Design Finds You by Mark Dziersk

01:27 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Innovation's true character....

So the economic crisis is in full force and juxtaposed against what also currently appears to be a full commitment to Design and Innovation by business.  In front of us, there is a moment of truth. The question now becomes, will the commitment to innovation survive the enevitable onslaught of cost cutting and retreat to safer ground?

How many newly minted Chief Innovation officers will be able to make the case and continue to take risks and advance and nuture a vision of the future?

I am teaching a class tonite in which the core topic is Bang & Olufsen, the Danish company that has always lead from a design standpoint. More than a few lessons to learn there, and the case study (Harvard Business School 9-607-016) is an inspiration in light of today's new realities. A company who's true commitment to design and innovation has survived trial and success.

10:25 am | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

The answer my friend...

There is a change in the wind. I am just back from a recent design conference, the IDSA National Conference, and one has the sense that two dramatic changes are in play. First, the idea that design's service to society should be its primary purpose, not design as leverage for commericial purposes. If this is to be the future, the question then becomes: how is it funded? I wonder if anyone has thoughts on that.

The second change I sensed is the refreshing and amazingly low-key attitude and profile of the attendees. The setting, the Arizona desert, might have had something to do with that, but this was not business as usual. In fact it was more of a get away than business at all. (Two things I'd never seen before - celebration of past success and casual conversations from the stage). As competition tightens and design takes its "seat at the table", do you find that design and designers are becoming more casual in approach? Your thoughts?

Mark

03:41 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

A Glass Half Full...

I was speaking with my colleague Rob Swan who found most of the following on Mark Sigal’s Blog. A simple, yet profound truth. I believe that most designers are naturally disposed to think this way. Of course, not all designers and not all the time. That said, when teams are all disposed to think this way that's when the real magic happens...

".....I learned to always assume positive intent. Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or a problem becomes very different. When you assume negative intent, you're angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed. You don't get defensive. You don't scream. You are trying to understand and listen..." Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico.

Think of the assumption of positive intent as a kind of 'pose,' and noodle for a moment on the ripple effect that it creates.

For one, adopting this pose validates the general desire that others have to be perceived favorably. It's a simple truth, but when your body language is favorable to others, they are more likely to ACT favorably to you.

Two, by adopting this pose, you soften your heart, relax your muscles and open your ears. My experience is that greater outcomes tend to come from openness, optimism and agility than narrowness, skepticism and tension so adopting such a pose is less a matter of idealism and more one of self-interest.

Assume Positive Intent

Mark

07:28 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

The Water Cube

Is it just me or does anyone else want to live in the Water Cube? Well not the actual Water Cube, but in an environment like that. If you are not familiar with it, the Water cube is the clean and smart looking modern structure built as the swimming venue for the Beijing Olympics. It, along with the "Birds Nest", (the much heralded Olympic stadium), are making this designer's veiwing of the Olympics a very enjoyable experience. The Water Cube looks a little bit like a giant Apple store. While I am huge fan of modernism and the "New modernism movement, it bothers me that a sports hall, a computer store and my dream home all share the same aesthetic ideals, colors, and even material executions.

Perhaps it's the nagging memory of the first modern movement having been killed by uninspired uniformity. Don't want that to happen again. I'll tell you what, when they do the Starbucks coffee chain over, (and you know they will, they are in a spot of trouble), when they do the interiors over,... they better not come out looking like the Water cube.

Mark

06:43 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Branded in China

Post contribution by Craig Briggs- Brandimage

There are many cliches that exist in people’s minds in the corporate world about other parts of the world. The little we might know of far away lands come from sources that are either superficial in detail or merely steeped in historical generalities. Take Shanghai for instance. Most people think it’s somewhere in China, which is correct. But do you have any idea where? It is located on the same latitude as Georgia. The size of the city of Shanghai is staggering. New York City is slightly over 300 square miles with a population of slightly over 8 million people. Shanghai is well over 2,200 square miles with a population well over 16 million. Every single aspect of its educational, governmental and industry infrastructure is growing. People are becoming more educated, living longer, earning more money, buying more things. Shanghai is one city of 31 other provinces and regions.

Economically, the city and surrounding regions of South East China are on a similar upward growth path. Even during these very difficult times of sluggish economic growth and declining markets, China’s upward momentum is continuing while other economies are either stagnant or in decline. Amazingly, few of us know very little about the city and most of the rest of that region.

I gave a speech to The Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong a few weeks ago. The organization represents thousands and thousands of manufacturing companies throughout this thriving and growing South East China region. 99.9% of the companies you’ve never heard of, yet they are the global manufacturing backbone for a staggering vast array of electronics, durable products, equipment, plastic components, and structural packages for some of the most powerful brands in the world. They are the OEM manufacturer to the world. They hold the power of production for brands worth billions and billions of dollars in sales to companies all over the United States and Europe. As we all know, in the dynamic and cerebral world of high-stakes marketing and world-class innovation, we don’t think of manufacturing and production as the group to lead the charge.

