March 28, 2014
We say we practice human-centered design at IDEO, but what does that really mean? Our friends at +Acumen and IDEO.org have designed a free online course to answer that question. Open to anyone anywhere in the world—no prior design experience needed— the class is called “Human-Centered Design for Soc...
February 5, 2013
I recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The overall sentiment there was one of cautious optimism. While there is a long list of major problems to be tackled, the immediate prospects for the global economy seem reasonably good and there is a sense that most economies ...
October 16, 2012
I recently moderated a fascinating session at the World Economic Forum 'Summer Davos' in Tianjin, China. Two network scientists, Cesar Hidalgo of MIT and Albert-Laszlo Barabasi of Harvard, discussed the underlying science of how networks operate and how this knowledge might be applied to business an...
June 5, 2011
This seems an appropriate title under which to resume my commentary on design and design thinking. I do indeed apologize for the lack of posts over the last three months but this is not the primary reason for the choice of title. I just returned from a visit to Tokyo, a place I have visited more th...
January 25, 2010
I am spending the next day and a half in Munich before heading up to Davos for the annual WEF annual meeting. There is a great event that happens here every year called DLD (Digital Life Day) put on by Burda Media. You can think of it as a mini TED but with many more Europeans. The content is eclect...
August 17, 2009
On my way from Chicago O'Hare airport to our office in Evanston today I saw powerful evidence of the state of the auto industry in this part of the world. As we drove along Dempster Street we passed a large auto dealer for Chevrolet and Toyota. The forecourt looked pretty deserted and there were rel...
August 16, 2009
The BBC excitedly reported today that Japan has experienced economic growth for the last quarter. It seems as though much is being bet on Asia lifting us out of a global recession. But an important comment came from the Chinese government which has declared that future growth will have to come from ...