Design Thinking has become business strategy

Design Thinking has become business strategy

Financieel Dagblad 9 January 2016

The ideas of designers make inroads into the board rooms.If and when the whole organisation thinks as a designer does, innovation will announce itself without outside help. Designers are the accelerators of new source of income.

Design thinking supports the advance of design principles throughout the whole organisation, like focussing on the end-user and on user-friendliness. Designers are focused on the bigger picture, they embrace abstract challenges and uncertainties. By stirring up imaginations new ideas and innovation appear, that is the accepted picture. Managers are taught to continuously implement product improvements on the basis of end-user feedback.

The entry and rise of designers in the world of consultancy is a typical example of innovative disruption.

Or Design Thinking design thinking it is no longer just about the attractive design of a product, an app or the website, Shapiro explains. When thinking about design, design principles such as putting the end user first and ease of use are making headway throughout the entire organisation. Designers focus on the bigger problem, embracing abstract challenges and uncertainties. By sparking the imagination, new ideas and innovation emerge, or so the thinking goes. Managers are taught to continuously implement product improvements based on feedback from end users.

‘No sector can escape digital disruption,’ says Shapiro. ‘Hiring creative people like designers is still the easiest part. It is much harder for traditional companies to completely change their culture. The idea is for new ideas to bubble up and break through hierarchical layers. The trick is to embrace change aggressively and turn it to your advantage by moving faster than your competitors.’

More than a physical product

It is largely thanks to companies like Apple that design has been defined more broadly in recent years than just the design of physical products. At Apple, design is central to the entire brand and corporate image. Companies like IBM, PepsiCo and General Electric (GE) cannot afford to fall behind.

GE built a design centre in Silicon Valley with movable walls and screens on which 360-degree photos and videos can be displayed. Designers are being lured away from Google and Facebook. GE's head of design, Greg Petroff, spoke to tech blog Gigaom last year of ‘a new layer of DNA’ at GE, which operates in the rapidly changing worlds of energy and healthcare.

Trend:
’Board members of large enterprises are no longer satisfied with traditional strategy advice’

New forces:
The rise of designers and design thinking in the world of consultancy is a typical innovative disruption