High-profile business leaders in organizations around the world now use approaches and methods from the design world to drive breakthrough innovation and growth.

How can you translate design thinking into doing in a way that will lead to bigger breakthroughs and business strategies for success?

Design Works is the playbook for putting Business Design – a discipline that integrates design methods and mindsets into strategic planning and innovation practices -  into action across the enterprise.  Heather Fraser provides tools and tips, compelling case studies and inspiring interviews with business leaders who have used design principles and practices to tackle their enterprise challenges and map out new opportunities for growth.

Through the practice of the 3 Gears of Business Design,  Design Works shows you how to harness your team’s collective ingenuity and unlock fresh insights, create bigger ideas faster, and translate big ideas into clear action-based strategies that will accelerate progress toward a renewed vision for your organization.

Based on seven years of research and application at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Business Design has proven to be a learnable, scalable innovation discipline that can transform the way enterprise teams rise to a challenge and shape future-forward strategies, bringing a valuable balance to conventional planning and development.

Dr. Heather Fraser is a senior lecturer in social work at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Her teaching and research focus on violence and abuse, critical social work, advocacy, and social action.

Heather Fraser's profile page

Many business books claim to offer practical solutions, this one really does.

Developing Leaders Issue 9: 2012