Imagine running one of Asia's most respected business schools on a model built around flying in world-class professors, and then the world stops flying. That was Sasin's situation in 2021. Sasin School of Management was founded in 1982 by Chulalongkorn University together with Kellogg and Wharton, and it usually relies on visiting faculty from overseas for most of its courses. When COVID-19 closed the borders, the school had to find experts closer to home.

Its dean, Professor Ian Fenwick, knew where to look. He had met Thinkergy's founder, Dr. D, back in 2006 at Stanford's Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (REE) in Bangkok, the same event that took Dr. D to Helsinki to kick off the Helsinki School of Creative Entrepreneurship. In 2021, he asked Dr. D to teach two courses: Business Creativity for some 30 MBA students in September and October, and Business Innovation in the Executive MBA program in November and December. Both courses began on campus in Bangkok, and both ended up on Zoom when new lockdowns were announced. Fortunately, X-IDEA works as well online as it does in the classroom.

The highlight was a real-life case from the Executive MBA class itself. EMBA student Khun Piroon Supanantkul owns Bari Lamai Resort, a 20-room beach resort near Ban Phe in Rayong, facing Koh Samet. With 95% of its guests coming from within Thailand, the resort rode every wave of COVID announcements. But Piroon wanted more than survival. He wanted his resort ready to lead the market once the pandemic ended. In Xploration, the class moved from a blunt initial challenge, How to attract more customers?, to a far richer one: How might we create memorable, friendly, sustainable moments for families (with pets) at the Bari Lamai Resort?

In Ideation (done online due to a new lockdown), his team produced more than 300 raw ideas, from a swimming pool for dogs and kids to wild cards like dressing all the staff up as clowns. In Development, they shaped the most intriguing ones into concepts by asking what, who and why. In Evaluation, they used Rapid Prototyping, Idea Books and PMI to elect four top ideas: a super-fresh seafood showcase kitchen; quarterly "Ultimate Fantasy" beach events; a kids' cooking class that starts with a 6:45 a.m. trip to the local fish market; and Pet Companions 4 Everyone. The last one stole the show. Once a month, the resort would team up with local animal shelters so guests could play with shelter animals, and adopt one with the adoption fee waived. Some guests check out with a souvenir. At Bari Lamai, they could check out with a new best friend.

Are you looking for a creativity course that gives your students or managers more than theory? Contact us to find out how X-IDEA may help them learn the Know-How of Wow by solving a real business challenge from their own ranks.