Monday, September 24, 2007
Design Dividend
Fast Company has an intriguing look at the bottomline benefits of companies that focus on design. (The design dividend) According to this study, 65 design-focused British firms substantially outperformed the index over a period of 13 years.
Focused design throughout the enterprise clearly brings differentiation and customer-pleasing products to the forefront, but the articles about design in this issue of fast company also got me thinking about some other worthwhile areas of study:
- Design oriented firms are also research oriented - is there a correlation between the amount of research a firm does and its design savvy?
- We know that Design driven marketing agendas couple wonderfully with innovation driven companies such as IBM and Hewlett Packard - but is there an inverse correlation, where it would be possible to say (not causally) that where there are low design standards there are also low innovation standards?
- We know that corporate Design efforts fail if they are not holistic, menaing that every touchpoint for the consumer should be consistantly designed, honest and effective. But what does this mean for skunkworks, such as the Blackbird computer from HP, is it possible for compelling design to come from one division of a design-less company?
- "The simplest definition of design is how you treat your customer." -Yves Behar, founder, fuseproject. Customer Retention improves when design improves. Apple has proven it, now it is time for the rest of the corporate world to learn it. But what happens when a marketing strategy, in this case the price drop on the iphone, is such a slap in the face of a company's best customers? If design is how you treat your customers, then this Apple Iphone isn't designed very well.
Labels: Apple, Design, design dividend
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posted by Sean Cohen @ 8:41 AM
posted by Sean Cohen @ 8:41 AM
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Sean,
This is a nice piece of data and some intriguing speculations. I'd add one or two quick thoughts.
1. The act of designing reflects an attention taken to the product (and to the customer). The result? What the chart suggests is something simple: Designed products are subject to the Hawthorne Effect -- that is, attention changes behavior. When products are designed someone is taking attention to the making and the customer is asked to take attention to the buying. On both sides of the equation, this changed behavior results in a "changed" or renewed perception of the product. Even a badly designed product -- if consciously designed -- would be subject to the effect. And it is that attention that results in the market success of "design" oriented firms. It's sorta a version of the Willy Loman adage..."Attention must be paid." Whatever attracts attention results in increased market value. Britney Spear? who is, of course, a designed product.
I'd be intrigued to know the firms that are NOT in the "design" oriented group.
2. It is a pity that the info in your chart and in your observation doesn't end up getting discussed in business schools!
Neil
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This is a nice piece of data and some intriguing speculations. I'd add one or two quick thoughts.
1. The act of designing reflects an attention taken to the product (and to the customer). The result? What the chart suggests is something simple: Designed products are subject to the Hawthorne Effect -- that is, attention changes behavior. When products are designed someone is taking attention to the making and the customer is asked to take attention to the buying. On both sides of the equation, this changed behavior results in a "changed" or renewed perception of the product. Even a badly designed product -- if consciously designed -- would be subject to the effect. And it is that attention that results in the market success of "design" oriented firms. It's sorta a version of the Willy Loman adage..."Attention must be paid." Whatever attracts attention results in increased market value. Britney Spear? who is, of course, a designed product.
I'd be intrigued to know the firms that are NOT in the "design" oriented group.
2. It is a pity that the info in your chart and in your observation doesn't end up getting discussed in business schools!
Neil
# posted by 
: 9:55 AM
: 9:55 AM Links to this post:
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