As we move into the digital economy, the ways by which companies create values is fundamentally shifting from products to experiences. As demonstrated by the phenomenal success of Apple Computer’s iPod, rapid convergence to digital technology opens up new opportunities to offer novel products and services that did not exist before. At the same time, emerging technologies like mobile computing, WiKi, and blog make new forms of organizing possible. Consequently, the traditional boundaries across firms are rapidly redrawn in order to exploit unique innovation opportunities, again as recently evidenced by the collaboration between Nike and Apple.

In this course, students will be asked to think how companies can organize themselves to continue to innovate in this economy that is epitomized by the sensational success of iPod – an iPod world. The course focuses on how organizations can design desirable interactions with their customers that will produce experiences that are valuable and unique. The course stands on three operative key words for continuing innovations in an iPod world: customer experiences, digital technology, and design.

First, in this class, students will learn how to start their inquiry by focusing on customer experiences. This is a radical departure from traditional innovation strategy that is based on core competencies, strategic resources, and industry analysis. This relentless focus on customers experience allows companies to take an “outside-in” approach in exploring innovation space.

Second, students will discuss various roles of digital technology in designing experiences. Two aspects of digital technologies will be emphasized. First, students will learn how to explore emerging digital technology as a part of innovations in products and services. Here, students will study how new emerging digital technologies can be embedded into and integrated with non-digital products and services in order to deliver novel experiences to the customers. Second, students will learn the role of digital technology, particularly communication and coordination technologies, as an enabler of organizing forms that give birth to innovations.

Finally, continuing innovations require new attitude to management problems. The organization needs to be dynamic, knowledge-sharing, and value-adding partnerships in order to continue to innovate. Design will be a key element in achieving this rather daunting task. The design approach is a drastic contrast to traditional problem-solving approach to management, which emphasizes the cost saving and efficiency gains through "best practices" and standard operating procedures. A design approach to management is driven by the belief and the commitment to put something remarkable into the world that has lasting consequences and value. It is supported by the commitment that things can get always better if we try hard enough. It emphasizes the mobilization of knowledge, social and financial resources from diverse actors who may not necessarily share the same goals. It respects diverse voices, and rejects the tyranny of “or” but embraces the possibilities of “and”. It is a commitment to work with the given constraints, while discovering its own identity that is constantly projected into the world. It emphasizes the verbs rather than nouns as the focus of management activities. IBM, IDEO, NTT DoCoMo, Apple, GE, Samsung and P&G, just to name a few, are examples of companies that are pursuing design approaches in their transformation efforts in this changing economy. Students will learn design methods and principles. These methods and principles will be then applied to both experience design and organization design.

Students will be working on real-life design projects, working with students from different disciplines, to design novel services and projects enabled by new digital technology and to design necessary organizational structures to provide such services and products.