We’ve grow accustom to telling a manufacturer what to make, why, when and even how. They aren’t part of consumer insights, brand and marketplace strategy, consumer interaction and research, the design process, retail and merchandising design, or most executive-level decision making. This is the mindset in most parts of the world and within most of the largest and most powerful branded product and CPG corporations in the world. When you take these outdated yet prevalent ways of thinking, and put them into the context of an area most people can’t find on a map, yet alone visit and spend time with people talking about what they do and want to be doing, you create a cliché of gigantic proportions. So, who cares? What’s the big deal? My brands are invincible, powerful and forever. How could this ever affect me? My friends at the CMA of HK fully understand their place in the pecking order. They also know that as the global economy dips, so does the demand of their services. They are in the growth hot-spot of the world; the center of opportunity; the bastion of unfathomable change – and they are doing everything for everyone else.

The prevailing thought is why continue to do things they way they have always been done? What if manufacturers dreamt of growth in a new and different way? What if they innovated in the area of partnering? In doing so, they would change the rules of the game. What I hear is that is exactly what many, many, many manufacturers are thinking about throughout South Eastern China.

Instead of being the known as “Made in China”, they are seriously investigating the much more profitable game-changing notion of being known as “Branded in China”. What if a substantially large amount of manufacturers decided to make their own brands? What if they partnered with global design agencies and pumped new products and packages into the marketplace? Consider the sheer size of their marketplace. Now consider the enormity of branded competition that would flood out of the region and country and become a new and innovative part of the global marketplace and economy. The largest influx of new products and packages ever seen would be totally new and fresh, relevant and made to be what it should be for consumers, without being hindered to evolve existing brands or be constrained by an outdated or amortized manufacturing and production facility. From a design standpoint, can anyone think of a brand that comes form China? Name one single brand. What if every single United States and European brand had a new competitor from a place that was thriving economically, had unlimited physical growth and the output was controlled by the very people who actually produce it?

05:59 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Designer Nomads

Designers are everywhere these days. The profession like many others, has become extremely portable.

Designers are often in situation learning about consumer and user experiences. Working from mobile devices. Rendering on tablets instead of tables and sending info and documents real time. It used to be that a busy Design studio was one where it was quite large and there was a lot of activity and milling about. Now I think really successful studios can be smaller and quieter because of how transportable everything has become. No more drawing boards and drawers full of tools. Being there and acting quickly the new norm.

Just an observation but design appears to be on the move in more ways than one these days.

Mark

04:15 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Networking Social

Design conferences are enjoyable and effective venues for networking. It was great  to catch up with old friends and colleauges at the IIT strategy conference in Chicago recently. The conversations and presentations centered mostly around future strategies for design thinking Two words kept popping up. "networking" and "social", or perhaps more acurately "societal".

To be clear, not so much conversations around the idea of "social networks", although that did come up quite alot, rather as two seperate ideas serving as drivers for moving the profession forward. Networking and Society connected by idea that we all will interact in yet unaticipated ways and those answers are what will have the most impact, the most meaning.

Stated best perhaps by USC Scholar, John Seely Brown (who kicked things off), "the idea that we used to be defined by what we wore on our wrist or drove, being replaced by,..we are what we create and the network of influence it has. Combine that with the powerful idea of "society as customer" (as opposed to individuals) interesting new thinking around the idea of "design thinking" to ponder.

06:53 pm | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

A vote for Design

On conference stages and in print recently many have declared and forcefully written that; creativity will become the driving engine for this new economy. Like "Knowledge" before it, and "Manufacturing" before that, Design and Creativity it ihas been widely hypothesized, will be a critical ingredient in business success.

If that is so, then why is this idea so absolutely absent from the political debate currently going on in the presidential race? Everything else has come up, from NAFTA to fuel emissions, yet design is still quite glaringly invisible in all the candidates arguments. Which candidate has even mentioned it in the endless stump speech opportunities and multiple debates they've all had?

Is it not a kitchen table issue when considering how children in the future may need to be educated and practiced in the art of creativity? I would vote for Design, if anyone would just bring it up.

03:04 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Can oil prices drive Innovation?

Sorry all regarding the delay in activity, I have been away.  Back to regular blogging directly. Here's a  starter.

In a recent conversation with a close colleague, Craig Briggs, who is located in Asia, the idea of oil pricing driving innovation came up and sparked a vigorous debate.

