Learning people-driven innovation at the 180º Academy
The website of the Danish 180º Academy, that I wrote about earlier, is now live.
The organisers “believe in people-driven innovation, enabling [their] students to understand innovation from the point of view of everyday people. Accepting this fact, 180°academy turns the traditional approach to innovation [which is technology-driven] around.”
The academy combines “theory with practice in a cross-disciplinary programme allowing students to understand the innovation process as a whole” and covers “topics as diverse as ethnography, competitive analysis, ideation, prototyping, branding, business plans and patenting, to name a few.”
The objective is “to educate top talent in large and small companies worldwide to innovate holistically – internally within their organisation’s different departments and externally by meeting the needs and aspirations of the people they are innovating for.”
The 180º Academy offers three part-time programmes which are designed for working individuals: the flagship nine-module Master Practitioner Programme, the three-module Executive Programme for executives, and a smaller six-module Insight Programme for mid-sized and small companies.
The acting dean is Anne Kirah, former senior design anthropologist at Microsoft (see my recent interview with her). Other professors are Richard Pascale (associate fellow, Oxford University) and Lars Thøger Christensen (professor, Department of Marketing, University of Southern Denmark). The faculty also includes the following visiting professors, consultants and associate professors: Teng-Kee Tan (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Kirsten Becker (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Uday Dandavate (SonicRim, USA), Simona Maschi (Milan Polytechnic and former associate professor at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea), Heather Martin (also former associate professor at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea) and Pia Betton (Framework Identity, Berlin).
[…] Putting people first is reporting about The 180°academy, a new Danish educational institution founded by Lego, Danfoss, Nokia, Gumlink, Bang & Olufsen, Novo Nordisk, and Middelfart Sparekasse. The 180°academy will educate concept makers who have the ability to develop, design and execute radical business concepts. Normally innovation has been technology driven. 180°academy believes in people-driven innovation, enabling the students to understand innovation from the point of view of everyday people. Smart according to us! The acting dean is Anne Kirah (with a history as senior design anthropologist at Microsoft). It takes her one short sentence to explain why she has decided to help build the first ever international programme to educate concept makers. “I just love it when I see the twinkle in people’s eyes,†she says. tags technorati : design innovation education […]
[…] Good for Stanford, but the Europeans are a few steps ahead this time. Major companies in Denmark recently launched an entire people-driven innovation academy aimed at executives, lead by a former senior design anthropologist at Microsoft. […]