Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design - Specialisation Business, Master Programme

The statement of purpose is one of the most important parts of your application – it is your opportunity to "sell yourself". We will consider carefully the answers to the following questions. Please write your answer below each question. The completed document must not exceed three pages in total. There is no word limit.

Please provide your full name and application number for identification

(if application number is unknown, please provide date of birth instead):

Name:
Application number:
Name of University at which you have studied for your BSc/BA degree:
In which country have you studied for your undergraduate degree:

Question 1.

Why are you applying for the Master in Innovation? Why do you believe you would benefit from it? What do you expect you could contribute to the programme?

Question 2.

What are your career ambitions immediately after graduating from the programme? Describe how you plan to achieve these goals. How do you see your career developing over the next five years?

Question 3.

Please list the courses you have taken and that you consider to be particularly relevant preparation for the programme (max four courses), including your grade point average across those courses.

Question 4.

Any other matters you wish to draw to our attention, for example, work experience or extracurricular activities of particular relevance for the programme?

Please attach a one page CV/resume to your statement of purpose (not counted for the page-limit of the statement of purpose).

Please attach the statement of purpose + CV/resume to your application at universityadmissions.se.

Ramona Hallgren studies on the design specialisation. Her group collaborates with the company CumVex, specialising in office furniture. Since CumVex is based in Växjö it is easy for the group to arrange meetings with the company without having to plan too far in advance.

"The company has been very open to our ideas and they listen to what we have to say. The fact that it is a local company is, of course, a great advantage, almost luxury", says Ramona. The collaboration within the group is also working well. All groups consist of students from the three different specialisations: business, engineering and design.

"The interesting part about working in a collaboration like this is that I, being a designer, view things differently. As opposed to financial managers and engineers I don't think very much about production and costs in the first stage of generating ideas", says Ramona.

Sebastian Duque studies on the business specialisation. He thinks that it has been very instructive to work together with students from the other specialisations.

"We all have different perspectives, and our working processes are also different from each other. We get to learn how designers and engineers think, just like in real-life projects", he explains.

Sebastian's group works with Alstermo Bruk, a company making suitcases. They keep contact through email, but also through visits both ways. Sebastian's group has focused on the concept of sustainability and is developing a new product.

"First, we worked four weeks with the development of a design model and now we have reached the engineering process. Once we have completed that, we will work four weeks with the business process. In this way, we will all learn the entire development process, which is very rewarding", says Sebastian.

Joe Sullivan studies on the engineering specialisation and works with the company Quickbutton, a supplier of campaign buttons, name tags and conference badges. Joe's group has also had a sustainability perspective in the development of their product and they have chosen to work with the material bamboo.

"We are really benefitting from each other's different skill sets and different previous experiences within the group. I, for instance, have never before really come into contact with the financial management part. The entire programme is very focused on teamwork", Joe says.

Innovation through business, engineering and design is a 2-year master programme offered at Linnaeus University in Växjö. The programme offers three different specialisations and the language of tuition is English.

My name is Juliana Restrepo. I was born and raised in the beautiful and constantly-developing city of Medellín, Colombia. That is to say, Colombia in South America, not Columbia in the US, as many still make that mistake. In Medellín, I studied industrial design for five years and also worked as an event designer for DDB Colombia, an advertising agency. Having done that, I was ready for my next adventure – moving to London. During my four years in London, I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to learn from a number of different work and life experiences. Even though I loved London (and still do), my husband and I decided three years ago to move to Växjö – my husband's home town – since we wanted to raise our son in a smaller city, and also be closer to relatives.

During my first months in Sweden, I studied beginner's Swedish and looked forward to embracing the exciting challenge of a new country. It was then that I came across the master programme Innovation through business, engineering and design. One of my biggest motivations for applying to the programme was the collaboration with IKEA and, of course, the fact that the programme is based on a multidisciplinary collaboration. During my two years on the programme, I developed a lot as a designer, as a team player and, last but not least, as a citizen of the world. I also developed a passionate interest in metadesign, design-thinking and sustainability.

I feel more proud than ever of being a designer. I believe that designers have a great responsibility, both now and for our future, as I see designers as the 'connection keys/tools' between different disciplines, skills and cultures. The world is changing so quickly that we can barely understand it. We need to learn, share, communicate and work better together.

I am now working as an interior designer at IKEA in Älmhult. I'm constantly curious and working in a dynamic environment, where people are not afraid of change. I'm so excited to see where this will take me in the future!

During Anna's studies at Linnaeus University, the goal with her education was to start working with product development at IKEA. Today, she works at the marketing department at IKEA in Älmhult and thinks that her education has given her a good foundation.

– At IKEA, I work primarily with local marketing, administration of the local website, their Instagram account, and the digital screens that are in use in the department store. I also participate in the development of the trade center in Älmhult at which we try to increase the collaboration with other IKEA units in Älhmult but also the collaboration with other lines of trade. I also coordinate activities in the department store that are aimed at our catchment area, for instance, previews of collections for IKEA FAMILY members, says Anna Hamlin.

Anna worked at IKEA during her studies as well, but then as restaurant staff and sales person. However, after she got her master's degree in innovation she applied for a job at IKEA that was more in line with that she had studied, and she got it. Her contact with IKEA during her studies, created good conditions for establishing important contacts.

–I wrote my degree project at IKEA of Sweden in Älmhult. I studied the product development process and focused on how organisational culture can affect knowledge transfer both positively and negatively in large multinational companies. Since I met and interviewed many employees during the course of my study, my master thesis led to an increased network at different IKEA firms in Älmhult. In addition, my final term writing my degree project, gave me a broader understanding of the work processes and organisational culture at IKEA, something that is valuable to me in the work I do today.

