MI-0102 New Paradigms in Business

January - February - 2017.

Instructor: Prof. Douglas Stone
Level: Graduate
Location: CEDIM Campus, Mxico City
Term: January 13,14,& 15 February 10, 11, & 12

NEW PARADIGMS IN BUSINESS COURSE SYLLABUS

Instructor: Douglas Stone
Term: Jan/Feb 2017.
Phone: 773-454-6023
Email Dougstone@gmail.com
Skype: Thedougstone
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Paradigms are models, archetypes, and systems of belief/understanding that humans use for problem

solving. Today in the world of business, threats and opportunities occur more quickly and less predictably.
More than ever, survival and success depend on a company's ability to act on the complex
societal, economic and technology paradigm shifts that it faces. This course will provide participants with
the understanding of the current shifts that pose a mounting urgency and highlight a framework of the
essential capabilities required to secure new competitive landscapes.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Decisive victory for business leaders will depend on their capacity to hope, learn, act, and fail-forward
in the face of ever-changing paradigms. Since challenges, problems, and questions of business are
often questions of life, the learning objectives of this class are to help students identify and work with

changing paradigms and, most importantly, create new paradigms of their own. They will be more equipped
to live their lives (business and personal) as learners and creators, advantaged with an entrepreneurial
spirit. Specifically, the class is designed to help students do the following:
1. Understand the relevant business context of the 21st century megatrends and how unprecedented
levels of uncertainty and unpredictability, make this a good time for innovation and new paradigms.
2. Recognize how individual plus organizational self-awareness & openness contribute to their
collective ability (or inability) to see the boundaries of current paradigms and to capitalize on the
complexity of future ones.
3. Understand the core elements of business model innovation and the expert innovation processes that
can help companies consistently identify and deliver the appropriate business opportunities for new
products, services, and business models.
4. Appreciate how a new high-performance algorithm of alignment, interdependency and transparency
are driving business into a new paradigm of conscious capitalism: a) running a business with a higher
purpose, b) tangible and intangible stakeholder well-being, and c) conscious leadership.
5. Develop a perspective about and sensing mechanisms for change.
ASSIGNMENTS & EVALUATION
This course is an exploration into what business paradigms can be and how it can deal with the
current management dilemmas in a positive way. You will be asked to actively participate in a
challenging thought process, which will bring about alternative solutions and equip you with new

approaches to innovation in management. These assumptions and the readings will build the basis
for our class discussion, which will be largely conducted in a collaborative fashion. As a result we will
reach definitive conclusions about the new paradigms in business and its valuable application to your

own personal projects, which will be the main course of assessment as you can see in the methods
of student evaluation section. This course has neither midterm nor a final exam.
Class Discussions
Reading is an important part of study for the course. Reading activities will provide you with starting points
for discussions during class. The school will provide you with a list of reading materials in subjects created
for this course. Course participants will lead these discussions. After every lecture performed by the teacher,
students should participate in a group discussion leaded by the teacher.
Thinking Points
After each class discussion, students will prepare a one slide presentation with an abstract of those points
that were the most relevant to He/ She to capture their thoughts about the course readings, discussions
and application to a new business venture. The approach should be guided by the questions:
-Why is the understanding of business paradigms, as suggested by the readings, strategically essential to
building your business venture?
-How can I tactically apply the readings and discussions to my current or future business strategy?
-Does a particular reading or discussion point have a greater impact on the design of an effective
strategy/solution.

Personal Capstone Project

For the major course deliverable, students will generate a new business concept (and hypothetical business

model) that applies this class readings and discussions to the personal capstone project that they created
during the first course of the MBI program.
The personal capstone project will integrate following three elements:
1) Success criteria for the project proposal.
2) Hypothesis about the change(s) impacting consumers of the product/service that supports the
proposal.
3) Business Model Canvas for the proposal.

1) Success criteria - 5 criteria bullets (see examples below - write in any word doc or ppt slide)
- Revenue potential (near term & long term) = $500,000 yr 1....$2mm in yr 3 - make sure it is
based on realities of market
- # of new customers = (e.g., 5 new customers $100k/each in yr 1.....4 new customers
$500k/each annually by yr 3)
- Timeline - when in market? = Jan 1, 20XX
- Meets unmet need (consumer or business) = specify the need
- Core competencies/fit (for you or your company)
- other examples are welcome
2) Hypothesis writing (word doc or ppt - see examples below):
- 5 observational facts (minimum)
- 10 hypothesis (minimum)
Hypothesis Examples--IF:(observational fact) Wall street says that how well a company innovates is the #1 driver of future
growth and profitability
THEN: (Hypothesis 1) the demand for specialized innovation services will increase dramatically shifting
consulting services away from the incumbents
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------IF:(observational fact) The short lifespan of companies is an symptom of the root cause = being poor
learners & = not being good at consistently innovating to meet changing market/economic/societal
change and needs
THEN:(Hypothesis 2) the demand for innovation training and education will increase dramatically
changing how schools & corporations prepare talent & design OD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------IF:(observational fact) companies are so siloed and/or execute/buy the innovation process in a
disjointed/suboptimal non-expert manner that they consistently have suboptimal innovation results.
THEN: (Hypothesis 3) a new model of expert innovation services (idea parents) will be necessary which
can deliver industry changing ideas from MIND to MARKET breaking down all silos and impediments to
in market success

3) Canvas - double check with book (use ppt slide template)

The personal capstone project should also:

1. Demonstrate how the new business strategy is aligned to opportunistic new paradigms and megatrends
identified within the context of the related industry.
2. Identify the boundaries between the old and the new paradigm and create a plan of action for shifting to the
new territory to meet target audience needs & create competitive advantage. You should define:
a. What is the unmet need or insight?
b. How does this business concept meet the unmet need?
c. What are the essential communication nuances and commercialization
elements required for connecting a & b.
d. What are the opportunities and challenges I have to face?
e. What are the critical success factors (dependencies) and potential pitfalls?
3. Demonstrate how the new business model/strategy is aligned with, and in support of, a more complete new
paradigm of conscious capitalism.

