LUMA Institute

Founding Fuel

 

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LUMA Institute and Founding Fuel partner to spread the power of design thinking across India

New partnership will connect American innovation accelerator with Indian hub for entrepreneurs

PITTSBURGH (Nov. 25, 2015) — LUMA Institute, an American firm that helps individuals, teams, and organizations worldwide accelerate innovation through the discipline of design thinking, has partnered with Founding Fuel, a next generation learning platform for entrepreneurs, based in India.

“We are thrilled to be working with Founding Fuel to spread knowledge and use of design thinking skills in India,” said Chris Pacione, CEO, LUMA Institute (LUMA). “We think the Founding Fuel community will embrace our system of ‘Innovating for People’ because of its simplicity and versatility. Entrepreneurs in any industry can apply these practical, powerful tools to their innovation challenges to create and deliver highly-valuable solutions for their customers.”

Design thinking, also referred to as human-centered design, is an approach to new value creation that focuses on people’s needs and desires when designing a new product, process, or experience.

“Entrepreneurial leaders in India will get access to truly premium learning opportunities and a chance to learn and apply a relevant set of tools that allows them to reimagine their businesses,” said CS Swaminathan, co-founder and director, Founding Fuel.

To kick off the partnership, LUMA and Founding Fuel will offer its first public workshop — LUMA Institute’s Fundamentals of Innovation Through Human-Centered Design — in Mumbai on December 7- 8. This is the first time that this public workshop will be held in South Asia. (For more details on the first public workshop, please click here.)

“By partnering with LUMA Institute, we will bring the power of design thinking to Indian companies and create another important learning pillar for Founding Fuel. Our community will have access to world-class public content and practical resources from LUMA,” said Arup Mazumdar, Founding Fuel’s chief evangelist for design thinking. “As the business environment becomes more complex, enterprises will need a new set of tools that challenge the assumption that the future is going to look a lot like the past or even the present. Design thinking will help cut through the current fog of ambiguity and help leaders get to the essence of the business situation via a system that supports critical and creative problem solving.”

LUMA, founded in 2010, has helped numerous organizations such as Honeywell, American Express, Autodesk, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) integrate design thinking into their respective workplaces. Recently OPM and another LUMA client, AMP Financial Services in Australia, took first place and honorable mention respectively in Design Management Institute’s Design Value Awards, which honor teams that have delivered significant value through design practices. The OPM initiative is projected to save American taxpayers $600 million by 2020.

Founding Fuel, which launched in March 2015, is a premium-learning platform for those who have an entrepreneurial mindset, a passion to learn, and the drive to become a high-performance entrepreneur. An Advisory Council of front-line entrepreneurs and thought leaders along with a large, growing network of distinctive voices from the entrepreneurial community and seasoned business journalists supports Founding Fuel. Its multimedia-publishing arm has already carved out a niche for itself as a thought leader, and its impactful customized learning solutions have begun to make a mark with enterprises that are looking to shift gears. Founding Fuel was co-created by veteran journalists Indrajit Gupta and Charles Assisi, along with CS Swaminathan, the former president of Pearson's online learning venture.

To sign up for the workshop, click here.

Connect with LUMA Institute and Founding Fuel via social media to stay-in-the-know:

About LUMA Institute

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania., LUMA Institute is comprised of innovation experts from multiple professional fields, all focused on equipping individuals, teams, and organizations to accelerate innovation through the discipline of Human-Centered Design. LUMA Institute’s strategic and educational offerings have helped clients such as Google, the American Cancer Society, and the White House multiply their own ability to innovate. For more information, visit http://www.luma-institute.com or call (412) 488-1990.

About Founding Fuel

Based in India, Founding Fuel is a next generation network of some of the finest minds from the world of business and is committed to helping a growing community of entrepreneurs stay relevant in tomorrow’s world. Founding Fuel uses the latest digital tools for media and learning to serve content, learning solutions and a curated marketplace for entrepreneurial products and services. For more information, please visit http://www.foundingfuel.com.

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