Design management is a business discipline that uses project management, design, strategy, and supply
chain techniques to control a creative process, support a culture of
creativity, and build a structure and organisation for design. The objective of
design management is to develop and maintain a business environment in which an
organisation can achieve its strategic and mission goals through design, and
by establishing and managing an efficient and effective system. Design
management is a comprehensive activity at all levels of business (operational
to strategic), from the discovery phase to the execution phase. "Simply
put, design management is the business side of design. Design management
encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies
that enable innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications,
environments, and brands that enhance
our quality of life and provide organisational success." The discipline of
design management overlaps with marketing management, operations management, and strategic management
Traditionally, design management was seen as limited to the
management of design projects, but over time, it evolved to include other
aspects of an organisation at the functional and strategic level. A more recent
debate concerns the integration of design
thinking into strategic management as a cross-disciplinary
and human-centred approach to management. This paradigm also focuses on a
collaborative and iterative style of work and an abductive mode of inference, compared to
practices associated with the more traditional management paradigm.
Over recent years, design has become a strategic asset in brand
equity, differentiation, and product quality for many companies. More and
more organisations apply design management to improve design-relevant
activities and to better connect design with corporate processes.
Extended definition
The multifaceted nature of design management leads to varied
opinion, making it difficult to give an overall definition; furthermore, design
managers have a broad range of roles and responsibilities. These factors, combined
with a multitude of other influences such as the industry involved, company
size, the market situation, and the importance of design within the
organisation's activities. As a result, design management is not restricted to
a single design discipline and usually depends on the context of its
application within an individual organisation.
On an abstract level, design management plays three key
roles in the interface of design, organisation, and market. The three key roles
are to:
- Align design strategy with corporate or brand strategy, or both
- Manage quality and consistency of design outcomes across and within different design disciplines (design classes)
- Enhance new methods of user experience, create new solutions for user needs and differentiation from competitor's designs
Defining quotes
Design management is the effective deployment by line
managers of the design resources available to an organisation in the pursuance
of its corporate objectives. It is therefore directly concerned with the
organisational place of design, with the identification with specific design
disciplines which are relevant to the resolution of key management issues, and
with the training of managers to use design effectively.
—Peter Gorb
Design management is a complex and multi-faceted activity
that goes right to the heart of what a company is or does [...] it is not
something susceptible to pat formulas, a few bullet points or a manual. Every
company's structure and internal culture is different; design management is no
exception. But the fact that every firm is different does not diminish the
importance of managing design tightly and effectively.
—John Thackara
Definition of related terms
Design
Unlike unique sciences such as mathematics, the perspective,
activity, or discipline of design is not brought to a generally accepted common
denominator. The historical beginnings of design are complex and the nature of
design is still the subject of ongoing discussion. In design, there are strong
differentiations between theory and practice. The fluid nature of the theory
allows the designer to operate without being constrained by a rigid structure.
In practice, decisions are often referred to as intuition. In his Classification
of Design (1976), Gorb divided design into three different classes. Design
management operates in and across all three classes: product (e.g. industrial
design, packaging design, service design), information (e.g. graphic
design, branding, media design, web design), and environment (e.g. retail
design, exhibition design, interior design).
Management
Management in all business and organisational activities is
the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives
efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing,
leading
or directing, and controlling an organization
(a group of one or more people or entities), or effort for the purpose of
accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and
manipulation of human resources, financial
resources, technological resources, and natural
resources. Towards the end of the 20th century, business management came to
consist of six separate branches, namely human
resource management, operations management (or production
management), strategic management, marketing management, financial
management, and information technology management,
which was responsible for management information systems.
Although it is difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in
this way, it helps in navigating the discipline of management. Design
management overlaps mainly with the branches marketing management, operations management, and strategic management.
Design leadership
Design managers often operate in the area of design
leadership; however, design management and design leadership are
interdependent rather than interchangeable. Like management and leadership,
they differ in their objectives, achievements of objectives, accomplishments,
and outcomes. Design leadership leads from creation of a vision to changes,
innovations, and implementation of creative solutions. It stimulates
communication and collaboration through motivation, sets ambitions, and points
out future directions to achieve long-term objectives. In contrast, design
management is reactive and responds to a given business situation by using
specific skills, tools, methods, and techniques. Design management requires
design leadership to know where to go and design leadership requires design
management to know how to get there.
History
Difficulties arise in tracing the history of design management.
Even though design management as an expression is first mentioned in literature
in 1964, earlier contributions created the context in which the expression
could arise. Throughout its history, design management was influenced by a
number of different disciplines: architecture, industrial
design, management, software development, engineering; and movements such
as system
theory, design methodologies. It cannot be attributed
directly to either design nor to management.
