Narrative Assets

Design and Business - A Natural Synergy?

One could argue that a successful business is designed to be that way. With proper procedures in place, an engaged and inspired workforce, ample supply of customers and an endless number of innovative ideas...any company can be immensely profitable - right?

While the concept of good design traditionally applies to products or services that perform and satisfy the user (and ultimately leads to profits), it also applies to the way an organization communicates, collaborates and strategizes on an everyday basis.

Either way, good design, whether at the organizational or product level, leads to positive customer experiences. To take it a step further, innovative design evokes meaning which can lead to long lasting brand recognition.

In order to get the benefits from good design, both designers and businesspeople have to take an integrated approach to strategy. This integrative approach is being adopted in a new program to be launched in 2008 by the California College of the Arts.

The program, called an MBA in Design Strategy, "unites the studies of design, finance, and organizational management in a unique curriculum aimed at providing students with tools and strategies to address today's complex and interconnected market. The program's approach encompasses performance, strategy, innovation, and the encouragement of meaningful, sustainable social change."

Led by Program Chair Nathan Shedroff, the program seeks to develop innovative solutions to economic and social challenges using design techniques and business metrics. Perhaps most innovative of all, is the program's inclusion of a course on Effective Communication that teaches students how words can seriously impact business interactions.

DMI (Design Management Institute) in Boston is also a thought leader in the area of business and design. In September, DMI will be hosting a conference about The Changing Role of Design and Design Management in Business. Conferences held on similar subjects have attracted attendees from companies such as: Kodak, eBay, Fossil, Kraft and Hasbro.

DMI believes that the integration of design and business is now a reality. The new world of work requires a cross-disciplinary approach with integrated design solutions. Designers are now just as responsible for the bottom-line as managers and executives, and it's essential that they realize the implications of their work both inside and outside of the organization.

As Steve Jobs said in an interview with Fortune magazine in 2000, "Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product.” The implication that design is something that expresses itself from the 'inside out' has meaning for organizations as well. If we can design things or places directly from the core, then this will positively affect a company on several levels as design will incorporate the true essence of a place or product.

What impact has good design had in your workplace? At the mall, supermarket or in your home? Does it affect your decision on whether or not to buy a product?

Design Thinking: CEO's as Designers

Olivier Blanchard, author of the Brandbuilder blog, posted clippings from a Business Week article written by Bruce Nussbaum in his Nussbaum on Design blog. Nussbaum is assistant managing editor in charge of Business Week's innovation and design coverage.

Nussbaum's article, entitled "CEO's Must Be Designers, Not Just Hire Them" offers reasons as to why CEO's, managers and designers themselves must become proponents to Design Thinking.

In his post, Blanchard offers a great overview of Nussbaum's key thoughts. Here are a few quick snippets that Blanchard highlights from Nussbaum's article:

• "In the US, CEOs and top managers hate the word “design.” Just believe me. No matter what they tell you, they believe that “design” only has something to do with curtains, wallpaper and maybe their suits. These guys, and they’re still mostly guys, prefer the term “innovation” because it has a masculine, military, engineering, tone to it."
• "Innovation is no longer just about new technology per se. It is about new models of organization. Design is no longer just about form anymore but is a method of thinking that can let you to see around corners."
• "Innovation, design, and technology are all flowing into one another to form a single river of roaring change radically altering our culture, and especially business culture."
• "Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way. If you are in the myth-making business, you don’t need design. You need a great ad agency. But if you are in the authenticity and integrity business then you have to think design."
• "Let me emphasize this. I think managers have to BECOME designers, not just hire them. I think CEOs have to embrace design thinking, not just hire someone who gets it. I think many business schools have to merge with design schools, not just play poke and tickle with them."
• "There are two great barriers to innovation and design in the world today. Ignorant CEOs and ignorant designers. Both groups are well-intentioned and well-dressed—in their own ways—but both can be pretty dangerous characters."
• "Design should not give up its special ability to visualize ideas and give form to options. Design should extend its brief to embrace a more abstract and formalized expression of how it translates empathy to creativity and then to form and experience."

What more can I say. I think Nussbaum's article and Blanchard's summary speak for themselves. They certainly speak for me.