Everything You Need To Know About An MBA In Design Management

By Tim DhoulUpdated March 28, 2021

This article is sponsored by EU Business School. Learn more about EU’s MBA in Design Management.

Design management is just one of 11 majors available within the EU Business School MBA program. This article explores the design management program in depth, through topics covered and the career opportunities available after graduation.

Design can be found at the center of virtually every industry today. In essence, design management is the study of design as applied to business and it is a crucial part of any company. Knowledge of design and its application offers significant advantages to managers.

Businesses know that a well-designed brand, image, service or product can become the cornerstone of their success. This is why companies understand the necessity of having a design manager to oversee their design development.

Where it all began

Design has played an increasingly important role in business since the early 20th century. However, the understanding that design is an integral part of a business’ success began to take hold in the 1980s and 1990s. Companies and their managers started to see the value of design and began to incorporate it into their traditional marketing and sales strategies. By the 21st century, design was recognized as a tool for innovation and, as such, allowed many companies to reinvent themselves and become trendsetters.

Design thinking and the design manager

A successful design manager acts as a bridge between design and business. Therefore, they must be fluent in the processes of both.

Design thinking is a critical aspect of design management and is best described as an approach to problem solving that allows managers to formulate new business models and develop strategies through innovation. Some proponents have argued that design thinking should be an essential component of management education, no matter what your career aspirations are. Due to the wider application of the design thinking approach, managers are more able to orchestrate solutions to organizational challenges.

EU Business School’s MBA in Design Management

The field’s significance in modern business led to its establishment as an MBA major at EU Business School in 2012. The program was originally created in consultation with Pierre Keller, a distinguished graphic designer from Switzerland and the former director of ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne). Today, the MBA major provides students with a strong understanding of design history and aesthetics while also teaching best practice in business and productive management.

The design management major at EU Business School is offered on the Barcelona, Geneva, Montreux and online campuses. EU offers the flexibility to study full time over one year or part time over two years. In EU’s MBA program, students tackle the core components of postgraduate management education – from organizational behavior and marketing to finance and strategic management – before delving into their MBA major.

Guest presentations from industry practitioners as well as company visits are used to demonstrate how the right approach to design can capture the public’s imagination and solidify a company’s identity. Recently, MBA in Design Management students in Barcelona visited luxury brands Hermès and Brioni to speak directly with managers about marketing, branding and production. These visits are always a favorite of EU students; as Chaima Jalili and Anna Lena Schiermeyer illustrate: “The minute we stepped into the store, we knew that we had made the right choice in pursuing the major of design management…We were grateful to tour Hermès and Brioni. An awe-inspiring experience indeed.”

Case studies are another learning resource used throughout all programs at EU. Indeed, case studies, “demonstrate the importance of design as an integral part of a company’s business strategy and competitiveness,” according to theDesign Management Institute (DMI) in Boston. DMI further explains that, “a good case study draws students directly into a problem and challenges them to analyze the situation and grapple with decisions that must be made.”

Careers in design

EU’s design management graduates often find themselves in product development or in a role that closely relates to a brand’s strategic direction such as advertising, marketing or brand strategy. But the options don’t end there. Depending on their backgrounds, a design manager or specialist can also be found working in the areas of packaging and design development, operations or research and development. These possibilities span nearly all industries, opening the door for graduates of this MBA major to enjoy careers in everything from healthcare to sports.

Designing the next generation of business leaders. As the world of business continues to evolve and accelerate, managers need a strategic mindset and design toolset to tackle complex challenges, navigate uncertainty and manage change.

The next generation of managers are leaders equipped to connect with users, make strategic decisions, and incentivize creativity and opportunities for innovation. These leaders are designed for the 21st century organization. Business Design is a way of thinking and working that applies human-centred design to improving or transforming business activities. It draws upon social science, design and strategy to create business value – from innovative new products, services and processes, to creative strategies and models. It involves developing a mindset to find, frame and ultimately solve business problems.

