> MSc IBMD 2008-09

MSc In International Business and Management for Design 2008-9 : A year in the life of the Masters

October 2008

23 students with 11 different nationalities enrolled on the Master of Science, International Business and Management for Design. The programme was launched at St Tropez with a speech by Kathryn best, author of the best selling book: Design Management.

November 2008

In November, two students from the Masters, Mike Pinder and Salin Samakpong, represented Euromed Management Toulon in the annual PARK Design Management project in Germany. Below is an example of their work.

The PARK European Scout Network (http://www.park.bz/people/scouts/workshop/Tchibo/) consists of 10-20 master students from leading design management programs in 8 European countries. The ESN scouts support PARK in conducting design management and research projects. It was founded in 2004 and is led and powered by PARK. The ESN scouts are from design management programs at the following leading universities:

Domus Academy Milan (IT)

Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology (NL)

Industrial Design, Bergische Universität Wuppertal (DE)

University of Art and Design Helsinki (FI)

Ecole Internationale de Design (FR)

School of Art & Design, University of Salford (UK)

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (CH)

Istituto Europeo di Design, Barcelona (ES)

In November 2008, the scouts participated in a PARK ESN workshop for the German company Tchibo.

During the workshop, the scouts tackled a challenge presented by Tchibo – a German coffee shop/cafe chain that is well known for changing its product range each week. The main goal of this ESN year is to research the usage and buying behaviour of the elderly and to discuss potential product corridors for Tchibo related to this target group.

In order to gain deep insights into the target group (the elderly) and to repare for the development of relevant business and design concepts, we asked the scouts to conduct in-depth interviews with elderly persons in their local environment. These insights were used as a starting point for the ESN workshop and were presented and discussed during the first day. During the workshop the scouts met innovation and product managers of Tchibo to present and ask Tchibo-related questions, and to discuss the scouts’ insights and potential solutions. During the workshop the scouts had the opportunity to take a guided tour through Tchibo headquarters and a Tchibo store. Tchibo product managers were available during the workshop to answer the scouts’ questions.

The first phase of the three-day workshop was all about understanding: understanding the needs, values and context of the target group, and understanding Tchibo and its business context. The scouts presented to each other the key outcomes of their target group research in order to share their collected research knowledge. In their first assignment the scouts developed target group personas based upon the field research (interviews & observations). These personas were used in a second step towards understanding the context of the target consumer by developing ‘day in the life of’ scenarios. Personas and scenarios helped the scouts to define areas of unmet needs of the target group, to describe key observations of their research, and to elaborate tensions with the Tchibo brand or contradictions in their behaviour.

The second phase was about developing themes and concepts for the target group. After analysing market gaps by defining the areas of unmet needs, the scouts were asked to translate their findings into business and design concepts for weekly themes. The themes were further developed into elderly specific concepts. The scouts presented the whole workshop process and their final concepts to seven product and marketing managers of Tchibo.

After an enthusiastic presentation the scouts started the third phase, in which they translated their business and design concepts into inspirational paths for innovation, which included the briefing of marketing and design as well as suggestions how best to launch this project within Tchibo.

December 2008

Aly Rhodes was nominated for the best dissertation prize having achieved a grade of 83% for her work entitled ‘Design for Life Can visual communications change the world? finding a humanitarian position for graphic design’. The students from the promo 2007-2008 graduated from the MSc in Toulon and were congratulated, by the external examiner, for their high standard of work which achieved the highest grades within the School of Art and Design, at the University of Salford.

January 2009

The Toulon IBMD students spent a week with the Manchester students on the same course. A series of guest lecturers came from New Zealand, Holland and the UK to discuss the international design industry. It was a hard working week but a lot of fun as well.

April 2009

http://www.design2business.org/

Aly Rhodes, graduate of MSc IBMD had an academic paper accepted for the D2B2 conference held in April in Beijing, China. Hilary Collins, programme director also had four papers accepted for this conference.

D2B2 - Tsinghua International Design Management Symposium: Beijing 2009 provided an opportunity for international delegates from business, academic and public organizations to find inspiration and answers to multi-faceted and complex questions facing the design and management community through extended, in-depth discussions at seminars and interaction in workshops. The central theme "Innovation, Design, Management" was supported by several key sub-themes within the conference that discussed:
Design for Service and Manufacture
Design as a Source of Strategy, and Innovation, and Brand Building
New Paradigms in Design Management: The Changing Faces Of Supply And Demand

May 2009

The MSc IBMD students held their own min-conference where they presented research proposals for topics as diverse as motivation created by workplace design and sustainability in events management.

Also in May the students presented their business plans for setting up a business with ‘design as a driver’. As a result of this four of the students are now investigating the viability of setting up this business for themselves.

In addition as a direct results of working on a live hotel development project in the module Design Project Management with Stephan Remy, lecturer in EID, the participating students have been approached by the organisation and offered an entrepreneurial opportunity to set up this company. So far eight students are interested in taking this on!

June 2009

Exam board time comes around again and this years promo once again managed to get the highest results in the School of Art and Design, University of Salford. The students have now progressed to Master 2 level and are starting to work on their dissertations over the summer.

In order to prepare for the long hot summer and before many of the international students left to take on internships in London, India, Paris, Manchester, and even here in the school in Toulon, we all had a barbeque to celebrate the end of a long hard working and enjoyable year!

July 2009

Hilary Collins, programme director, submitted text book, ‘Research Methods for the Creative industries’ for publication by AVA. This book also has examples of work from the students of IBMD who have contributed images, diagrams and case studies from their course work.

At least one profile: Rachael Fensom undertook a 9 months Erasmus Study Placement at EID, as you can see from the following http://www.salford.ac.uk/international/students/profile/?p=400