Malaysia must embrace design thinking to achieve world’s top 20 nation aspiration

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has called on Malaysians, especially the younger generation, to embrace design thinking as part of a collective effort to achieve the aspiration of becoming the top 20 nation in the world by 2050.

He said design thinking should be embarked on immediately as a small step towards securing incremental increases of the aspiration, which was one of the goals set under the National Transformation 2050.

“We know that (our) resources are limited, therefore we need to maximise them.

"We need to leverage on whatever we have and the only way we can get more with less, is through creativity and innovation.

“If you want to be top 20 nation in the world, Malaysia, we have to think in terms of how to generate exponential growth,” he said at the launch of Genovasi Malaysia Design Thinking Programmes in Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin yesterday.

Genovasi Malaysia is the only dedicated design thinking school in Malaysia and the leading regional partner of the Hasso Plattner Institute School of Design Thinking at Potsdam University, Germany.

Najib said beyond analytical and critical skills, the students at the soon-to-be-established Genovasi Malaysia College would be taught practical skills and empowering them to contribute to the Fourth Industrial Revolution workforce effectively.

As for the small and medium enterprises, Najib said, design thinking would enable them to thrive in the digital landscape.

“I trully believe that Genovasi can equip them with an innovation mindset, a requisite for them not only to respond to changing market conditions, but to the trendsetters in eCommerce and the digital economy,” he said.

Genovasi Malaysia, launched in August 2012, has trained almost 4,000 participants from the public and private sectors using the ‘Stanford d.school’ and ‘Hasso-Plattner-Institut Design Thinking model’.

It is a human-centric approach which focuses on emphathy, relying on a deep understanding of user needs. — Bernama