In the early hours of Tuesday morning, 24 March 2009, twenty-three academics from Northern Ireland’s college and university community boarded a plane for Milan, heading off on a whistle-stop “Design Driven Innovation” study visit to Italy. Facilitated by Adrian Gundy, President of PDMA UK/Ireland and Paolo Zanenga, President of PDMA Mediterranean, the short visit was designed to experience at close quarters the role that ‘design’ has in innovation.
The group made their way to Boveno and Stresa, on the beautiful shores of Lake Maggiore, and were rewarded with an afternoon and evening in a most beautiful part of Italy. The next morning to work at ISTUD [http://www.istud.it/] the first independent business school in Italy, originally set up in partnership with Harvard. A series of presentations were made and discussions led on the role that design plays in product and service innovation, with particular reference to business model innovation. Discussions are well advance for integrating the NPDP Certification within the school’s curriculum.
Then it was on the coach and a 90-minute journey to Milan, where people had time to enjoy this wonderful city. A visit to the Last supper painting of course was a must for everyone – a most intriguing experience. The next day saw a visit to Domus Academy [http://www.domusacademy.com/] that was born in Milan in 1982 as an open project around the Italian design and fashion experience. It has developed an international reputation for its constant attention to borderline themes, from humanization of technology to exploring the relationship between design and fashion, from reflection on the sociology of design-to-design management and to design of services.
The last official visit was that to the Bovisa campus of the Polytechnic di Milano,
[http://www.orientamento.polimi.it/sedi/mi_durando/mi_durando.php] the most important engineering and design school in Italy, including business management. The vast array of labs, virtual prototyping, and 3D design facilities to integrate design into engineering was most interesting and impressive.
The whole tour was short and packed with things to do, people to meet and places to go. Many interesting ideas were put forward and the conclusion that design has an as yet untapped contribution to make in product and service innovation, business model innovation and much more. In fact, it’s at the fringes or interfaces of where different disciplines meet that creative friction causes a flow of new ideas, challenges and opportunities. These new innovation opportunities may well be found in the collaboration of the Arts and Literature with Science and Engineering; or in the joining together of Business and the Community; Government and the Citizen. The potential of collaborative working is simply awesome!
Dr Adrian Gundy CforC Senior Executive Innovation; PDMA President UK & Ireland
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