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Check out images from the just concluded Strategy Conference hosted by IIT at the MCA in Chicago (above).

The keynote speaker was Jim Hackett, CEO and President of Steelcase. He spoke of his mission to infuse design thinking into his company and some of the difficulties and benefits along the way. His process is based upon four deliberate stages: 1) think, 2) point of view, 3) plan to implement, and 4) implement. While this might seem simplisitic or trite, Go(o)d is in the details. Jim is definitely the converted and helping to pave the way for a new role for design in business.

A rich dude. Hasso Plattner, co-founder of software bohemeth, SAP, discusses a their new software product and how user research plays into their process (also below).

Dale Fahnstrom, professor at IIT, discusses his work as part of a MacArthur Foundation grant. The "Thinkering Spaces" project explores how public libraries, among other public learning spaces, can be enhanced through more interactive, technological, and re-imagined environments. While Dale showed the design process and some prototypical outcomes, his next move is to build two "real" spaces within the Chicago Public Library system.

Matthew Holloway is the VP, Design Services Team at SAP. His team consults with the scores of global SAP offices, trying to help them adopt a design thinking approach to the development of products and services. Amazingly, as a designer/manager, he reports directly to the CEO--how's that for design getting a prominent seat at the board table.

Roger Martin is the Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Never heard of Rotman? Well, me neither, but you will undoubtedly be hearing more in the future, especially if you are interested in this relationship between design and business. As Patrick Whitney stated, Roger has done more than anyone toward this cause. Shown above, Roger introduced a cogent analysis of the main problem between design types and business types--validity based versus reliability based outlooks.

Lunches included informal, roundtable discussions on specific topics. This one dealt with the notion of "design strategy" and how that differed, if at all, from "business strategy."

Connie Yowell is the Director of Education for the MacArthur Foundation and has the wonderful role in helping to distribute a couple of hundred million dollars each year for "experiments," ROI be damned.

Bumshik Hong, Vice President of Innovation and New Business Development at SK Telecom, South Korea's leading telecommunications company.

Patrick Whitney explains that Busniess Week's Bruce Nussbaum would not be able to speak and would be replaced by Doblin's Larry Keeley (below).

Larry Keeley steps in and gives a brilliant recap of the first day of the conference. As amazing a speaker as he is, he is an even better thinker and certainly a crown jewel att IIT's ID. He concluded his wrap-up with a big fat caution to the students at ID: as design research and thinking continues to make its way into the business world, what will they do to differentiate themselves, but more importantly what tools and skills will need to be developed?