Volume 18, Number 4, Fall 2007

Design can make an impressive contribution to business success; the challenge is fitting it into the big picture. Contributors to this issue offer insights on establishing a design-focused culture and stimulating innovation in general, as well as on marketing individual product and service innovations. They articulate the unique wisdom designers bring to problem solving. They spell out metrics for calculating the impact and value of design. They critique the roles of design and technology at catalysts in the creative process, and they illustrate important lessons in case studies as such companies as Microsoft, Dell, and KitchenAid.

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Design Methodology as a Migration from Analytic Methodology
Darius Mahdjoubi, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Innovation, Creativity and Capital (IC2) Institute, University of Texas, Austin
Western education tends to emphasize analytical thinking as the premier method of problem solving. But as a mode of thinking, Darius Mahdjoubi, a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, believes design's value lies in its integrative...

Design Strategies for Technology Adoption
Alonzo Canada, Relationship Leads, Jump Associates; Pete Mortensen, Communications Lead, Jump Associates; Dev Patnaik, Relationship Leads, Jump Associates
Many companies struggle with how best to bring a new technology to market. Adoption theory-the study of how new ideas spread to new audiences-can offer a useful framework on which to base a design strategy. Identifying five clusters of...

Design Value: A Framework for Measurement
Thomas L. Lockwood, PhD, President, Design Management Institute
Most companies have come around to the realization that design can enhance performance, but unless there are metrics that can gauge its contribution, the difference design can make is a matter of conjecture. Thus, proving design's return on...

Innovation in Organizations in Crisis
Todd Cherkasky, Director of Business Consulting, Sapient; Adrian Slobin, Director of Business Consulting, Sapient
Peter Drucker has said that "innovation is work, rather than genius," and Todd Cherkasky and Adrian Slobin agree. Slobin and Cherkasky, directors of business consulting for Sapient Corp.'s Chicago office, believe that innovation is a disciplined...

Insights at the Nexus of Design and Business Success
Thomas Walton, PhD, Editor, Design Management Review
Editor’s Notes for Volume 18, Number 2

Managing the Evolution of Microsoft’s Hardware Business
Andy Cargile, User Experience Manager, Microsoft Hardware; Ken Fry, Design Director, Artefact
Twenty-five years ago, the hardware division of Microsoft Corp. was charged with making the first computer mouse compatible with Microsoft Word. Since then, it has designed PC keyboards, gaming joysticks, trackballs, a cordless telephone system...

Measuring the Future Brand Effect of Graphic Design
Gert L. Kootstra, MBM, Managing Consultant, Census Design Management BV; Jos Vink, Managing Partner, Blauw Research
Although many executives acknowledge the importance of design assets, it can be difficult to convey their benefits with hard numbers. Gert Kootstra and Jos Vink, members of the Dutch Designers Association, have developed a quantitative research...

The (Ir)relevance of Technology: Creating a Culture of Opportunity by Design
Anthony Pannozzo, Vice President, Design Strategy, HLB
Anthony Pannozzo, vice president of design strategy for Herbst LaZar Bell, suggests that "opportunity is the sole criterion that defines innovation." Pannozzo fails to find a direct correlation between market success and the investment in...

The Best Strategy Is the Right Strategy
Sohrab Vossoughi, Founder and President, Ziba Design
The Whirlpool Corporation designs appliances under the Whirlpool, Roper, and KitchenAid names. The trouble was that there was little to differentiate one mark from another. The company had data on its customers, but did little to target specific...

Transforming into Dell 2.0: The Customer’s Strategic Role in Design Innovation
Kristina Goodrich, Principal, Kristina Goodrich Communications
This behind-the-scenes look at a corporate metamorphosis illustrates a major shift in Dell Inc.'s business strategy. Dell had made its reputation by offering dependable, strong, sturdy, and low-cost machines through online shopping and good...

Visual Thinking: A Leadership Strategy
Mark Dziersk, Vice President of Industrial Design, LAGA/One80
Strategy, leadership, and process classes are common in MBA programs-and rarely taught to designers. Convinced that "design" and "strategy" traditionally reflect two very different realms within the world of business, Mark Dziersk, vice president...

What Does It Mean to Be Design-led?
Michael Beverland, Professor, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.; Francis Farrell, Associate Professor, Monash University, Australia
Can your firm rightly be characterized as design-led? What are the criteria? Drawing from research and in-depth interviews with corporate leaders, these two Australian professors of marketing posit four characteristics of firms in which design is...