In this course, students will be introduced to the conditions of the new design service- and experience-oriented firms that are subsuming traditional consulting practice. These novel conditions in turn present opportunities, challenges, and a new mandate for leadership and innovation: how should one design, manage and improve those design firms? How should their strategy, structure, scale, scope, and social position be defined? Students will investigate various aspects and angles of the ongoing transformation of these firms; they will present research and critique/commentary via seminal works in the field.