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Managers at small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) have limited resources and limited time in which to use them. Sure, they've heard that design is important, but many of them assume that only large corporations can afford it. What is the best way to reach these businesses and convince them that design is not only affordable, but can also offer a huge return on the investment?
Sally Brazier is a director of CEOSTRA Ltd., a company that works with SMEs to develop their strategies, and she also works as an independent business adviser specializing in design management. Most of the time, she notes, it's something very practical that brings entrepreneurs into her office: They need to produce a product, a brochure, a website. Others are coming off the disappointment of a failed product. If that product did not involve the services of a trained designer, sometimes this is a way to encourage the firm to look for design help the next time. Either way, Brazier writes, “Case histories of other companies that have successfully used design are by far the most effective in piquing the interest of these companies.” She points out, however, that it is important that these examples be examples of other small and medium-size businesses, not large companies; again, it is important not to feed into the belief that only corporate behemoths can afford design.
“Once you get a toehold in a company,” Brazier writes, “the trick is to 'walk them backward' into understanding and using design strategically. You start with the issue they present and address it, but during the process you touch on the wider design issues. When you start with a brochure or a website, for instance, you ask them to describe the image they want to give. Sometimes you need to prize out of them which image they think they have or should have. Then it is easy to challenge them about how their workplace, their products and services, and their customer relationships reflect their perceived identity. Invariably, they tell you that none of these things truly reflect their company's identity. Then, you'll find they're more open to reconsidering their identity and how it might be applied across all areas.” The process leads to the development of a design brief and the search for a designer.
Interestingly, Brazier sees her job as one of not only helping SMEs be better at managing design, but also helping designers do a better job working with SMEs. Companies that learn better design management skills will be more efficient at hiring and working with designers. Designers that are organized into a local network and are friendly to small businesses will have more opportunity for work and will have more opportunities to develop their capabilities.
Brazier's company has organized several workshops for SMEs on topics ranging from developing a business's image and company literature to designing websites, workplaces, and of course, products and services. She offers some examples of successful projects and closes with this comment: “The final challenge is to broaden the SME's use of design from a single project to a central part of business strategy, and from a single area of design to a holistic design strategy.”
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