This course provides an overview of topics and issues central to the Strategic Design and Management program, with an emphasis on the relationships between design, experience, and social and economic change. An intensive three-week course, it exposes students to the enormous variety of ways design functions in business contexts and helps them understand the roles designers play in creative industries through critical readings and discussions, case studies, guest lectures, field trips, and collaborative, practice-based projects. By means of research, prototyping, experimentation, self-reflection, and decision-making activities, students become resourceful practitioners and creative entrepreneurs. The intensive nature of the class results in a steep learning curve; the students’ diverse nationalities and backgrounds promote new perspectives; and the immersion in the classroom and the city fosters new friendships and experiences.