Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55957
Design Plans In spring 2010, the Case Western Reserve Universi- ty's Weatherhead School of Management and the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) collaborated to hold the first annual "Turning Designs into Business" competition. Six teams of industrial design and MBA students collaborated on business plans inspired by product concepts displayed at the CIA Spring Design Show. The show featured the work of more than 100 industrial, interior, and communication design students, including their renderings and prototypes for new products in areas such as furniture, home goods, electronics, and automobiles. Each team chose a prototype that its members thought had special potential and wrote business plans to bring it to market. The idea for the competition came when One team created this concept for Olive, a printer made of 100 percent recycled and recyclable materials. It received an honorable mention in the competition. printer made of recyclable materials, received honor- able mentions. Ivy, an accessory for portable hospital I.V.s that provides patients with a place to put personal belongings, took first place at the "Turning Designs into Business" competition. Weatherhead's Fred Col- lopy visited CIA's Spring Design Show in 2009 with several MBA students. The students were particu- larly intrigued by a CIA student's design for a dif- ferent kind of hair dryer. A traditional dryer is shaped like a gun, but this design fit into the palm of the user's hand and operated in more of a "caressing" motion, Collopy says. The MBA students began speculating about what it would take to turn that product into a profit- able venture. Collopy and his colleagues at Weather- head worked with the CIA to turn that conversation into the "Turning Designs into Business" competition. First-place winners included MBA students Tim Anderson and Maura Slat- er and CIA student Sam Cahill. They won $3,000 to develop their business plan for Ivy, a portable hospital I.V. accessory that provides patients with a charging station for mobile devices and a base to hold belongings. Judges noted that the patient-focused product highlighted the need for health providers to "move beyond science and take a more holistic approach to wellness." Coming in second place was a plan for Daypack, a stylish compre- hensive baby care kit for mothers. The plans for Safecue, a ski rescue device, and Olive, a Dan Cuffaro, chair of design at CIA, says that the competition encour- ages business students to see problems through the design students' eyes— and vice versa. "Over the years it has been a challenge to get the design culture at CIA to mix with the business culture at Case," says Cuf- faro. "There is a fear of saying or doing the wrong thing in the presence of unfamiliar people." He sees the competition as a way to push students out of these patterns and expose them to unfamil- iar terminology, thought processes, and ideas. Experiences like the "Turning Designs" competi- tion help business students adopt more innovative approaches, agrees Col- lopy. He adds that by working with—and often like—designers, these future leaders might bring new ideas to market that other- wise would not be realized. To see prototypes and read more about each team's proposal, visit weatherhead.case.edu/ about/events/Spring DesignShow/. 44 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010