PARK advanced design management

New buzzwords are dominating the design management discussion here and there, most recent in the design thinking debate. But are you sure which fashions are worth to follow? How do you decide in which issues you are going to invest time and money?

Certainly, other disciplines are facing the same challenge, e.g. a huge amount of new management concepts, tools and themes are published in…

Forget BusinessWeek’s BCG research into the most innovative companies or Interbrand Best Global Brands research to proof the value of design. Their focus is on financial measurements only.

Instead, meet the new research into best brands: the Good Brands Report by PSKF. This report describes the brands that not only lead in innovation, but also in being…

Many design leaders still struggle how they can demonstrate that design contributes to an organisation. The article by John Heskett (2009)¹ attempts to fundament the necessity of communicating the value of design. He does this by explaining how design is, or better said, is not integrated into contemporary economic theory. An interesting approach, describing the shortcomings of the economic theories that have dominated our thinking…

Recently a wise and knowledgeable man reviewed our website.

He said: ‘I do understand that you are managing design and that that is close to management consultancy, but where is your love for and opinion about good design? I cannot find it…’

I was flabbergasted.
We had gone through some great lengths to create a site that expressed a professional, analytical and business-like approach…

A global research studied the habits of 25 innovative entrepreneurs (1). The researchers found that innovators are different due to five discovery skills:

1. Associating; successfully connect seeminlgy unrelated questions, problems and ideas from different fields.
2. Questioning; constantly asking questions like ‘why’, ‘what if’ and ‘why not’.
3. Observing; “going to the spot and seeing yourself” (Toyota’s genchi genbutsu principle).
4. Experimenting; actively trying out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching

…

60%- 70% of world’s jobs are created by small and medium enterprises (SME’s).
And yet, most design management practice is focussing on large, global companies.
We believe it is time to develop dedicated design management approaches for SME’s!

One of these approaches is ‘managing design for locality’:

• exploiting your local heritage into your design DNA
• discovering local consumer insights
• selecting and managing

…

In our daily work, we experience that more and more design managers are talking about behavioural design. They then refer to how to design the behaviour of sales staff or other representatives of an organisation, connecting it to the identity and look & feel of that organisation.
It is slowly considered to be a design discipline alongside graphic, product and environmental design. There are…

Four to five times per year, PARK sends out a statement on design management to around 80 design directors and design managers throughout Europe. Many of them react whether they agree or not. See below one of those statements and a selection of their reactions…

STATEMENT
Design managers and directors must pay more attention to the writing skills of their designers, helping them to show…

To improve global market share and spend on their products, P&G is re-focusing its strategy under the new leadership of Bob McDonald from high-end products like Tide Total Care towards value tier products like Tide Basic (FT December 18th, 2009).

Does this mean the time is over for Lafley’s ‘value-based metrics’, as he did with products like Charmin and Swiffer? And what does this…

As you may have heard, last year was the European year of Creativity and Innovation. Shortly after New Year’s Eve it might be a good time to look back (and out) which role innovation, design and design management plays on EU level.

There have been several initiatives by the European Commission to support and research on design and design management in recent years.^{1 & 2}…

Check out www.policydesignthinking.com!

It is a community that discusses the future Danish design policy, and is an initiative of the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority.
Practicing what the design community has been preaching for years: open innovation! Everybody, but preferably professionals in this area, can bring in topics and discuss these with each other.

Great initiative!
Every other Design Council or…