I began work on two new projects simultaneously -... Read>> Posted October 21, 2009
Oh the vagaries of life! The image above is a couple of beautiful brandy snaps that my wife cranked out... Read>> Posted October 14, 2009
DARDEN CREATES NEW INNOVATION LAB Or: How Jeanne thinks status quo thinking isn't working Over the past couple of years I have gone through a bit of a "crucible experience". Buckling down to learn the dark arts of high finance and low variance distribution sets, I discovered that, in spite of the steep learning curve for an art major entering a top B-School program, all types of learning share a similar need for creativity. Once one understands a problem (whether one is struggling with how to represent with watercolors the infinite gradient of a glowing Baja sunset, or the near-infinite noise of the stock markets in a derivative pricing model) one becomes free to step back and utilize tools that come from outside the target discipline.
Jeanne Liedtka and the other fine folks at Darden's Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship seem to have come to a similar conclusion - albeit from a completely other angle. Their theory is that B-School students, once they have cleared a certain threshold, will derive great benefit from bringing in tools from fine art, auto body, chemistry, and other disciplines into the world of business.
Jeanne has been instrumental in pushing forward an idea for creating a special type of course - the "B-School Lab" - and I saw firsthand how powerful this idea is when I took her two-quarter class - Corporate Design and Business Innovation.
A few weeks ago I was invited to come check out the newest lab before it was opened to the public and give my thoughts on camera. You can mock my performance on camera here.
Perhaps more interestingly, you can use the new image viewer above to scroll through a few pictures I quickly snapped off before I left. I hope they give a sense (even though the lab is still mostly empty) of how fun this class is going to be and encourage you to believe that at least one B-school is taking an active role in cross-disciplinary learning.
