Industrial Design: A Competitive Strategy

Design Management Review, Fall 2004 by Grzecznowska, Anna, Mostowicz, Emilia

* Low profitability of production and high cost of credit; these considerably reduce the possibilities of investing in industrial design and developing innovative products

* Insufficient and unsatisfactory government support of innovative processes (there is no long-term policy in Poland on the development and promotion of industrial design)

* Low demand for new designs in some industries

* Growing production costs

* Lack of protection against unfair foreign competition

* Problems with material procurement

* Delays in payments and settlements of accounts with suppliers and buyers

Polish companies would be able to compete more effectively if our decision makers could provide better conditions for the development of industrial design in the country. According to our respondents, the following steps would facilitate industrial design development:

* Modernization of the Polish tax system, which could provide, for example, a tax reduction when a company launches an innovative, high-quality product or buys a new technology

* Reduction in cost of credit, enabling easier access for SMRs to bank credit

* Development of design and ergonomie advisory centers

* Popularization of information on industrial design and designers among manufacturers, and facilitation of mutual contacts with the use of databases developed by the Institute of Industrial Design

Our respondents are of the opinion that both the state budget and the budgets of local provinces should allocate funds to activities promoting Polish companies that make use of modern industrial design on the European markets. These funds should also support cooperation between big and small industrial enterprises.

About 75 percent of our subjects demand legal protection of industrial design and neutralization of unfair competition on the part of foreign companies which, in this way, avoid paying taxes. The clothing and textile companies, especially, would like to limit imports of low-quality products.

Nearly 40 percent of our subjects support the idea of developing in Poland a network of design centers-advisory bodies in the fields of industrial design and ergonomics, design promotion (for instance, the arrangement of exhibitions), information on world trends, and so on. Centers of this kind operate in many European Union countries, including Great Britain, France, Sweden, and Spain. They render consulting services and help industrial enterprises with the development and implementation of new designs through advice and financial help. In Poland, these functions could be performed by our National Design Council, which no longer exists.

These activities would give industrial design the opportunity to be recognized as a key factor in economic development and growth of the competitive power of Polish industry, and this would go a long way toward helping Polish enterprises achieve commercial success on the European market.

Reprint #04154GRZ55

1. A. Grzecznowska and R. Mostowicz, "The Impact of industrial design on product competitiveness." In Works and Materials 2003, no. 3, Institute of Industrial Design, Warsaw (CD-ROM, in Polish).