Here are Craig's thoughts on the matter; 

Will $120 Oil Drive Design Innovation? In the West, design is playing a vital role in the creation of eco-friendly and sustainable products. Motivated by corporate responsibility and ‘inconvenient truths’, these product designs have advanced rapidly beyond recyclable, recycled and/or biodegradable designs that sacrificed aesthetics for the cause. Now product designs are balancing function and form – products are being designed beautifully and responsibly. There is a market for it – consumers in most developed countries may make their purchase decision based on a brand’s environmental character and philosophy. In many cases, they may even pay a premium for it. It’s shared business- and consumer-led movement. But, in Asia this is not the case. Not yet. With the notable exception of Japan, Asia at large is too busy developing to pay much attention to eco-friendly and sustainable design. China opens a new power plant every 9 days. Business is becoming hyper-competitive and aesthetics overrule “friendly”. Consumers are just not interested. They are not basing their purchase preference on such design, and they are a long way off from paying a premium for such well-designed products.

But $100 oil may change everything in Asia. Oil is the universal, driving energy and material source for every fast-moving good, and its rising costs are putting pressure on Asian marketers who are at the same time pressured to innovate and grow. Asia can no longer rely on cheap labor costs (by the way, labor costs are sky-rocketing in China, too) to buffer the increasing costs of materials. Marketers can’t pass along these costs in full to value-conscious Asian consumers, so they now are pressured to cut other costs – distribution, promotion, staff, and, production costs. That’s where the oil comes in.

 The first move marketers will take with production is to try to remove the volume of materials from the product. Take a PET bottle, for example. A 500ml PET bottle may have 25 grams of plastic in it. How do you take out 20% of the weight, and thus 20% of the costs? It’s not easy. Take 20% of the plastic out of your favorite mineral water bottle and you may feel like you are holding an intravenous drip bag. Removing costs can mean removing functionality and aesthetics. And this is where design can again play a vital role – designing for savings and innovation. For Asian marketers willing to invest in this kind of innovation there is competitive advantage and savings in the long term. Design can be sustainable, functional, save costs, AND be aesthetically pleasing. Companies and designers that combine imagination with functionality and that have the technical expertise in materials and structure are poised to lead products and brands toward this winning combination. Good, Fast, Cheap and Green (Pick Any 3) “Good, Fast and Cheap. Pick any two.” This was the adage my first boss used to give to clients to demonstrate the innovation tradeoff - that innovation required a considered investment in time and money to reach fruition. But over the last 20 years, competitive demands dove-tailed with production efficiencies and created “good, fast and cheap – pick all three” as the standard – the cost of entry for marketers to compete and win. Now, a fourth variable is being added to the list of three – “friendly”. The new adage: “Good, fast, cheap and friendly – pick 3”. But we marketers are greedy, so we’ll soon want all 4. How will we get it? But the sky-rocketing cost of oil, now reaching triple digits, is presenting a renewed challenge to this scenario. Let’s face it, oil is the universal, driving energy and material source for every fast-moving good, and with pressure to grow markets and market shares, “cheap” may be falling back out of the equation. Or is it.. How do you innovate and remove costs out at the same time?

The answer is design – designing for innovation and savings. How do you design functionally superior products that are aesthetically pleasing, while simultaneously reducing the cost of production? This is a dilemma facing marketers today, those challenged to compete as the cost of oil ascends toward triple digits. Addicted to Oil and Innovation As marketers, we’re addicted to oil. Oil is the universal, driving energy and material source for every fast-moving good, and growing markets and market shares, we’re consuming more to make more. At the same time, we marketers are addicted to innovation. Innovation is how companies, products and brands are going to survive and grow in today’s ever-changing, competitive marketplace. But oil and innovation are in conflict. This priority to innovate, particularly with fast-moving goods, is made all the more challenging with the cost of oil reaching triple digits. Oil here being the universal, driving energy and material source for most every fast-moving good on our planet. How do you design a product that is functionally relevant, aesthetically pleasing and that uses less material? It’s not impossible, but certainly isn't going to be easy…

10:26 am | 0 recommendations | 5 comments

Design Brainstorming: Creativity as Killer App

One way creativity can apply to every situation faced is to make a protocol of running a problem through a filter of crashing disparate influences. If everytime we are faced with a problem and two or three answers appear, there is great value in smashing those seemingly obvious first choices into other non intuative, even non sensical, options. Brainstorming can help here.

One method (or killer Brainstorm app) is to collect a group of problem solvers and start by brainstorming a list of 3 categories, let's say user, like product and like function. Next pick randomly from the lists, combining the three into an answer. Making the list is fun and thought starting. Combining the three, provides structure within the brainstorm ( I know, sounds counter intuitive, but it works) although the ideas may not be immediately applied, they almost always lead to unexpected answers and new directions.

Although a brainstorm like this is a small step and usually safe to do. The point is to provide a method that allows the embrace of ambiguity and encourages going someplace different. This kind of thing in the long run, helps encourage an organization to look for other ways to integrate creative thinking.

Mark

Mark Dziersk FIDSA.
VP Indusrial Design - laga/one80
mdziersk@laga.com