Tuesday’s Headlines: "D School" for Business?

Stanford’s "D-school" is giving its B-school a run for its proverbial money. “The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design has gained recognition in recent years for introducing the trendy, but murky, problem-solving concept known as "design thinking" to executives, educators, scientists, doctors and lawyers,” writes The Wall Street Journal. Similar and new programs include Johns Hopkins’ business school joining forces with the Maryland Institute College of Art to create an MBA/MA in Design Leadership, Parsons Master's in Strategic Design and Management, California College of the Arts' MBA in Design Strategy and Philadelphia University’s Strategic Design Executive MBA program.

Candidates are attracted to these programs by the prospect of landing at companies like P&G and Google. Plus, it gives students with art and design backgrounds a stronger business background, while offering business-minded people a more creative edge.

Stanford’s non-degreed curriculum was launched in 2005 and accommodates as many students who want to take courses – now 700 people. Course topics span from product design, to technology, to behavioral psychology of interest to retailers. Fidelity executives are among alumni.

 

Other News:

Berkshire Hathaway offered to buy Residential Capital, the bankrupt mortgage unit of Ally Financial. [Financial Times]

Hedge funds Citadel and CQS recently hired prominent managers in Asia. [Bloomberg]

Wells Fargo aspires to a 40 percent home lending market share. [Bloomberg]

How to survive a bank bailout. [Businessweek]

Qantas Airways hired Macquarie and Citi out of fear of a hostile takeover. [WSJ]

Hedge fund assets are expected to double to $5 trillion over the next five years. [WSJ]

Private equity firms beat the market last year. [Reuters]

Private equity and venture capital in Brazil are expected to grow by more than 20 percent this year. [Bloomberg]

10 hottest states for startups. [CNN Money]

High profile capital markets and investment banking analyst Guy Moszkowski has left Bank of America/Merrill Lynch for a London-based independent research firm, Autonomous Research, to lead the company's expansion into the U.S. [Reuters]