In simple words, the aim is to tie together a number of disciplines to create a better life at home for the many people. It deals partly with what fundamental needs we have and what furniture we need, but also with how production can be made as cheap and environmentally friendly as possible.

As a result of The Bridge, Linnaeus University has been able to establish an IKEA professorship, unique to the world. The research environment revolving around the subject area Life at Home is developed in collaboration with doctoral students. It is this research environment that makes it possible for Linnaeus University to establish the interdisciplinary master programme.

The master programme has an interdisciplinary perspective, combining engineering, business, and design. The programme enables students to learn from each other's knowledge and improves their ability to work with different projects and product development. The master programme is offered in close collaboration with a number of companies, IKEA being one of them.

"It's like I want to eat the product" That was the feedback Lars Dafnäs, senior range manager at IKEA, gave to some of the students when they presented their product idea on the new master programme at Linnaeus University.

"Wash council"

In one corner of the classroom, two students drape a sheet over an object. Some other students arrive with a blue IKEA bag that seems to contain a prototype of some sort. A laptop is passed around as some of the students make the final preparations for the presentation they are about to give. The atmosphere is charged.

Today's activity, when the students on the master programme Innovation through business, engineering and design get to present the result of their work, is called a wash council. The entire front row in the classroom is occupied by guests who normally work with product development at IKEA in Älmhult. It is now time for the innovations to be "washed" – will they make the cut and become products in IKEA's assortment?

During the first weeks of their education, the students have worked with an assignment on the topic "Life at home". Responsible for the assignment for this particular course are various departments at IKEA.

Briefing

How can buying a carpet become something fun? That is part of the briefing that one of the groups have been working with. The briefing is the starting point for the assignment and describes a need that the company has seen on the market. The students have been divided into groups and each group has then been given an assignment. In each group there are students from the three fields of engineering, business, and design.

The big picture

The students have had a couple of weeks to come up with different proposals for how to solve their assignments. Together they have come up with ideas, brainstormed, revised, and prioritised. What was first a number of product ideas has today been narrowed down to one idea per group. With this idea, the students have worked with an holistic approach; including everything from how the product is to be made attractive to the target group, the development of a prototype, construction sketches, and deciding on a material, to calculating the costs and putting forward a proposal on how and where the product is to be made, wrapped, and transported in a way that is environmentally sustainable. How can we make a sustainable design? What technical construction will function best?

Profit

An appealing idea will not be enough; it also has to become profitable. In their presentations, the students express thoughts on many parts of the process involved in the development of a product, from idea to market. The audience is introduced to the following aspects:
• By dividing this part into two in the construction process we are able to use more of the material, which will both lower expenses and provide us with a more flexible product.
• Through a web-based guide the customer will get help planning the purchase.
• If we outsource manufacturing to this region in China, and deliver a volume of X we will get a wage cost of...
• But if we choose a fully automated industry in Småland we will instead have fewer working hours; which means it is probably more profitable in the long run to invest in a manufacturing system operated by robots. The students have been in contact with both industries and logistics companies in order to work out estimates for the actual costs of their products.
• The wrapping will be this size, which means we will be able to fit Y pieces into one container, resulting in a transport cost of...

So, what are the margins? In the briefing the students have been given clear specifications regarding what profit margins are required in order for the products to be considered for production. The requirements are really tough, and force the group to decide what is most important with the product. One of the products consists of a variety of different models. The students have confirmed that one version will be more expensive to produce than the others. Is it still worth keeping that model? Is it possible to come up with a technology that makes it less costly to manufacture that model? What if it is that very model that makes the idea pop out and sell?

Animations and CAD sketches are mixed with classical slides in the student presentations. It becomes very evident that this is second-cycle level. In class, Swedish and international students work closely together, adding an international perspective to the education. How would this product be received in Spain? Or in China? Linnaeus University has agreements with a large number of universities abroad, and each year several hundred international students from all over the world arrive on campus.

"How can buying a carpet become something fun?"
We just might have heard the answer to that question at today's wash council. Perhaps we will stumble upon one of the products in the big furniture company's assortment in a not too distant future.

Learning

What to do if your group cannot come up with a good product idea? Not all groups will come up with solutions that make the American Idol jury – what the IKEA project owner jokingly nicknames his colleagues and himself at one point – burst out in a Hallelujah! Some assignments may be tougher than others.

"If you had succeeded in providing a good solution to this question you would all have become millionaires", says Miguel Salinas, senior lecturer at the department of design. "Failure can also be seen as the best way to learn".

"It is very important to be honest and provide information on any problems encountered along the work process. To say: We got this far – but we were not able to come up with solutions to all challenges in the briefing. It is impossible to sell an idea that you yourselves do not believe in", explains one of the company representatives.

"Imagine how much you could have gained by developing a quick prototype – then it would have been clear right away that the product may be dangerous if a child decides to try to climb it".

Much of the discussion in the room revolves around communication between customer and supplier, orderer and developer, and between different competencies. Also, it can be difficult to balance the requirements from the university with those from the company. A constant learning takes place in the dialogue between company and university.

Team spirit

"All student groups who have come up with ideas that seem to have good potential have one thing in common; the group members have worked as a team", says Lars Dafnäs, and continues:
"It is crucial that you make use of all your combined brain potential to solve the task. It becomes evident when you do, because then the result is something new, something inspiring".

"Still a lot of details to work on, but clear potential!"

The article describes one of the courses on the 2-year master programme Innovation through business, engineering and design. Are you curious about the education? If you study business administration, design, or engineering you can apply to the 2-year master.