Five questions with Justin Lokitz
Get to know Justin Lokitz (MBA Design Strategy 2014), an alum, professor, and chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at CCA.
Justin Lokitz.
Justin Lokitz is the author of the best-selling books, Design A Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation and Business Model Shifts: Six Ways to Create New Value for Customers; a startup entrepreneur; an advisor and investor; the founder and CEO of Plantfully Systems; and a professor and chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at CCA. He has over two decades of experience designing and executing innovation strategies for large, multinational organizations, as well as several startups, including his own.
1. What is your current practice/business?
I am a startup entrepreneur, an advisor and investor, the founder and CEO of Plantfully Systems, and a professor and chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at CCA.
2. Why did you choose CCA?
When I enrolled in the MBA in Design Strategy (DMBA) program at CCA, I was working full time as a senior product line manager at Autodesk and realized that many of my colleagues had MBAs and other degrees from big, prestigious programs. Yet here they were, doing something very similar to me, and I did not have a graduate degree. So I started to search the landscape for something different, and attended an information session put on by Nathan Shedroff, the DMBA founding chair. What struck me as radical, was the practical, hands-on approach Nathan and the DMBA instructors took. After learning that the DMBA would enable me to prototype many ways of working and building businesses, often with real businesses as clients, I was hooked.
3. If you could share one piece of advice with current or future students, what would it be?
Spend your time prototyping new ways of working, leading, and collaborating. Doing this in a school setting where you can safely "fail" (without receiving a failing grade), is the best way to learn new tools, skills, and methods without losing all of your money, time, friends, or family in the process of starting a real business.
4. What's your secret to staying inspired and creative?
This one is easy for me: I read a lot and spend a few minutes every day jotting down business ideas. Just the practice of getting ideas out of my head and into a note helps me to stay sharp creatively.
5. What do you have coming up?
I am always working on a new business or an update to an existing one. Right now I'm working on a rebrand of my supplement business, Plantfully. I'm excited to launch it this year!
