Much of the discussion about the role

of design in companies is clouded

by jargon and designer up selling.

Most designers will tell you with

a straight face that design is the

most important factor for any business, which is

obviously just not true. There’s a more realistic battle

for designers selling their services to corporations.

That is to get design equal billing alongside the

traditional C-level functions.

Design evangelists may be aghast at such a

statement but it is possible that design is just not a

real requirement for some companies. For example,

a company may simply have much more pressing

operational problems than design. For design to be

effective, quality and cost must be under control,

engineering, inventory and supply chain must be

efficient and marketing and sales must be in working

order. Design may also be considered fundamental

to a company’s functioning but it may simply not be

the priority yet.

A company could be functioning effectively but be

working in a utterly commoditized area. Should the

manufacturer of the yellow triangles that cleaning

staff around the world use to warn of slippery floors

be looking for a design edge? There’s no doubt that

the most moribund industry (coffins anyone?) can

be attacked with design. Indeed these are often the

juiciest targets for an ambitious company daring to

redefine an industry. The question is whether this

is a sure-fire requirement for every dull, worthy

market.

On the far end of the spectrum, highly

sophisticated companies working in high technology

areas could also see design as a less than strategic

tool. Design thinker Steve Portigal noted the irony

of Flextronics, the $18bn global ODM, being voted

one of the Wired 40 based on it’s design ambitions.

In fact Flextronics caused a little seismic event

amongst designers a few years ago when then

CEO, Michael Marks announced to the world that

design had become a commodity and was no longer

a strategic advantage. This was shortly after the

acquisition of Frog, the celebrated boutique shop

and was followed by the shedding of Frog together

with some other non-core businesses. Only time

will tell how prophetic Mark’s words turn out to be.

In the case of defensible intellectual property

devoid of design, the candidates are rare who can

build a company on that basis as opposed to a single

product. Most end up like Polaroid. There are also

cases where some other advantage; massive scale,

superior reach, hyper vertical integration and so

on, confers an advantage that design simply can’t

match. However, these advantages boil down to cost.

And cost is where the discussion winds up. For

without design the reliable tools of quality and

efficiency strive to lower the price without any hope

of raising it sustainably. So there may be exceptions

but for most companies another tool is required; one

that can break the zero-sum game of cost-driven

competition.

Next: Improving Style

The power of

DeSIGNThe power of DeSIGN IS a SerIeS IN 5 parTS lookING aT The DIffereNT wayS IN whIch DeSIGN

caN be uSeD wIThIN a compaNy, cuTTING away hyperbole IN The TypIcal DeSIGN SaleS pITch aND

INveSTIGaTING The real beNefITS of DeSIGN To cuSTomerS, The orGaNIzaTIoN aND ITS reveNue.

The 5 parTS DIScuSS INcremeNTal STepS: No DeSIGN, STyle, form & fuNcTIoN, SolvING buSINeSS

problemS aND achIevING leaDerShIp.

1 Terrestrial article update volume 2 November 2010 November 2010 Terrestrial article update volume 2 2

DESIgN EvANgElISTS may be aghast at such a

statement but it is possible that design is just

not a real requirement for some companies. For

example, a company may simply have much more

pressing operational problems than design. For

design to be effective, quality and cost must be

under control, engineering, inventory and supply

chain must be efficient and marketing and sales

must be in working order.

parT 1: No DeSIGN, ThaNkS

AuTHOr TASOS CAlANTzIS

Tasos calantzis is the ceo of Terrestrial, an international, South african-based strategic design consultancy that deploys their proven expertise and tools to meet the challenges of globalisation in increasingly competitive markets, especially in africa. www.trstrl.com

The concept generation stage of product development is where the skill, experience and creativity of IDc’s design team are used to generate designs which address the identified needs of the clients and the users to create a ‘wow factor’. Ideas are like prototypes - they need to be tested to verify they fit customer and client needs.