Show me the money

Design Economy / Design Metrics
Those attending a seminar entitled Design Economy / Design Metrics, at Copenhagen Business School this week, were reminded of former IBM Chairman Thomas Watson, Jr.’s saying that “good design is good business,”. Not that we need much reminding – in the current climate there are probably a few design agencies around the world having this particular quote printed on T-shirts.

The speakers produced evidence that there is a consensus about design – that when businesses invest in design, ’ordinary’ people find the resulting products more meaningful – and that these more meaningful products are more valuable to them.

Moreover, using the motor industry as an example, we were introduced to a mathematical model of just the degree of new thinking products need in order to succeed. In crude terms car manufacturers cannot build cars from pre-existing components alone - some parts must be specially designed for each new model in order for them to succeed.

Finally it was demonstrated that there is a relationship between products that win design awards and the market performance of the businesses that produce them. Businesses that are winners of the American IDEA award outperform the S&P benchmark for investment performance in the commodity markets by 6.5 %.

The deeper embedded a design philosophy is in businesses the better they perform - the more effort businesses devote to design the more design thinking as a mindset is adapted by the employees within that organisation. Good design is about anticipating of the needs of the people who use a product or service. When businesses create meaning for their customers in this way people are prepared to open their wallets.

The speakers at the seminar were Juliana Hsuan, Gorm Gabrielsen and Tore Kristensen, Associate Professors at CBS and Søren Ingomar Petersen, PhD from Stanford University .