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New York's Parsons School of Design Thinks It Can Teach Business Folk A Thing Or Two!

The first intake of Parsons' new MS in Strategic Design and Management will start in Fall 2012

By  Ifeatu Nnaobi

Fri Mar 2 2012

BusinessBecause
New York's prestigious Parsons School of Design has launched a graduate degree that aims to teach business people to apply the thought processes of a designer to all kinds of decision-making.

Business may seem out-of-place on the curriculum of an institution that is famed for its Fashion and Fine Art programs, and has spawned the likes of Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford.

However Jonatan Jelen, the Director of the new MS in Strategic Design and Management is convinced that the world of design has a lot to teach business peope in the creative and desigb industries, but business people anywhere.

"We want to leverage the experiences and approaches of a designer to tackle such areas as organizational design and the design of business models," he said.

Jelen described the program as, "Less a pitting of a 'D-school' (design school) against a 'B-School,' but a fusion paradigm, where design becomes a natural extension of strategic thinking."

The MS leverages the thought processes of a designer, such as the visualization of ideas and the prototyping and the critiquing of design solutions, with business strategy and management, said Jelen.

A set of six courses will be delivered online, "Mediated with the very technologies that we think are impacting the business world," said Jelen.

Studio courses will take place on three intense weekends throughout the two spring semesters in New York City to develop design-based solutions for real-world case studies. "The blend of online and on-campus courses will enable us to tap into some of the best faculty around the world, as well as the top design firms and consultancies here in New York," he adds.

The program will include electives such as: Strategic Design and Management in New Economies, Designing and Implementing Sustainable Business Models, and Managing High Performance Creative Project Teams.

Students will have access to Parsons' media- and creative industry-focused career fairs, which have recently attracted companies such as MTV and Conde Nast, IDEO and Wolff Olins.

 While traditional business and management programs focus on educating decision-makers and risk-takers to more skillfully execute and exploit perceived opportunities, we want to develop game-changers capable of generating those very opportunities in their own right.

Jonatan Jelen is calling this “A chance to develop game-changers capable of generating opportunities," as well as skillfully exploiting opportunities.

Parsons wants highly motivated students with a business or design background who seek to incorporate design thinking and design methods into their next job, career opportunity, or entrepreneurial venture.

Admissions for the two-year program will be rolling through 1st July, depending on available space in the program and students will pay a per credit tuition rate, which for the 2011-2012 academic calendar year is US$1390 per credit.

During the first year students will complete 18 credits for the year, or roughly $25,000 USD tuition for one academic year.

The tuition for the 2012-2013 academic year will be released in the early spring but students will be considered for merit awards, pending availability at the time they apply.

This program follows hot on the heels of other programs that seek to apply learnings from the creative process to business, such as the IE Brown Executive MBA, which integrates management studies with the liberal arts.

Visit the Parsons admissions website for more information.

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