The Designing the Next Economy conference was held by DMI in Madrid between April 22 and 24, 2013. The conference program focused on the rising role of design thinking in the next economy to drive innovation and change and how designers should positing themselves in this competitive environment.
Gulay Ozkan, founder of GEDS and the GO Program, Turkey, and Chris Hosmer, managing director of Continuum Shanghai, China, ran a workshop on the next value equation from real entrepreneurs in the emerging world. Ozkan and Hosmer pointed out the differences between emerging markets and advanced market dynamics and how to identify what will be a valuable product offering or proposition, which is paramount in emerging markets and is markedly different than in developed economies.
In the second half of the workshop, participants engaged in a game called “running a business in an emerging market” played by the attendees coming from US and Europe. In the game, attendees developed strategies under unexpected economic conditions to help their companies survive.
