The document describes a corporate innovation and design course at Darden School of Business where student teams work on "live" innovation projects provided by corporate partners. The course runs from mid-January to early May, with students applying design thinking and tools to current business challenges. Projects focus on exploring new opportunities to create customer value or improving internal processes, with students developing insights and prototyping concepts. The document invites companies to collaborate and provides details on the course and benefits of partnering with Darden faculty and students.

1. Darden Innovation Projects
INTERESTED IN
WORKING WITH
MY STUDENTS?
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience course
Professor Jeanne Liedtka

2. At Darden we believe that successful leadership requires a fundamental understanding of
innovation and a capacity for innovative thinking. In that spirit we have created the
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience, a team‐based, interdisciplinary course in
which student teams wrestle with “live” innovation projects provided by selected corporate
partners. We are currently soliciting participation in this program, and we invite you to
consider collaborating with our faculty and students.
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience course
Professor Jeanne Liedtka

3. About the Course
The Corporate Innovation and Design Experience explores
how design thinking and innovation principles can enhance the
value and accelerate the development of business
opportunities that deliver organic growth. Working closely with
client companies, students apply design methodologies and
innovation tools to a current business project.
Start: mid-January, 2014
Final Report: early May
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience course
Professor Jeanne Liedtka

4. About the Projects
This course targets problems that call for innovation with a user-driven
focus. These can explore external opportunities that create new value
for customers or can focus on internal process improvements with
internal stakeholders as clients. Working in a client opportunity, the
students employ ethnography, develop deep market/user insights, and
create concepts. At the end of the program, each team presents a set
of prototyped concepts.
Parameters for the projects include:
– Teams comprised of 4‐6, second‐year MBA students.
– Projects overseen by Darden faculty and assisted by a
corporate project champion.
– Interviews and site visits conducted by students.*
– Maximum of six client companies per semester
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience course
Professor Jeanne Liedtka

5. Why you should team up with us:
 Application of leading innovation and design techniques to your
challenges.
 Dedicated teams of selected MBA students committed to providing
actionable insights.
 Access to Darden faculty experts and the Batten Institute’s
resources.
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience course
Professor Jeanne Liedtka

6. About Me
Corporate Innovation and Design Experience course
Jeanne Liedtka
Jeanne Liedtka is a member of the Strategy, Ethics, and
Entrepreneurship area at the University of Virginia’s Darden School
of Business, where she has taught since 1989. Formerly the
executive director of the school’s Batten Institute, a foundation
established to develop thought leadership in the fields of
entrepreneurship and innovation, Jeanne has also served as chief
learning officer for the United Technologies Corporation (UTC),
headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, and as the associate dean
of the MBA program at Darden. Jeanne’s current teaching
responsibilities focus on design thinking, innovation, and organic
growth in Darden’s MBA and Executive Education programs.
Jeanne’s current research explores how design thinking can be used to enrich our ability to
create inclusive strategic conversations about organizational futures. Jeanne received her
DBA in Management Policy from Boston University and her MBA from the Harvard Business
School. She has been involved in the corporate strategy field since beginning her career as
a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.
Please fill the form below to submit your project
www.jeanneliedtka.com