3SG551 Desing Thinking and anthropology in strategy, new course of the Department of Strategy

Since the winter semester 2016/17 the Department of Strategy offers a new course for Master students 3SG551 Design Thinking and Anthropology in Strategy. The course is taught by the guarantor doc. Ing. Lubos Smrčka, PhD., certificated in Design Thinking by the University of Virginia, and Ing. et Mgr. Tomas Ryška, Ph.D., graduate of Economics and Anthropology programmes, who has taught anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. The main partner of the course ČSOB will provide support and mentor the individual team projects in the course.

In this course you will, together with teachers, seek answers to these questions:

• How to identify frequently hidden interests of stakeholders? Why it is not enough to listen to what people say and you need to observe how they really act?
• What is an empathy and how to use it in order to reveal the needs, desires and motivations of different stakeholders in the organization?
• How to interpret these often conflicting needs and how to use them in formulating the strategy?
• How to carry out ethnographic research in a manner that allows to identify hidden needs of the opposite parties or why it is necessary to walk in the shoes of an Native American?
• How to use design thinking as a highly effective tool for strategic management?

The course is based on the principles of design thinking, ethnographic research methods and business anthropology.