings especially true for organizations in this fast-changing era of technology and communication. Daft very deftly puts the inescapable need for change in three simple words, “Innovate or Perish” in his book “Understanding the Theory & Design of Organizations” [2].

The Industrial Age company is a traditional company, which believes in uniformity, stability, permanence, security, and competition; however, the Information Age company is totally contrasted. The Information Age company focuses on diversity, cooperation, flexibility, motivation for cooperating, and communication by using information over e-commerce. The impact of control of information and how it is creating super valuable companies like Apple, Google and Facebook can be seen during these days. Each company controls massive amounts of data on consumers, creates products that leverage that information, and delivers services that are therefore irresistible.

Anderson, T. (2017). Business Needs Good Design: And good design requires professionals. Alaska Business Monthly, 33(7), 20.

The core concept behind ‘Design Thinking’ revolves around attaining a goal rather than simply fixing a problem at hand. Since focusing on an objective already helps address any unmet needs, goal-oriented solutions lay the groundwork for other improvements including future ‘Design Thinking’ solutions. As such, solutions of this nature need to be socially fluid, tangible in nature, and broadminded in approach.

Notwithstanding, Collins alerts that technology ought not to be viewed as a potential panacea for every one of that afflicts an organization. The habit of this sort of believing was uncovered in the repercussions of the crash of the technology rise in the early 2000s. The market remedy tossed into sharp relief the contrasts between sustainable uses of the Internet to extend established businesses and ill-planned, unviable online new companies. Collins contends that the good-to-great companies approach the possibility of new and developing advancements with a similar prudence and careful deliberation that describes the greater part of their different business choices. Further, these organizations have a tendency to apply innovation in a way that is intelligent of their "hedgehog ideas" - ordinarily by choosing and centering exclusively upon the improvement of a couple of advancements that are on a very basic level perfect with their set up qualities and goals.

Over the past few years technology has caused significant changes in the way enterprises conduct business.

In modern society with technology being so closely tied to having a competitive advantage, a lot of industries compete to keep up to date with new developments. The invention and increased use of computers, internet, and phones have all made a major impact on organisations around the world.

Friedman launches this discussion with an outline of ten primary forces which would ultimately conspire to reshape the world. The first flattening agent is the fall of the Berlin Wall coinciding with the arrival of the personal computer; this pivotal concurrence would set the stage all that followed. The remaining flatteners include: the first public internet browser, which enabled easy access to the World Wide Web; an array of standardized protocols and workflow software; uploading and open-sourcing; in-forming through search engines; the “steroids;” insourcing; outsourcing; off-shoring; and supply-chaining. Woven throughout the discussion of flatteners, Friedman details a variety of computerized gadgets, software programs, and noteworthy companies of the past several decades; some of them now outmoded, while others have maintained

Disruptive technology brings about many opportunities for both innovation and productivity outputs, however it can also be a risk. It includes developments that create substantial change across the economy for most people and businesses, the impact of which causes significant costs to adjust to due to capital being made obsolete and workers becoming underutilised. Clayton Christensen is considered to be the world’s top expert on the concepts of disruption innovation and technology and according to him the ‘introduction of digital disruption offers a better alternative to the present approach for solving customer problems’. Digital disruption is redefining the norm, changing both markets and competitors around the world. Whilst it can be a positive change for

Comparing Buchanan’s view with nowadays IDEO’s CEO Tim Brown, for example we see a core difference. Brown states that “design thinking is a lineal descendant of [ Thomas Edison’s research and development] tradition. Put simply, it is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity” Design Thinking Brown, T. (2008).

summarized by the phrase: “design thinking”. Tim Brown (2008), CEO of IDEO, explained that it is

Design management involves the core functions of the management process and directly links them to the process of innovation and design. Businesses are facing an increasingly competitive market place with new innovations and technologies appearing all of the time. Therefore, design is a good way to differentiate the product from a competitor by making it more aesthetically pleasing and more functionally effective. Cooper (1997) suggested that

Planning the project allows the project managers to anticipate the effect of errors without expending money, time or resources. Planning projects and analysing the costs and benefits enables the manager to review options, propose the estimates, visualize risks and simulate the plan, prior to committing the project to a specific course of action.

The business world continues to change dramatically as new technologies are invented. Organizations and businesses are experiencing waves of technological change and innovation and the process. Thus, management strategies of the organizations have to be altered to match the new technologies if businesses are to remain competitive and active in the market place. Digital disruption can be defined as the changes that take place when new technologies and business models affect the promise of value to be delivered by existing goods and services (McQuivey 2015). Change experienced in information and communication technology cannot be assumed as this greatly affects business governance and business models. It is indisputable that business and organizations are facing imminent and major digital disruptions and it is important for each organization to understand the issues raised by digital disruption to be able to develop specific, pragmatic, and proportional responses (Deloitte 2015). This research seeks to show how digital disruption impacts business governance and how it opens unprecedented business opportunities and possibilities. The report shows how the innovations accompanying digital disruption changes economies and markets and how they reinvent relationships between organizations, suppliers and customers.