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Strategic Design Management
in 250 Floors or Less
By Brian Gillespie, Principal, Designing
Business
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| Brian Gillespie |
Recent research into the extent to which design management is being
offered as a consulting service offered up some interesting (and
perhaps disappointing) insights. Virtually no consultancies that
provide design-related services include “design management”
as a specific competency that has been articulated into a set of
services. Although one would think there is a market opportunity
here for a smart agency to differentiate itself from the competition,
the evidence shows that for those who have tried it hasn’t
been easy and it won’t get easier any time soon.
Among the reasons offered by the consultants interviewed was that
clients or potential clients don’t know what design management
is. Those who have tried in the past to establish a design management
service and communicate its potential value to their clients have
faced an uphill service marketing battle. The all important elevator
pitch, communicating the essence of the proposition in 30 seconds
or less, or approximately 10 floors, proves a formidable challenge!
These challenges become more formidable when the form of design
management being envisioned is elevated to a higher level, the formidable
beast known as strategic design management.
Why call it a formidable beast? Well let’s just take a look
at the phrase ‘strategic design management’. It is constructed
of three words that in and of themselves can have professionals
from three fields debating the depth and breadth of their meanings
for at least the length of several weekend conferences! For example,
Mintzberg discusses 10 schools of strategy in Strategy Safari.
Management consultants and gurus offer new schools of management
every season. And design? As John Heskett in Toothpicks &
Logos likes to say, “Design is to design a design to
produce a design”. The words combine into a dizzying lexicon
of terms: design, strategic design, design strategy, design management,
strategic design management. The conceptual complexities become
even more daunting when we bring marketing into the mix.
Much of the literature on the subject urges that design management
is most effective when user-, consumer- and customer-focused. From
the strategic management point of view, customer-focused differentiation
effected through design can be a source of competitive advantage.
From the user-centered design and customer-centered marketing point
of view, market-based practices can be developed that inform the
strategy formation process, especially in the transition from planned
to emergent strategy. This systematic production of design information
can support the creation and iteration of all customer interactions
manifested in the design of products, services, environments, and
communications. It is the vast scope of this holistic inclusiveness
that provides one of the largest challenges to converting principles
of strategic design management into a set of valuable consulting
services that doesn’t require a firm the size of McKinsey
to support.
Probably the single most influential factor in determining the
types of consulting services potentially required by a company is
the organizational context of the prospective client. Since strategic
design management, to be effective, requires an organization with
the strategy and operations to make it work, the nature of consulting
engagements will vary according to the extent of design’s
infusion into the client organization and the level from which the
contracts originate. It can also depend on factors such as culture,
size, nature of the business, and on the internal resources and
competences the client has at its disposal. Organizations in which
design is an integral part of corporate or business strategy tend
to have the following characteristics:
Design is viewed as a strategic resource, valued as a tool
of strategy, and managed strategically Strategy and design are represented and managed at each level
of the organization Strategy and design are enterprise-wide activities,
and each level of the organization has the requisite business
and design knowledge to effectively manage and be productive Organizational structure supports vertical and horizontal
integration and coordination of activities of people, practices,
and processes in the pursuit of strategic objectives Organizations plan and manage multiple channels of
interaction with customers Design and marketing, as tools of strategy, are pivotal in
integrating customer experience through all points of contact
Each of the values described above will vary depending on the unique
context of each client organization. The degree to which any of
these factors are present in an organization will in all likelihood
determine the type of engagements external consultants might have.
It will also determine the degree of strategic impact the work of
external consultants will have in the client organization.
Because the range of services offered by current consultancies
is finite, focused on implementation, and carried out by functional
specialists, they cannot be expected to solve all of the strategic
needs of large client organizations that interface with internal
and external customers through multiple channels and points of contact.
Even firms that include strategy in their range of competencies
use it to drive implementation. In other words, the strategy is
purely tactical and directly related to a project.
Most of the interviewed consultancies offering design-related services
are still hired by their clients on a per-project basis. This tactical
employment of design means that consultants find it difficult to
influence the development of the client organizations’ emerging
strategies. In addition, many clients have not yet developed integrated
enterprise-wide strategies for the use and management of design.
Corporate design objectives are not communicated to consultants
before they begin their work, further hampering their ability to
include themselves in a process of strategic design management.
As such, the involvement in strategy formation as opposed to only
strategy implementation may distinguish strategic design management
consulting from traditional design consulting.
A unique quality of strategic design management is its ability
to manage design to the point that it is a source of sustainable
competitive advantage, no matter what the organizational context,
no matter what the design need. There is potentially a market for
a new model of consulting services, divorced from specialist design
outputs, the goal of which is to help organizations manage design
as a critical element of strategic management. The service could
be designed to have a universally scaleable application to any organization
large or small and facilitate the optimal outcome from any of the
numerous design implementation specialists available to companies.
In such a scenario, strategic design management consultants will
need to be design generalists and management specialists in order
to adapt to the unique and specific needs of each organizations
context and requirements.
There is great diversity in the consulting industry, with consultants
being found in almost every field of professional practice. Management
consulting has been simply described as the identification, diagnosis,
and resolution of business issues and is very often employed by
firms to help in the areas of strategy, operations, and information
technology. Might we then say that strategic design management consulting
is concerned with the management of design in the identification,
diagnosis, and resolution of business issues that are of strategic
importance to an organization? As short and sweet as this is,
it may still not be enough to help an innovative service market
launch communicate its value in 10 (let alone 250) floors or less.
Brian Gillespie is a Boston-based design management
consultant with specialist experience in the field of interactive
media. A recent graduate of The University of Westminster, London,
MBA Design Management program, he is working with others to establish
a business network of American and European graduates. Further information
on this research and the research of others can be found at www.designingbusiness.com.
Brian can be reached at brian@designingbusiness.com.
This article appeared in the April
2003 eBulletin.
Feedback on DMI Viewpoints and article proposals
are always welcome! Please email jtobin@dmi.org.
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