“Champions may push from above, policies may sit off to one side, programs tend to be temporary and functions isolated, whether leading or lagging. In contrast, design as infusion works alongside, and especially within other functions. Managers whose responsibilities touch design do not merely accept it, but become part of it. Design thus becomes a way of life in the organization.” —Dumas and Minztberg, 1989Design Champion is according to one of the design consultancy approaches one of the most suitable ways for an organization to promote design. The champion could be the chief executive officer or other executives too or even an outside consultant. This person acts as a patron and even if he/she leaves the organizations there is the possibility to leave something important behind. The problems could occur when there are promoted beliefs...

12 February, 2010 /

Trends, according to the Joziasse, that caused the design to go beyond mere aesthetics and/or decoration in becoming a source for gaining sustainable competitive advantage was supposed to be:design as a core competency;integration of design into the business world;design management and planning as a focus for consultancies;the merging of business and design education.The consequence was that some prospective corporations have developed design as a continuous element of corporate strategy.  And out of that is the claim that sustained design strategy allows companies to take leadership positions in their sectors.Sources:Joziasse, Frans. Corporate Strategy: Bringing Design Management into the Fold in Lockwood Th. & Walton Th. (eds). 2008. Building Design Strategy: Using Design to Achieve Key Business Objectives. DMI & Allworth Press, 257 p.Lockwood, Thomas. Design Value: A Framework for Measurment in Lockwood Th. & Walton Th....

16 January, 2010 /

There are decades of investments in helping corporations throughout the world to develop a sustainable corporate and/or business strategy.In modern times many authors, among them Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad, and Gary Johnson and Kevan Scholes suggest that defining core competencies is the only way to ensure continuing success under changing conditions. What is therefore the classical approach to strategy development?There are two methodological approaches or ways to develop a corporate and/or business strategy:rigorous formal approaches include game theory, decision trees, opportunity portfolios, real options, scenarios, simulations and other numerous variations;less rigorous possibilities include rapid analysis frameworks (such as SWOT), scorecards and weighing systems, and evaluation processes (such as Stage-Gate).Both approaches have support onthe one hand in the rigorous mathematical theory; and onthe other hand in the less rigorous but equally...

16 January, 2010 /

How to connect the strategy, design strategy and design management?Simply focusing on design and trying to connect it with the strategy is not supposed to create good results. There was a model developed to show that companies are to focus on design management rather than simply on the use of design. In the model, called Design Management Staircase there is a range presented from the immature level of design management to a level where design management is of strategic nature and part of the company’s culture (Kootstra, 2009, p. 12) and therefore part of corporate identity. The model is presented in the Figure below. /*! elementor - v3.5.5 - 03-02-2022 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=".svg"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} At highly driven design companies they have a differentiation strategy where design is at their core. Those kinds of companies are market...

22 December, 2009 /