I opened up a new copy (June 2008) of Harvard Business Review (or actually, just looked at the cover where the articles are listed), and was thrilled to see an article, by Jeff Brown of IDEO, presenting one of my favorite subjects, DESIGN, as an essential factor in developing business strategy. The article, Design Thinking makes the point that design is not something you incorporate after critical decisions have been made, but in conjunction with those decisions. Involving desing early in the process is one way successful companies get a competitive edge and drive innovation. The article summary states:
“In the past, design has most often occurred fairly far downstream in the development process and has focused on making new products aesthetically attractive or enhancing brand perception through smart, evocative advertising. Today, as innovation’s terrain expands to encompass human-centered processes and services as well as products, companies are asking designers to create ideas rather than to simply dress them up.
Brown, the CEO and president of the innovation and design firm IDEO, is a leading proponent of design thinking—a method of meeting people’s needs and desires in a technologically feasible and strategically viable way. The article offers several intriguing examples of the discipline at work.