Last week’s announcement that McKinsey are purchasing Lunar, a design-consulting firm, is one example of a growing movement towards corporates buying up design agencies. Some like McKinsey are acquiring ready-made design teams; others have begun hiring designers in vast numbers. IBM is busy spending $100m (£63.8m) with the aim of recruiting 1,000 designers across its global workforce by 2018.
Design can help companies better understand their users’ needs to create innovative solutions. This may range from redesigning existing products, to making a website more user-focused, to developing a new customer service proposition or company strategy. As one business leader says in the Design Council’s Leading Business by Design 2014 research, when all else is equal: design is the differentiator.
Due to the increasing importance of design and the changing role of technology in production, the traditional ratio of designers to engineers is shifting. Previously the benchmark was considered to be one designer to 15 engineers; it’s now reportedly 1:4 in high value digital companies such as Uber and Airbnb. Companies like these see design as intrinsic to the product or service they provide, not just a layer of styling around it.
However it’s not only digital startups where design is becoming increasingly critical to the success of a company. Even traditional manufacturing companies are expanding their design teams. Tata Motors has created a design unit spread over three countries and expanded from 14 staff to 200. Volvo has gone from one human-machine interaction specialist to 12. Until 2007, Aston Martin had no design house. It now has a state-of-the-art design studio.
For design to really create value it needs to sit not just in the design studio but be integrated into company strategy at the highest level of the boardroom. Philips, PepsiCo and Hyundai have all announced the appointments of chief design officers to their boards, able to take decisions to promote good design and also stop the bad.
The UK has the second largest design sector in the world, home to some of the best known names in design, and many of the world’s leading brands, buildings and products. Government statistics from 2014 show design is the fastest growing sector of the creative industries, both in terms of new jobs created and gross value added to the economy. The design sector grew 24% between 2012-13 compared with the 4% growth of the economy as a whole.
The publication last week of the EU’s Innovation Union Scoreboard 2015 (PDF) highlighted how the US, Japan and South Korea continue to outperform the EU in key innovation metrics. On the same day at the Design for Europe Summit in Brussels speakers from major European companies like Kone, Zumtobel and Electrolux spoke about the ability of design to drive innovation by putting user needs at the heart of business strategy.
Design is critical to our economic future. Industry 4.0 – or the fourth industrial revolution - is upon us, giving rise to digital manufacturing and the dawn of the Smart Factory. Design is a central component – and there will be an increased demand for designers in the future workforce. We must be ready – with education systems set up to encourage creativity from primary school age - so as to create the pipeline of high quality design talent we need.
Design is a competitive strength, which drives productivity and differentiates our products and services in a global market. As we move into a new design age designers are increasing demand from business to the public services to help us reimagine problems and imagine solutions. The Brighton Fuse (PDF) illustrated that “fused” companies, those combining creative art and design skills with technology expertise, grew faster than the local economy and more than 10 times faster than the British economy as a whole.
Design for Europe and the Design Council will champion the role of design in driving innovation. Governments need to respond by ensuring that the pipeline of domestic talent is able to meet this rapidly rising demand.
Annabella Coldrick is director of Policy and Research at the Design Council and Coordinator, Design for Europe
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