Bill Foulkes

Senior Critic - Industrial Design

BA, Harvard University
MBA, Harvard University

Bill Foulkes is a strategic planning and marketing consultant and entrepreneur. The course he created, Design and Entrepreneurial Thinking, introduces artists and designers to business concepts and enhances their abilities to bring their ideas to reality. This curriculum originated during Foulkes’ tenure as executive director of the Center for Design and Business at RISD (2006–08). The Center helped businesses, educational institutions and government entities set up and manage collaborative design research projects with RISD students, faculty and alumni.

Foulkes has over 20 years of experience in strategic planning, people development, marketing and finance in both high-tech and consumer companies where he has successfully identified, communicated and implemented new business concepts and initiatives, led organizational change, built strategic partner relationships and led creative processes. He has been on the executive team of several small startups, including MTI Group Holdings and Context Media. Prior to joining these firms, he was a strategy consultant at Telesis, a division of Towers Perrin. Foulkes' experience also includes consumer product marketing at Gillette and investment banking at Morgan Stanley.

Courses

Fall 2024 Courses

ID 2382-01 - BUSINESS PRINCIPLES: DESIGN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Level Undergraduate
Unit Industrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

ID 2382-01

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES: DESIGN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Level Undergraduate
Unit Industrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: W | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructor(s): Bill Foulkes Location(s): Center for Integrative Technologies, Room 217 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Turning an idea into a sustainable reality requires a fundamental understanding of business, but the frameworks that guide business principles overlap, complement, and enhance design principles. This course seeks to educate students to understand business as a critical design factor- a defining constraint or liberating perspective along the same lines that other design principles are taught. The guiding principle is that design and business are inextricably linked: Design work is intrinsically linked to business and will always be at the service of business, fulfilling the need for an enterprise (profit or non-profit) whose business model is critical to its survival. Design will find new channels, new outlets, through a more complete understanding of business needs and how businesses see opportunity. Design can and should be considered as critical strategic input for business. The objective of Business Principles: Design and Entrepreneurship is for students to understand basic business vocabulary, to explore how design vocabulary and design processes overlap, complement and enhance business vocabulary, and to understand how design thinking skills can be used to identify and execute business opportunities.

Elective

Wintersession 2025 Courses

AD 1511-101 - DESIGN + ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Architecture and Design
Subject Architecture & Design
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

AD 1511-101

DESIGN + ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Architecture and Design
Subject Architecture & Design
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-01-03 to 2025-02-06
Times: TH | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 02/06/2025 - 02/06/2025; WTHF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/29/2025 - 01/31/2025; THF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/23/2025 - 01/24/2025; WTHF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/15/2025 - 01/17/2025; THF | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/09/2025 - 01/10/2025; F | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | 01/03/2025 - 01/03/2025 Instructor(s): Bill Foulkes Location(s): Design Center, Room 212 Enrolled / Capacity: 20 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Entrepreneurship--the imagining, building and sustaining of socially impactful organizations--is a creative art. It requires insights and knowledge from the humanities and the social and physical sciences, and demands self-awareness and purpose. The premise of this lecture course is that designers and artists are uniquely gifted with critical entrepreneurial qualities. This course will allow students to better understand how and where their skills and perspectives fit into the world of entrepreneurship and business. The objective of Design and Entrepreneurial Thinking is for students to understand a basic business vocabulary, to explore how design vocabulary and design processes overlap, complement and enhance business vocabulary, and to understand how design thinking skills can be used to identify and execute business opportunities. This course seeks to educate students to recognize business as a critical design factor--a defining constraint or liberating perspective-along the same lines that other design principles are taught. This course will use Harvard Business School case notes, case studies, and recent business books to highlight this thinking. Students will be introduced to basic business concepts through lectures, case studies, assignments and class discussion. Homework assignments will work off the classroom pedagogy. Topics covered will be business models, marketing, finance, and strategy.

Elective

Spring 2025 Courses

ID 2382-01 - BUSINESS PRINCIPLES: DESIGN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Level Undergraduate
Unit Industrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

ID 2382-01

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES: DESIGN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Level Undergraduate
Unit Industrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: W | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructor(s): Bill Foulkes Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Turning an idea into a sustainable reality requires a fundamental understanding of business, but the frameworks that guide business principles overlap, complement, and enhance design principles. This course seeks to educate students to understand business as a critical design factor- a defining constraint or liberating perspective along the same lines that other design principles are taught. The guiding principle is that design and business are inextricably linked: Design work is intrinsically linked to business and will always be at the service of business, fulfilling the need for an enterprise (profit or non-profit) whose business model is critical to its survival. Design will find new channels, new outlets, through a more complete understanding of business needs and how businesses see opportunity. Design can and should be considered as critical strategic input for business. The objective of Business Principles: Design and Entrepreneurship is for students to understand basic business vocabulary, to explore how design vocabulary and design processes overlap, complement and enhance business vocabulary, and to understand how design thinking skills can be used to identify and execute business opportunities.

Elective


BA, Harvard University
MBA, Harvard University