Course: Design Thinking for Innovation, University of Virginia, Darden School of Business  Title: Final Assignment  Submitted by: Ahmed Carlos  Date: March 29, 2019

Mind Mapping

Challenge    I work for a family owned group of companies that provides services to the Oil and Gas industry  in Mexico, with more than 60 years’ experience. The third generation is entering the family  business with a fresh and renewed vision, including institutionalization and diversification goals.    The son of the Group´s CEO is interested in real estate projects and has asked me to review  several opportunities with him. Due to his entrepreneurial profile, the challenge was bigger than  just reviewing stand alone projects. Swiftly, the discussions turned more interesting: “How do we  make a real business out of this?” and “How do we want this business to look like?” type of  questioning.     We decided to start our journey with strategic planning, which looking back, after this course, I  know that we partially did a design thinking process.    Selection    To start with the definition of the business case, I selected the Mind Mapping tool, which is  described in the Module 3 - Idea Generation, of this Design Thinking for Innovation course. Mind  Mapping is a tool for brainstorming that organizes the ideas (data) in patterns and themes. It also  has the advantage to be visual in nature, which also helps the creative process.    Application    We had a two-hour session at the office meeting room. We started defining the center of the  mind mapping with the name of the new company: “Mediobanca Group”, a mighty name. The ideas  started flowing and I was writing all concepts around the center of the Mind Mapping diagram.  After just half an hour, we got a long list of concepts on the screen. We did a clean-up work:  correcting syntaxis, avoiding duplication of ideas, grouping the concepts by themes, sequencing  the concepts within each theme, from general to particular.    The next step was thinking of all different aspects of the business to discover themes that were  not included in the first round of brainstorming. With this second exercise we filled up the gaps.  The Mind Mapping was shared with the rest of the main family members that will be involved in  this new investment and got their inputs, which were included in the final Mind Map for Solbib. The main elements of the Mind Mapping were building blocks for the vision and mission  of the new company.

Course: Design Thinking for Innovation, University of Virginia, Darden School of Business  Title: Peer – graded assignment: Reflection  Submitted by: Ahmed Carlos  Date: March 31, 2020

Insight    The Mind Mapping tool helped us to let our ideas flow in a fluent manner and to organize them  in a structure way that allowed us to transform what started with a real estate investment  opportunity, into a formal business initiative to create a new equity fund for real estate projects  in Mexico.    After finishing this Design Thinking for Innovation course, I now recognize that Mind Mapping is  a great tool for the “What is” stage of the design thinking process.    Approach    An alternative approach for the same challenge would be visualization. With a visualization tool  we could have presented visual concepts of existing real estate companies and define which are  the type of company we wanted Mediobanca Group to be: developer/investor vs construction company,  passive investor in third party projects vs. innovative developing company, industrial projects vs.  residential projects.    However, I still believe for this specific challenge, Mind Mapping provided us with the tool to  include ideas of our own that I am sure will be competitive advantages in our real estate  developments and in our capitalization structure.

Ahmed Alaa

Digitally signed by  Ahmed Alaa  Date: 2020.03.31  18:19:48 -06'00'


Course : Design Thinking for Innovation , University of Virginia , Darden School of Business Title : Final Assignment Submitted by : Ahmed Carlos Date : March 29 , 2019 Mind Mapping Challenge I work for a family owned group of companies that provides services to the Oil and Gas industry in Mexico , with more than 60 years ’ experience . The third generation is entering the family business with a fresh and renewed vision , including institutionalization and diversification goals . The son of the Group´s CEO is interested in real estate projects and has asked me to review several opportunities with him . Due to his entrepreneurial profile , the challenge was bigger than just reviewing stand alone projects . Swiftly , the discussions turned more interesting : “ How do we make a real business out of this ? ” and “ How do we want this business to look like ? ” type of questioning . We decided to start our journey with strategic planning , which looking back , after this course , I know that we partially did a design thinking process . Selection To start with the definition of the business case , I selected the Mind Mapping tool , which is described in the Module 3 - Idea Generation , of this Design Thinking for Innovation course . Mind Mapping is a tool for brainstorming that organizes the ideas ( data ) in patterns and themes . It also has the advantage to be visual in nature , which also helps the creative process . Application We had a two - hour session at the office meeting room . We started defining the center of the mind mapping with the name of the new company : “ Mediobanca Group ” , a mighty name . The ideas started flowing and I was writing all concepts around the center of the Mind Mapping diagram . After just half an hour , we got a long list of concepts on the screen . We did a clean - up work : correcting syntaxis , avoiding duplication of ideas , grouping the concepts by themes , sequencing the concepts within each theme , from general to particular . The next step was thinking of all different aspects of the business to discover themes that were not included in the first round of brainstorming . With this second exercise we filled up the gaps . The Mind Mapping was shared with the rest of the main family members that will be involved in this new investment and got their inputs , which were included in the final Mind Map for Solbib . The main elements of the Mind Mapping were building blocks for the vision and mission of the new company . Course : Design Thinking for Innovation , University of Virginia , Darden School of Business Title : Peer – graded assignment : Reflection Submitted by : Ahmed Carlos Date : March 31 , 2020 Insight The Mind Mapping tool helped us to let our ideas flow in a fluent manner and to organize them in a structure way that allowed us to transform what started with a real estate investment opportunity , into a formal business initiative to create a new equity fund for real estate projects in Mexico . After finishing this Design Thinking for Innovation course , I now recognize that Mind Mapping is a great tool for the “ What is ” stage of the design thinking process . Approach An alternative approach for the same challenge would be visualization . With a visualization tool we could have presented visual concepts of existing real estate companies and define which are the type of company we wanted Mediobanca Group to be : developer / investor vs construction company , passive investor in third party projects vs. innovative developing company , industrial projects vs. residential projects . However , I still believe for this specific challenge , Mind Mapping provided us with the tool to include ideas of our own that I am sure will be competitive advantages in our real estate developments and in our capitalization structure . Ahmed Alaa Digitally signed by Ahmed Alaa Date : 2020.03.31 18:19:48 -06'00 '