Business
Managing product aesthetics and corporate design (early
contributions)
Early contributions to design management show how different
design disciplines were coordinated to achieve business objectives at a
corporate level, and demonstrate the early understanding of design as a
competitive force. In that context, design was merely understood as an
aesthetic function, and the management of design was at the level of project
planning.
The practice of managing design to achieve a business
objective was first documented in 1907. The Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) was
established in Munich
by twelve architects and twelve business firms as a state-sponsored effort to
better compete with Great Britain and the United States by integrating
traditional craft and industrial mass-production techniques. A German designer
and architect, Peter Behrens, created the entire corporate identity (logotype, product design,
publicity, etc.) of Allgemeine
Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG), and is regarded as the first industrial
designer in history. His work for AEG was the first large-scale demonstration
of the viability and vitality of the Werkbund's initiatives and objectives and
can be considered as first contribution to design management.
In the following years, companies applied the principles of
corporate identity and corporate design to increase awareness and
recognition by consumers and differentiation from competitors. Olivetti became
famous for its attention to design through their corporate design activities.
In 1936 Olivetti hired Giovanni Pintori in their publicity department and
promoted Marcello Nizzoli from the product design
department to develop design in a comprehensive corporate philosophy. In 1956,
inspired by the compelling brand character of Olivetti, Thomas Watson, Jr., CEO of IBM, retained American
architect and industrial designer Eliot Noyes
to develop a corporate-wide IBM Design Program consisting of coherent
brand-design strategy together with a design management system to guide and
oversee the comprehensive brand identity elements of: products, graphics,
exhibits, architecture, interiors and fine art. This seminal effort by Noyes,
with his inclusion of Paul Rand and Charles
Eames as consultants, is considered to be the first comprehensive corporate
design program in America. Up to and during the 1960s, debates in the design
community were focused on ergonomics, functionalism, and corporate design, while
debates in management addressed Just in time, Total quality management, and product
specification. The main proponents of design management at that time were AEG, Bauhaus, HfG Ulm, the British
Design Council, Deutscher Werkbund, Olivetti, IBM, Peter Behrens, and Walter
Paepcke.[14][16]
Managing design systematically (1960s–1970s)
The work of designers in the 1960s was influenced by
industry, as the debate on design evolved from an aesthetic function into
active cooperation with industry. Designers had to work in a team with
engineers and marketers, and design was perceived as one part of the product
development process. In the early years, design management was strongly
influenced by system science and the emergence of a design
science (e.g. the "blooming period of design methodologies" in Germany, the US,
and Great Britain), as its main contributors had backgrounds in architecture.
Early discussions on design management were strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon
literature (e.g. Farr and Horst Rittel), methodological studies (e.g. HfG Ulm and Christopher Alexander), and theories in
business studies. Design management dealt with two main issues:
- how to develop corporate systems of planning aims
- how to solve problems of methodological information processing
Instruments and checklists were developed to structure the
processes and decisions of companies for successful corporate development. In this period the
main contributors to design management were Michael Farr, Horst Rittel, HfG
Ulm, Christopher Alexander, the London Business School, Peter Gorb, the
Design Management Institute, and the Royal Society of Arts. Debates in design
disciplines were focusing on design science, design methodology, wicked
problems, Ulm methodology, new German design, and semiotic and
scenario technique.
Managing design as a strategic asset (1980s–1990s)
In the 1980s several managers realised the economic effect
of design, which increased the demand for design management. As companies were unsure
how to manage design, there was a market for consultancy; focusing on helping
organisations manage the product development process, including market
research, product concepts, projects, communications, and market launch
phases—as well as the positioning of products and companies.
Three important works were published in 1990: the Publication
of Design Management – A Handbook of Issues and Methods by Mark Oakley
(Editor), the book Design Management by French researcher Brigitte Borja de Mozota, and the Publication
of Design Management – Papers from the London Business School[24]
by Peter Gorb (Editor). This new method-based design management approach helped
to improve communication amongst technical and marketing managers. Examples of
the new methods included trend research, the product effect triad, style
mapping, milieus, product screenings, empiric design methods, and service
design, giving design a more communicative and central role within
organisations.
In the management community the topics of management theory,
positioning strategy, brand management, strategic management, advertisement,
competitive strategy, leadership, business ethics, mass customisation, core
competencies, strategic intent, reputation management, and system theory were
discussed. Main issues and debates in design management included the topics of
design leadership, design thinking, and corporate identity; plus the
involvement of design management at the operational, tactical, and strategic
levels.
