CMIT IBD - Integrated Business Design* (2nd. quarter)

Faculty
Prof. Petra Schubert and Prof. Susan Williams

Course Coordinator
Prof. Petra Schubert

The course will be taught in English. General classes on business strategy, management accounting, organisation and marketing should have been attended at the Bachelor level.

In times of economic crisis and increasing competition companies need managers who are able to design and develop innovative and sustainable business concepts. This course focuses on the methods and tools for developing and representing new business designs and information systems (IS)-enabled business innovations. It aims to provide graduates with the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully operate in complex and evolving business environments. It brings together different business areas such as strategy, innovation and information & technology management and provides a critical and practical introduction to the theories, models, frameworks, tools and techniques for designing sustainable business initiatives.

Whereas other courses focus on specific areas of business administration this course takes an integrative approach by selecting theories, models, concepts and techniques from different areas and combining them into a new toolset for business managers.

The purpose of the course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of methods for professional practice (design methods). A special focus is put on process design as well as product & service design. The course takes an integrated view of business design, where “integrated” refers to cross company and cross discipline.

Most university graduates strive for leading positions in companies where they need to be able to identify and develop innovative concepts. The course will enable participants to design innovative business concepts / business cases for a given company. The course draws from a range of areas including strategy, planning, product design, internal value generation and organisation. Specifically, students will critically evaluate and apply appropriate methods and tools for representing and communicating innovative business designs and concepts. We investigate how these activities can be integrated and how the various theories, methodologies, tools and techniques assist in developing innovative business models and supporting business processes. The course emphasises a shift of focus from business administration to business agility and the design of sustainable business products and services.

Key curriculum areas include:

Ideation, innovation and planning – creative thinking to identify business opportunities and preparing business cases and design briefs for new products, processes and services

Information Systems enabled process innovation – undertaking business process analysis and design activities to develop integrated business solutions.

Benefits realization – identifying and managing benefits arising from new business products, processes and services.

Supporting tools and techniques – critical analysis of the range and scope of tools to support the above activities.

Teaching method:

The course is designed around a model of experiential and collaborative learning. The students will critique, experiment with and evaluate the discussed concepts, methods and techniques in mini workshops and apply them in their mini projects. Participants will be put in the role of innovative business managers working on an IS-enabled business innovation and will identify challenges, prepare alternative designs and create feasible solutions in class. The project will be based on weekly design activities building into a design project/design portfolio and a critical reflective review.

The course is directed towards students interested in the development of innovative and sustainable business concepts. It provides participants with the necessary skills for creative business design. The lessons provide the student with the necessary theoretical concepts and the workshops give them an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the use of the concepts.

This is a newly developed course offered for the first time at CBS. Prof. Williams and Prof. Schubert will jointly teach the course contents. Prof. Williams is a native English speaker with extensive experience in information management and information systems teaching in the UK, Portugal and Australia. Prof. Schubert has been teaching information systems and management courses at European Universities for more than 10 years.

The course consists of theoretical and applied parts. In the theoretical part we will review and critique a range of theories, concepts, models, frameworks and techniques. In the applied part we will use the theories, tools and techniques to develop innovative business concepts. In both parts, students take the role of managers and design team members. They learn to creatively design business models and business processes – an ability that will later be expected in leading management positions.

After taking the course, students will be able to:

Oral exam on the basis of a mini project. Project performed in group; exam is individual.