About us
The d.MBA’s mission is to show that companies can be run more thoughtfully and also be successful in the business sense.
We see designers as agents of that mission. We believe that the world would be a better place if more designers* led companies.
*anyone who puts people over profit
Our Story
The company was founded in 2017 by Alen Faljic, an ex-IDEO business designer, who wanted to bridge the worlds of business and design. Alen realized that the lack of business literacy is the biggest obstacle for design community aspirations.
Alen's first experiments involved an email course and podcast, which led to a more thorough and impactful version of the solution, the d.MBA program. The first intake of the d.MBA program took place in 2018 with 10 students from around the World.
With each intake, the d.MBA team has been making small adjustments and improvements in the format and content, leading to a creation of a new category of online courses called MiCCs. The focus of MiCCs is on education, personal growth, and impact, not on certificates and content distribution. We are proud to say that our completion rate is 97%, have a student rating of 9+/10, and we've managed to accumulate dozens of success stories of our students along the way.
Today, the d.MBA alumni community is hundreds of designers strong and still growing. If you share our mission and beliefs, join us.
Our Values
Empowerment over enablement
You can enable someone to write by giving them a pen and paper. But to truly empower them, you have to give them confidence and skills. Only a confident and skilful writer creates work that can move our society into new directions. Our job is not done when students finish the course. We want to empower our alumni to become design leaders and guide us to a more thoughtful future.
Skills over Certificates
Education is not about the piece of paper you get in the end. It is about skill acquisition and behavioral change. That's why the d.MBA approach is focused on rapid skill acquisition and deliberate practice. We break down business into relevant sub-skills, which you practice on real world case studies, so you can start using business skills in days, not months.
Impact over profit
Our impact is our most important metric. While many products (especially education) water down quality for scalability, we put student impact first. We believe that we are successful if our students are successful. And we are all successful if our society is successful. This is why we at the d.MBA promote stories of circular economy and sustainability. We design our company the same way. We want it to be a case study for designers and entrepreneurs, proving that thoughtful approach can lead to good business results.
Existing over exiting
In order to achieve our mission, we want to be around for the long term. Our job is not done when students finish the program. We support them through various alumni activities so they can turn business confidence into mastery and real impact. Therefore, we're dedicated to running the d.MBA differently. No investors. No quarterly reports. No expectations of hyper growth and rich exits. We believe we can create more value by existing, not exiting.
Our Team
Alen Faljic, founder and CEO
Alen's passion lies in the intersection of business, design, and education worlds. He makes sure that the content of d.MBA program is exactly what designers want and need to gain business confidence and impact.
Katharina Sommerkamp, Program Director
Kat ensures that d.MBA students have a great experience in the program. She mentors d.MBA students, prepares program content, and works tirelessly on programs format improvements.
Franz Emprechtinger, COO
Franz has been with the d.MBA since the very beginning, wearing many hats along the way. He keeps an overview and makes sure that everything runs smoothly. From the student experience all the way to admissions processes.
Klara Faljic, design and operations
Klara takes care of the UX processes at the d.MBA. Additionally, she makes sure that d.MBA team is functioning well by overseeing all internal operations and processes.
Mersi Silec, student experience manager
Mersi runs our admission process to help us shape diverse cohorts. During the program, she makes sure that students have everything they need to succeed.
Maja Zilnik, marketing manager
Maja manages our marketing efforts. As an educational company we invest a lot in sharing our knowledge with the design community and Maja plays an integral part in bringing it all together. She also guides prospective students through the application process and the program.
Tom Prior, d.MBA Academy Lead
Tom leads our d.MBA Academy, a monthly webinar series connecting the dots between business and design featuring top design leaders and innovators.
d.MBA mentors
Our core team is complemented by d.MBA mentors. Having worked as business designers for world-class agencies such as Designit, Fjord, and IXDS, mentors have unique insights into the worlds of business and design. They help students get through the program by providing guidance and individual feedback to assignments.
Have a question? Send us an email at hello@d.mba or connect with us on social media.
We are looking forward to hearing from you!