Design Thinking for Strategy: Innovating Towards Competitive Advantage

The business environment is changing more rapidly than ever before, and new business ideas are emerging. This book discusses applying insights from design thinking to craft novel strategies that satisfy customer needs, make use of the available capabilities, integrate requirements for financial success and provide competitive advantage.

It guides readers through the jungle encountered when developing a strategy for sustained growth and profitability. It addresses strategy design in a holistic way by applying abductive reasoning, iteratively observing customers and focusing on empathy, as well as prototyping ideas and using customers to validate them.

Uniquely applying insights from design thinking to strategy, this book is a must-read for graduates, MBAs and executives interested in innovation and strategy, as well as corporate strategists, innovation managers, business analysts and consultants.

Dr. Claude Diderich is an innovation, strategy, and digital transformation consultant specialized in design thinking-based business model innovation at the consulting company innovate.d, which he founded in 2011. He has over 20 years of experience in strategy development and business model innovation, with special focus on design thinking. His expertise spans from creating innovative strategies, modernizing business models, launching new products, managing product portfolios, developing target operating models, as well as implementing novel technologies. Claude has worked with diverse firms and advised them on improving their profitability through creativity and innovation in the digital age.

Claude holds a doctor ès sciences and a master in computer science engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, a certificate of advanced studies in strategy from the University of St. Gallen, and a specialization certificate in design thinking and innovation from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He is a member of the Strategic Management Society and a member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Business Models. Since 2015, he is a senior mentor to University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business online design thinking program.