Design matters

Design Management Review, Spring 2004 by Walton, Thomas

If you interpret the title of this quarter's overview to mean that, in business, design makes a difference, you're absolutely right. If you interpret it to mean that our Spring Review is devoted to articulating the arenas in which design makes a difference, you're equally on the mark. The vision for this issue is expansive. Our goals are twofold: to confirm that design management is an essential organizational resource, and to share insights about how to use this resource most effectively. To this end, contributions range from essays that offer a broad perspective to case studies that examine the impact of design on furthering business objectives. It's an intriguing mix, one we hope is a useful update on the state of the art in design management, complemented with hands-on lessons concerning the design management "arts."

The big picture

Thomas Lockwood, manager of global brand and design strategy for StorageTek, a data storage hardware and software company in Louisville, Colorado, has analyzed the role of design in more than 100 businesses and identified seven factors that leverage the value of design and hallmark the beneficial integration of this asset within the corporate culture. he looks for "design mindedness"-a realization that there is a direct relationship between design and success; for an organizational structure that gives designers input into a broad swath of business decisionmaking; for a mindset that appreciates the strategic, as well as the tactical, nature of design thinking; for a recognizable design management process, whether formal or informal, that includes planning, budgeting, staffing, and problemsolving; for teamwork and collaboration that include design; and for an understanding of design as a pathway to both change and innovation. What makes Lockwood's analysis compelling is that his abstract principles are amplified with real-world case studies. Design tales come from Heineken, British Airways, Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, and other companies-stories in which "design-in-action" gives shape to design management theory.

An interview with Don Goeman, vice president of design and development for Herman Miller, the international interior systems company based in Holland, Michigan, yields a more indepth corporate profile. In a discussion with design strategy consultant Deanne Beckwith, Goeman comments that Herman Miller's focus is on tracking emerging trends, searching the long horizons, and understanding change-all actions that inspire research and design. The work ranges from broad, abstract investigations that can continue for years to narrowly defined projects related to the development of specific products. The goal is innovation-a spectrum of robust, creative responses to the challenges of work-place design. Fads are eschewed. Herman Miller products sell for an average of 10 years, and some have been on the market for more than 40 years. This enviable track record is the result of teamwork with experts in engineering, architecture, marketing, and other business disciplines joining forces with renowned designers. Certain teams are mentored by board members or the CEO, and designers themselves are consultants rather than employees-a strategy for hiring the best and most appropriate talent. Rather than selling furniture, Herman Miller offers its customers intelligent solutions. It studies how a business is organized, its objectives, its approaches to decisionmaking, and then proposes environments that sustain and enhance those processes. Moreover, its own facilities-from offices to research centers to factories-mirror this philosophy, exemplars of the nexus between design excellence and value that, like the company, stands out as an example of successful design management.

As the complement to this expansive corporate overview, Bill Fluharty, vice president of industrial design for Johnson Controls, a global leader in automotive systems and facility management and control, also headquartered in Holland, Michigan, writes in our Executive Perspective about effective design management from the vantage point of the design manager. he notes that while his group wields no power in the organizational hierarchy, it has, over the years, transformed itself from a useful service to a critical corporate function by providing unique talents and decision-making support. Because they work with a diversity of business units within the company, Fluharty's staff has a reputation for being unusually knowledgeable about business trends, customer concerns, and product requirements. This, in turn, has enabled Fluharty to establish partnerships with the executives responsible for corporate strategy. In doing so, he makes sure his associates avoid duplicating the contributions of others, but instead add value to any debate. They are especially good at facilitating collaboration, at illustrating the context of a problem, and at connecting the dots across disciplines. They strive to make others successful, and they generate a vision for the future with periodic presentations on advanced initiatives. In these ways, without reporting to the CEO or upstaging other managers, design inspires creativity and infuses itself as an indispensable element in a corporate culture that stresses engineering, manufacturing and the development of extraordinary customer relationships.