Design Value In Business
The role of Design in business is simply to translate and communicate a business idea to consumers and clients. But why is it so hard? What is the difference between those design efforts that hit and those that miss the mark?
Good design practitioners add much more value than pretty pictures- they build bridges to the market and end users. They establish customised communication strategies for consumers and clients. When incorporated into the business strategy, expert designers are powerful drivers of effective innovation.
Experienced designers have a balanced view of the benefits and risks of innovation. Professional design processes business objectives into an actual product or service so that it simultaneously addresses the goals of the company and the desires of consumers and clients. Research shows that many of the firms that can perform at global level brought design into their cultures at an early stage.
Global brands are often design leaders and trendsetter as can be seen in published lists of top global brands (e.g. Interbrand, Bloomberg Business Week ).
Look, for example, at Apple. The design team who created the iPod, the iMac, and all of the other products that mark Apple’s success, is essentially the same team that created all of the products released during the firm’s poor market share and financial performance in the 90’s. The only difference between then and now is Apple’s CEO, who purposefully makes design the core of the product-development process.
A designer has the skill to evoke perceptions and desires of luxury, individuality, and tribal identity in consumers. Still, consumers who buy these items, often decide on them because the purchase reflects their personal attitudes or who they would like to be.
In the long term, design improves customer satisfaction, but only if it succeeds in communicating the quality and intent of a good idea that was turned into a good product or service. Design is also playing a big role in tackling the next ecological challenges to industries around the world. Consumer wants and needs should be balanced with ecological sustainability. It can be expected that great emphasis will be placed on developing innovative processes that maintain the outstanding user experience while reducing packaging, waste, parts, and carbon footprints.
Excellent designers, like visionary business leaders, create value by pushing boundaries and questioning the status quo. They achieve more with design process e.g. by reducing things to their essence.
Design creates new business opportunities and builds bridges to manifest big ideas into consumer wants, emotions, and aspirations. It’s time that designers and business decision makers sit at the boardroom table and contribute equally to creating sustainable solutions for business and society as a whole.