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Dan KraemerAdjunct Lecturer

Contact Info

MMM Program

About

Dan Kraemer is a founder, thought leader, educator and international speaker leading a convergence of design and business strategy as the winning approach to corporate innovation.

As both an award-winning designer and classically-trained business executive, Dan combines a generative design lens with analytical business strategy to help Global 500 companies create growth strategies, develop innovation capabilities and build new businesses.

Dan has coalesced this hybrid design + business innovation approach into the Four Decisions of Growth™ framework, which empowers leaders in both public and private sectors to solve complex problems and create new growth:

  1. Where to play: Proactively managing future demand + growth markets within a corporate innovation portfolio 
  2. How to win: Framing unique insights + aligning leaders on capabilities required to grow competitive advantage 
  3. What to build: Designing experiences that differentiate + business models that deliver and capture new value 
  4. When to fund: Prototyping future businesses to anticipate true adoption + expected value of investments

In 2000, Dan co-founded IA Collaborative, the global design and innovation consultancy with offices in Chicago and LA. He has grown the firm to employ leading experts in research, business strategy, multidisciplinary design, and engineering. Dan developed the company’s 7 Elements of Design Innovation™ process which has consistently driven profitable growth for IA’s Global 500 clients, including: Airbnb, Allstate, Audi, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Nike, Philips, Samsung and Sonos.

As an educator, Dan developed the course, Design + Business Thinking for Public Health; the first of its kind at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, where Dan is an Adjunct Professor. This course demonstrates how user-centered design + business innovation creates value for the entire Public Health ecosystem. 

At Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Dan teaches Corporate Innovation for the University’s Executive Education program.

As an international speaker, Dan draws from a range of firsthand experiences with his Global 500 clients. Recent keynotes include: Design Thinking Conference, World Forum Disrupt, Nokia Human Factors Global Summit, IDSA International Design Conference, and World Usability Day.

Dan’s work has been recognized by the 2019 Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards, the SXSW Business Design Awards, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) - Gold and Silver for digital and product innovation; the Red Dot International Design Awards, the GOOD Design Awards, and the ROI of Human-Centered Design Award at the 2019 Design Thinking Conference.

Education

MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
BFA, Visual Communication, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

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