Designers are optimists, at heart. We look toward the future and everything we do is aimed at making an improvement in some way: in someone's life, in a process, in a product, in the world, etc. Unfortunately, we aren't always successful. What we create may miss the mark but, more often, we're not able to convince others of our vision, whether it's our clients or our peers within a company. Designers are often naive about the way businesses and other organizations work and get frustrated when others don’t see what we do.

In conversations with the program's advisors and faculty, the question inevitably comes-up "How is this program different from all of the other MBA programs out there?"

The short answer is that we're building a unique program with a focus on design and innovation principles core to every class. In addition, sustainable business is a focus of the program since it represents the future of business, both for-profit and non-profit (more on that later).

Why should designers need to understand Accounting?

Accounting is a worrisome topic for designers. We believe that there are benefits that can't easily be reduced to numbers. These include emotions, values, meaning, brand, experience, and loyalty. We suspect that what gets measured in a company, gets attended to and valued, which is probably accurate in most organizations. Many benefits, especially in the customer side, aren't very easy to reduce and measure as numbers so most of these aren't regarded in the same light as financial performance.

Accounting is a Design Tool

In talking with Ann Morhauser (one of our advisors) several months ago, she articulated something I've been trying to put into words for awhile. In relating her personal journey from artist to businesswoman, she explained how she came to realize that "accounting is a design tool!" By this, she means that accounting is the tool with which you design your business and measure its performance. It's the visible measure of the affects your choices, tweaks, and actions have on your company.