Methods of Student Evaluation

Class discussions = 20% of the total grade
Thinking Points = 20% of the total grade
Personal Capstone Project = 60% of the total grade

Success Criteria = 15%

Hypothesis = 15%
Business Model Canvas 30%

---------------Total: = 100%
A = (93-100) A- = (90-92) B+ = (87-89) B = (83-86) B- = (80-82)
C+ = (76-79) C = (70-76) D = (60-69) F = (59 and below)

READING SCHEDULE

Session I: January
You are expected to have read at least the first two articles in full and have familiarized yourself with the
remaining articles.
Some Articles are available via dropbox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t9b1wykblkkvcko/AABzU_A8vcmS1_0kqyyAe4Sha?dl=0
New Paradigms in Business:
I. Defining Paradigms for Business Leaders & Corporations
1. Rodger Martin Validity VS Reliability
2. Joel Barker (21st Century Edition) The New Business of Paradigms
3. Donella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a system
4. Doug Randall and Chris Ertel, Moving Beyond the Official Future
5. Rand Stagen and Brett Thomas Next-Level Leadership Available online at:
http://www.stagen.com/assets/pdf/NLL_whitepaper.pdf
6. Chris Argyris (1991) Teaching Smart People How to Learn Available online at:
http://pds8.egloos.com/pds/200805/20/87/chris_argyris_learning.pdf
7. Joel Barker Videos: Los Paradigmas Partes 1-7-Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=AfZq7abgnZU&feature=related
II. An Unprecedented Rate of Change and Non-Linear Un-Predictability
1. A Man Made World, The Anthropocene The Economist http://www.economist.com/node/18741749
2. Gary Hamel (2002) Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation
a Way of Life Harvard Business School Press-Chapter 1: The End of Progress.Available online at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7293348/Leading-the-Revolution-Gary-Hamel?emid=Qjk1VGX0E9Q33983443&lid=10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWHFqNKH40&feature=related
3. IBM (2010) Capitalizing on Complexity: Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceostudy2010/index.html
4. Umar Haque (2010) The New Paradigm of Advantage:
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_new_paradigm_of_advantage.html
5. Peter Bisson, Elizabeth Stephenson, and S. Patrick Viguerie (2010) Why Trends Matter Global Forces:

An Introduction (The 5 Crucibles of Change that will restructure the world economy) McKinsey Quarterly
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Globalization/Global_forces_An_introduction_2625
6. The Sustainability Imperative: (a roadmap of business megatrends) HBR May 2010
http://hbr.org/2010/05/the-sustainability-imperative/ar/1
7. Ram Nidumolu (2009) Why Sustainability is Now the Key Driver of Innovation
http://hbr.org/2009/09/why-sustainability-is-now-the-key-driver-of-innovation/ar/1

READING SCHEDULE

Session II: February

New Paradigms in Business:

I Conscious Capitalism: The Stakeholder Model & Business With Purpose

1. John Mackey (2007) Conscious Capitalism: Creating a New Paradigm for Business
http://www.flowidealism.org/2007/Downloads/Conscious-Capitalism_JM.pdf
http://www.corporate-ethics.org/Video_Sisodia_Conscious_Capitalism/index.html?v=0
2.
3.
4.
5.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (2011) How Great Companies Think Differently

Douglas A. Ready and Emily Truelove (2011) The Power of Collective Ambition
Michael E. Porter and Mark Kramer (2011) Creating Shared Value
Raphael Louis Viton (2010) Not Just Capitalist Pigs
i. http://www.fastcompany.com/1626174/not-just-capitalist-pigs

6. Simon Sinek (2009) Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
7.
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
8. Roy Spence on Purpose (video parts 1-4)
i. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U66TqOG8p7Q
II Paradigms Influence on Business
1. Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur (2009) Business Model Generation: A handbook for Visionaries,
Game Changers, and Challengers
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf
2. Ten types of Innovation - https://www.doblin.com/ten-types
3.
4.
5.
6.

Jeanne Liedtka, Using Hypothesis Driven Thinking

Vijay Kumar, Daily Life, not Markets: Customer Centered Design.
Consumer Trend Canvas
Arie de Geus (1997) The Living Company Harvard Business School Press-Prologue The Lifespan of a
Company. Available online at: http://hbr.org/products/8202/8202p4.pdf

7. The Economist - Schumpeter (2011) Big and Clever Why large firms are often more inventive than small
ones - http://www.economist.com/node/21541826
8. Chip Heath & Dan Heath (2010) Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
Chapter 1: Three Surprises About Change-available online at:
http://www.fundraising123.org/files/SWITCH_Heathbros_Chapter1.pdf

Case Studies:

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Apple Inc. 2008.

Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple.
Leading organic growth: module case lets-Darden Business Publishing.
Models of Innovation: Startups and Mature Corporations-California Review Management.
Business model innovation: a process model-Darden Business Publishing.