Can Design Thinking Help Enhancing Empathy in Finance ?

Author:

Anshuman Mehta

Edition:

5th edition (2014/2015)

Keywords:

Culture / Emotions

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Creativity Is a Bad Word

When used in the context of modern-day finance the word crea-tivity invariably has very negative connotations. Creative accounting led to the downfall of corporate giants. Creative regulatory and capi-tal solutions disguised arbitrage of regulators and regulations. Creative tax solutions blurred the fine line between tax avoidance and evasion. Creativity, as uttered by a financial service professional, is a very bad word indeed.

But beyond the narrow confines of finance, there exists a broader definition of the word creativity – a creative community of artists and de-signers, tech innovators and disrup-tors who seek new and innovative solutions to everyday problems.Through the use of a pioneering ap-proach called Design Thinking, they create solutions but only after enga-ging in a deep and empathetic dia-logue with end-users. Design Thin-king transforms their efforts into a human-centred approach to problem solving (Brown, n.d.).

In this paper, we seek innovative ideas for ethics in finance through the application of the principles of Design Thinking.

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