The Business Design major offers a diverse set of coursework to build competencies required for innovation-seeking firms. Business designers are corporate innovators — they translate needs into insights, connect concepts across functional departments, and frame solutions into viable business innovations.

Business design is Rotman’s distinctive innovation methodology for finding, framing and solving business problems. Rotman students gain the knowledge, skills and tools needed to navigate, drive and manage the innovation process of new products, services and platforms, and discover new opportunities for growth, creativity and sustainability.

“Great leaders aspire to manage ‘by design’, with a sense of purpose and foresight. Lessons learned from the world of design, when applied to management, can turn leaders into collaborative, creative, deliberate, and accountable visionaries.”

-Moura Quayle, author of Designed Leadership Columbia Business School Publishing.

About the Business Design Major

Students will learn how to find needs/define problems, frame and reframe problems, and solve real world business problems. The classroom experience combines lectures, studio/hands-on learning, online toolkits, and experiential live-case learning. Required courses provide foundational knowledge of the business innovation process and design methods to collect data, inform insights, and prototype ideas into innovations.

Requirements to Complete the Major

Effective January 2021, you must successfully complete three of the following core courses, which must include Business Design Fundamentals or Business Design Practicum

Core Courses

Business Design Fundamentals
Business Design Practicum
Creativity for Business Innovation OR Global Practicum: Design-Led Innovation
Design Research and Data Storytelling OR Service Design: Innovating Service-Based Organizations OR Futures Thinking: Developing Business Foresight

It is also highly recommended that students in this major choose at least one other course from the following selection:

If interested in Strategy Roles: Corporate Strategy OR Strategic Change & Implementation OR The Opposable Mind OR Strategic Networks OR Corporation 360
If interested in HR/HCC Roles: Aligning People & Strategy OR Organizational Design
If interested in Marketing Roles: Consumer Behavior OR Marketing Research OR Marketing & Behavioural Economics
If interested Operations-related Roles: Operations Management Strategy OR Service Operations Management
If interested in Not-for-Profits: Leading Social Innovation OR Not-for-Profit Consulting
If interested in Healthcare: Service Design: Innovating Service-Based Organizations OR Health Sector Strategy and Organization

Upon successful completion of these courses, you may request the Registrar’s Office for a letter of completion, certifying your Rotman Business Design major.

Activities outside of class

Workshops (Highly Recommended)

As offered by the Business Design Initiative (BDI)

Clubs

Rotman Business Design Club

Case Competitions

Rotman Design Challenge
Kellogg Design Challenge

Other Opportunities

Independent Study Projects (ISPs)
Internships
Business Design Initiative Research Assistants

Career Paths

The topics covered in this major are critical in helping students develop their business design and innovation skills. These can be applied to any innovation and business transformation related role that can benefit from a greater consumer / human understanding and the ability to create new growth opportunities in marketing, new product development, management, consulting and entrepreneurship.

Business design roles are not found through the usual channels of career building and discovery – they have to be sought out or created. Roles for BD MBA majors span: service designer, customer experience manager, strategist, business analyst, innovation or new product manager, marketing manager, customer research manager, operations director, etc.

Companies that have recruited at Rotman:
A selection of companies where Rotman MBA graduates have worked in recent years:

Where can I get a job as a business designer?
Companies may offer specific roles as a business design specialist, however, you are more likely to find roles that incorporate aspects of the methodology in your day-to-day responsibilities. Some examples of jobs our grads have gone on to include:

Business designer, Openbox Innovation Agency, NYC
Customer experience designer, CIBC
Associate brand manager, Nike
Innovation catalyst, Fidelity Investments
Senior manager – Commercial Auto, TD Bank
Innovation project manager, The Hospital for Sick Children
Senior consultant, Monitor Deloitte

The alumni perspective

Each year our graduating students have gone on to work for top-tier innovative companies. Here’s what they have to say about business design at Rotman:

College Learners

business design mba