Academic Catalog 2023-2024

Design Management (DM)

DM-621  Strategic Marketing  - (2 Credits)  

Design plays a critical role in creating sustainable creative advantage. This course examines the role of strategic design intelligence in the marketing process. Current theories and practices of marketing are covered, including market research, pricing, advertising and merchandising policies, distribution and responsible package design.

DM-622  Advertising and Promotion  - (2 Credits)  

This course examines approaches to developing, evaluating, and managing responsible and effective advertising and promotion strategies. The course structure follows that of an advertising campaign focusing on planning and targeting of promotions, media selection, and plan implementation.

DM-623  Building Entrepreneurial Courage  - (2 Credits)  

In order to effectively bring creative professional services to market, leaders must evidence entrepreneurship, creativity, and managerial skill. The course confronts the challenge of organizing \"creatives\", building entrepreneurial courage, and developing systems that encourage collaboration across boundaries. It provides an opportunity to integrate and apply learning and to refine professional development agendas.

DM-631  Leadership Behavioral Simulation  - (1 Credit)  

The program begins with an intensive team-building experience. Participants run a multinational company for two days, learning about one another and practicing leadership and team development. The simulation is a practice field, an opportunity for participants to build relationships that will help them work together and sharpen their awareness of personal strengths and development needs. Each participant is coached to create a professional development plan to guide them through the two-year program.

DM-632  Leadership and Team Building  - (2 Credits)  

In combination with the simulation practice field, this course prepares participants to work together as a team throughout the program. Coursework explores the theory and practice of leadership and the challenge of teambuilding in design organizations. Each participant is coached - using a variety of profiles - to deepen understanding of the impact of leadership style on a team. Professional development plans are refined. The goal of the course is to prepare self-aware leaders for the challenge of managing in the 21st century - leaders who can use design intelligence to help shape the future of their organizations and our world.

DM-633  Managing Innovation and Change  - (2 Credits)  

To maintain or achieve higher-order market advantage, organizations must invest in innovation in product, process and people. An emerging solutions economy and resource productivity revolution requires that businesses adopt sustainable practices and abandon wasteful and environmentally-damaging processes and products. Design managers will need to lead change and develop skills to move new ideas through organizations. This course helps design managers develop the skills needed to usher new ideas through organization.

DM-634  Negotiating  - (1 Credit)  

A second, intensive mini-module designed to develop negotiation and dispute resolution skills through a mix of lecture and role-playing exercises.

DM-641  International Environment of Business  - (2 Credits)  

Design managers need to learn to effectively operate in an increasingly international context of competition, cooperation, and public concern. Globalization of products, customers, suppliers, distributors, regulators, and \"watchdog\" agencies is a trend that will only intensify. This course examines that global context and helps prepare design managers for the changes and challenges ahead.

DM-642  Business Law  - (2 Credits)  

This course looks at the law as it impacts design managers. It examines the problems of negligence and the crafting of contracts and warranties. It provides design managers with a framework for dealing with a wide range of design-related legal problems in a national and global context. The course enables design managers to anticipate the practical and legal concerns that they will encounter and prepares them to address them in an ethical and socially responsible way.

DM-643  Intellectual Property Law  - (1 Credit)  

Knowledge of Intellectual Property Law is an integral part of design management. Trademarks and trade dress, utility patents and design patents and copyright law are reviewed, with emphasis on protection and litigation against infringement.

DM-644  Design Futures: Theory and Practice  - (2 Credits)  

This course focuses on the future and on the role of design and design leaders in shaping that future. It highlights the extraordinary power of design informed by Strategic Design Intelligence (SDI) and Sustainable Creative Advantage (SCA) to transform. It explores how companies are using these principles to add value and create advantage, and it looks at those who are on the cutting edge. Program participants are encouraged to build on this class for their capstone and use it to identify the design leaders who are creating the future across a variety of design disciplines.

DM-651  Management Communications  - (2 Credits)  

Effective communication is a vital leadership tool. This course enables participants to develop and refine skills in professional writing, speaking and presentation. It will also explain the requirements for completion of the Design Management Program final capstone requirement (DM-674). Instructors provide guidance and examples to enable participants to ready the proposals, cases, or research projects necessary for this graduation requirement. Course instructors act as ongoing advisors, continuing to work with participant teams through the courses in Directed Research and Capstone Planning (DM-656 and DM-673).

DM-652  Design Management  - (2 Credits)  

Design Management is a discipline that maximizes the contribution of Strategic Design Intelligence (SDI) and Sustainable Creative Advantage (SCA). These concepts will be introduced and explored as the core contribution of the design leader in the organization. Design management links design and related business activities into a creative and coordinated strategy for creating value and sustainable advantage for the firm.

DM-653  Design Operations Management  - (2 Credits)  

This class focuses on creating and managing efficient processes that link design to business operations and enable cost-effective implementation of strategic initiatives. Participants explore tools, techniques, and best practices of design as well as other businesses.

DM-654  Strategic Technology: Issues and Challenges  - (2 Credits)  

Technology is no longer a support to design businesses; it is now a tool to create critical strategic advantage. Design managers need to use technology strategically to create and share information critical to the success of the business with others inside and outside of the organization. This course provides an overview of strategic technology issues and challenges faced by design managers.

DM-655  New Product Management and Development  - (2 Credits)  

This course examines the methodology for bringing new products to market. The complete picture of product innovation for goods and services is explored, from original strategy through launch control.

DM-656  Directed Research Advisement  - (1 Credit)  

This course continues the work to prepare participant teams to complete the Shaping the 21st Century: The Design Management Agenda capstone requirement for graduation. Emphasis is on refining methods for gathering and analyzing information for the preparation of a case study, proposal or research project.

DM-661  Financial Reporting & Analysis  - (2 Credits)  

Design leaders are required to understand the way business tracks and measures financial performance. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are introduced together with the preparation and analysis of financial statements.

DM-662  Money and Markets  - (2 Credits)  

This course provides an overview of macroeconomic concepts relevant to understanding the cost and use of capital in a business and the importance of managing return on investment and investor expectations.

DM-663  Financing Companies and New Ventures  - (2 Credits)  

This course explores strategies for funding new ventures and for financing economic growth. It provides a framework for risk analysis and for examining the potential return on a new venture.

DM-671  Managerial Decision Making  - (1 Credit)  

This course provides a tool box of techniques - such as decision trees, basic game theory, and break-even analysis - to help managers evaluate alternatives and make informed decisions.

DM-672  Business Strategy  - (2 Credits)  

The course examines the art and science of strategic management and business planning. It also explores the formulation, communication, and implementation of both corporate and business-level strategy.

DM-673  Capstone Planning: Advisement  - (1 Credit)  

This course continues the work to complete the 21st Century Design Agenda capstone requirement for graduation. Emphasis is on developing research reports and cases for presentation and publication in journals or on websites or at major conferences or in action learning projects which apply design management principles.

DM-674  Shaping the 21st Century:Integrative Capstone-Discover and Define  - (1 Credit)  

Shaping the 21st Century: Design Integrative Capstone - Discover and Define is the first course of a two-part capstone sequence and serves as the culminating experience in Design Management.

DM-675  Shaping the 21st Century: Integrative Capstone-Design and Deliver  - (1 Credit)  

Shaping the 21st Century: Design Integrative Capstone - Design and Deliver is the second course of a two-part capstone sequence and serves as the culminating experience in Design Management.

DM-9400  Design Management Internship  - (0 Credits)  

The internship is a learning experience at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.

DM-9401  Design Management Internship Integrative Capstone  - (1 Credit)  

The internship is a learning experience at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.