As you prepare to pick your fall term electives this July, consider how you can differentiate your skillset. The Business Design Initiative (BDI) is offering two hands-on electives to help you navigate ambiguity, think strategically about the future, and solve real-world business challenges using human-centered design.
Here’s what you need to know about our Fall 2026 offerings:
Futures Thinking: Developing Business Foresight (RSM2517)
2026 Dates: Fall Term – Wednesdays
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Rotman Room 4057 (the BDI Studio)
How do you make strategic decisions about products, services, and business models before market data even exists? This course prepares you for the ambiguous challenge of driving a culture of innovation. Using “pre-design” and strategic foresight methodologies, you will learn to spot early-stage macro trends and transform technology and behavior shifts into viable business models.
Key Learning Outcomes
- ‘Unlearn’ to Reframe: Train yourself to challenge assumptions and see global patterns of emergence from entirely new perspectives.
- Translate Signals to Opportunities: Spot weak, early-stage signals in technology and human behavior and map them to future market opportunities.
- Expand Your Data Set: Learn to translate abstract signals into concrete potential future opportunities and strategic leverage points.
What Past Students Say:
- “This has been by far the most interesting course of my MBA. The real-world attitude is energizing and has helped me transition from the academic ‘first-year’ mindset back into the ‘how do I translate this material into real on-the-job skills’ mindset I need as a second year.”
- “It’s not easy to teach such a subjective course, but combining theory with practical use cases made it easy for me to visualize applications for strategic foresight.”
- “This course was such a great experience… It was very hands-on, which was really helpful.”
Business Design Practicum (RSM2524)
Theme for 2026: Applying design to an AI innovation challenge with an industry sponsor, TBD.
Format: Intensive, immersive learning delivered over a high-impact, two-week period. Students will have the chance to visit design studios across the city to learn directly from industry leaders.
2026 Dates: Fall Intensive Term (FiT) – August 31 – September 11, Monday to Friday
Time: 13:30 – 17:00
Location: Rotman Room 4057 (the BDI Studio) and on-site at design studios across Toronto
This course blends interactive classroom lectures with direct industry engagement, taking you out of the classroom and into Canada’s business design and innovation ecosystem. You will learn industry-leading design methods, models, and case studies directly from firms using design-infused methods to innovate new services, processes, and experiences.
Past practicums have included site visits and unique engagement with leading organizations such as:
- Consultancies & Agencies: Deloitte, Bridgeable, Synthetikos
- Corporate & Finance: Scotiabank, Tim Hortons
- Public Sector & Healthcare: The Ontario Experience Design Lab, SickKids
The ultimate goal is for you to understand exactly how to apply human-centered design tools to your post-MBA target role.
Key Learning Outcomes
- Apply Core Principles: Use management frameworks, ethnographic methods, and design techniques to find, frame, and solve complex problems.
- Navigate Innovation Stages: Learn the foundational stages of the innovation development process within real organizations.
- Conduct User-Centered Research: Discover how user-centred research is executed on live, real-world business challenges.
- Master Problem-Solving Frameworks: Explore how empathy, creativity, prototyping, and storytelling are critical for driving innovation adoption in organizational settings.
What Past Students Say:
- “The course is so thoughtfully designed to show the potential of Business Design as a powerful tool and how it’s being used in the industry. It helped me expand my ‘thinking hat’ and look beyond limited visible areas of opportunities… I loved every minute of this course.”
- “This may serve as the model of an intensive course – with very prudent use of time and acceptable workload. As a complete novice, I was able to learn a lot… It is a great contrast and rounding out to the majority of classes which take place only in the classroom in lecture format.”
- “I enjoyed the class; the field visits were truly educational and beyond the theoretical learnings. The immersive learning and visiting experiences have given me a lot of inspiration and assistance.”
- “I leave this course understanding how business design is practiced in the workforce, which will help me not only in my own career choices but also as a future executive or manager in determining where and how to apply these concepts.”
How to Enrol
Both courses offer critical, practical frameworks that turn theory into immediate on-the-job skills. Look for RSM2517 and RSM2524 during the upcoming July registration window to secure your spot!
About the Rotman Business Design Initiative (BDI)
The Business Design Initiative is Rotman’s experiential learning centre for human-centered design and strategic foresight. BDI connects students, alumni, and industry to explore complex challenges and identify new opportunities for differentiated innovation.
Through applied, hands-on learning, BDI helps leaders at every level build the mindsets and capabilities to navigate uncertainty, solve problems differently, and drive human-centered transformation.Visit the BDI website
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