For this term, Prof. Goi taught “Creative Thinking” in the Global BBA program, following up on his course “Design Thinking” which was taught in the previous term. Deriving from the Design Thinking methodology and adding concepts of Organizational Behavior to enable a holistic approach, students will gain knowledge about the methods of innovation and the ability to create solutions for potential social impact.
In current times where the corporate landscape is constantly changing and overflowing with new ideas, creations and innovations, it has become crucial to be creative and innovative at any level inside an organization in order to keep up in this dynamic environment and compete with others.
As this course is an extension of the “Design Thinking” course, on top of the case studies focusing on creativity and innovation, students also took part in a course project to create innovative solutions for a local town, Kimi no Mori in Chiba prefecture (which was also the focus of the former course).
For this reason, Prof. Goi collaborated with Prof. Love from the Faculty of Management. The latter holds an MA in International Cinema and is also an expert in filmmaking, and he is also the Director of NUCB’s Wild Fox Film Festival which is organized every year to showcase the various films created by both local and international students. He brought green screen technology and made it available to the students after a session of thorough explanation, which enabled the students to bridge the distance between them and the town. In fact, the short films created for this course were also included in this year’s Wild Fox Film Festival and they won a prize!
To illustrate a bit, one group used an organic and delicious blueberry jam made by the residents of the town to showcase and explain the town’s organic food culture which leads to a healthier and sustainable lifestyle. The purpose was to show that not only they understand the residents of the town but to make that available to others too.
Students truly felt that the course enabled them all to voice their opinions and thoughts in the project, and thus contribute to the creativity of the solutions proposed for various issues. Such experience is valuable and will accompany students and help them adopt such an approach later on for their career.