PETALING JAYA, March 30 — The country’s dedicated school of innovation and design thinking, Genovasi d.school Malaysia, has become the global secretariat for the Global Design Thinking Alliance (GDTA) which involves 10 other world-renowned academic institutions.
GDTA president Professor Ulrich Weinberg, who opened the secretariat today, lauded Genovasi’s efforts in promoting design thinking and establishing its presence with a firm foothold in the public and private sector.
“Whether it’s in devising more efficient, cost and time saving solutions, or drastically changing the way collaboration is done in their Ministries, alumni of d.school Malaysia stand out in the way they think, see and approach challenges,” Weinberg said.
GDTA secretary-general and Genovasi chief executive officer Datuk Lee Yew Meng observed that for a developing country like Malaysia, design thinking is not simply about unleashing someone’s creativity but also about giving the person self-belief.
He noted that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had utilised the design thinking principles in his career.
The concept behind design thinking is to create products or prototypes with the end user in mind.
“He (Dr Mahathir) is very concerned about user needs, translated in his language — voters. Design thinking is about human-centricity.
“It’s about bringing out and unleashing creativity and in our setting, which is a developing country, we may have the talent and capacity but what is mostly missing and holds us back is that affliction called insufficient belief in oneself.
“Dr Mahathir said it’s all about the mindset. In a developing country, design thinking unleashes not just our creativity but also self-belief,” said Lee.
The event also saw six police officers as well as naval officers, including a lieutenant commander, receiving their design thinking certificates.
After six years, Genovasi has trained 4,499 people from the public and private sector including 24 ministries such as Health Ministry, Defence Ministry, Home Ministry and Education Ministry among others while the private sector saw employees of Maybank and Astro among others being taught.
Other institutions which are part of GDTA include the prestigious London School of Economics, Openlab Stockholm, Communications University China, Queensland University of Technology and University of British Columbia.