In 1980 Robert Blaich, the senior managing director of
design at Philips,
introduced a design management system that regards design, production, and
marketing as a single unit. This was an important contribution to the
definition of design as a core element in business. At Philips
Design, Stefano Marzano became CEO and Chief Creative Director in 1991,
continuing the work of Robert Blaich to align design processes with business
processes and furthering design strategy as an important asset of the overall
business strategy.
From 1996-2003 Tom Hardy, Design Strategist and former head
of the IBM Design
Program, served as Corporate Design Advisor to Samsung where his integration of a comprehensive
design management system and design experience strategy into the corporate
infrastructure became a strategic asset
that significantly helped elevate the company's brand image from follower
to global leader and increased brand equity value.
Managing design for innovation (2000s–2010s)
Design management has taken a more strategic role within
business since 2000, and more academic programmes for design management have
been established. Design management has been recognised (and subsidised)
throughout the European Union as a function for corporate advantage
of both companies and nations.The main issues and debates included the topics
of design thinking, strategic design management, design leadership, and product
service systems. Design management was influenced by the following design
trends: sustainable design, inclusive design, interactive design, design
probes, product clinics, and co-design. It was also influenced by the later
management trends of open innovation and design thinking.
Notion of the term "design management"
The term "architectural management" was coined
by the architects Brunton, Baden Hellard and Boobyer in 1964 where they
highlighted the tension and synergy between the management of individual
projects (job management) and the management of the business (office
management). Although they did not use the term "design management",
they stressed identical issues; while the design community discussed
methodologies for design. Christopher Alexander's work played an important role
in the development of the design methodology, where he devoted his attention to
the problems of form and context; and focused on disassembling complex design
challenges into constituent parts to approach a solution. His intention was to
bring more rationalism and structure into the solving of design problems.
In 1965 the term design management was first
published in a series of articles in the Design Journal. This series
includes a pre-publication of the first chapter of the book Design
Management by Michael Farr, which is considered as the first comprehensive
literature on design management. His thoughts on system
theory and project management led to a framework on how to
deal with design as a business function at the corporate management level by providing the
language and methodology to effectively manage it.
Politic (till 2000s)
Design policies have a history reaching back to the end of
the 19th century, when design programmes with roots in the crafts sector were
implemented in Sweden (1845) and Finland (1875). In 1907 the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) was
established in Munich
to better compete with Great Britain and United States. The success of the Deutscher Werkbund inspired a group of British
designers, industrialists and business people after they had seen the Werkbund
Exhibition in Cologne in 1914, to found the Design and Industries Association
and campaign for a greater involvement of government in the promotion of good
design. In 1944 design management by managing design policies was used by the
British Government. The British Design Council was founded by Hugh Dalton,
president of the Board of Trade in the British wartime government, as the Council of Industrial Design with the
objective "to promote by all practicable means the improvement of design
in the products of British industry".
Germany also realised the national importance of design
during World War II. Between 1933 and 1945 Adolf
Hitler used design, architecture and propaganda to increase his power;
shown through the annual Reichsparteitage in Nürnberg
on September 5. Heinrich Himmler coordinated several design
activities for Hitler, including: the all-black SS-uniform designed by Professor
Karl
Diebitsch and Walter Heck in 1933; the Dachau concentration camp, designed by Theodor
Eicke, and prototypes for other Nazi concentration camps; and the Wewelsburg
redesign commissioned by Heinrich Himmler in 1944.
Since the 1990s the practice of design promotion is
evolving, and governments have used policy management and design management to
promote design as part of their efforts of fostering technology, manufacturing
and innovation.
The 15th European International Design Management
Conference organised by the Design Management Institute
In America the Chicago industrialist Walter
Paepcke, of the Container Corporation of America,
founded the Aspen Design Conference after World War II as a way of bringing
business and designers together – to the benefit of both. In 1951 the first
conference topic, "Design as a function of management", was chosen to
ensure the participation of the business community. After several years,
business leaders stopped attending because the increased participation of
designers changed the dialogue, focusing not on the need for collaboration between
business and design, but rather on the business community's failure to
understand the value of design.
The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Presidential
Medals for Design Management were instituted in June 1964. These were to
recognise outstanding examples of design policy in organisations that
maintained a consistently high standard in all aspects of design management,
throughout all industries and disciplines. With these awards the RSA introduced
the term design management. In 1965 the first medals were given to four
companies; Conran & Co Ltd., Jaeger & Co Ltd., S. Hille & Co Ltd.
and W. & A. Gilbey Ltd. in the category "current achievements"
and two companies London Transport and Heal and Son Ltd. in the category
"long pioneering in the field of design management". The medal
selection committee included representatives of the RSA council and the faculty
of Royal Designers for Industry.
The Design Management Institute (DMI) was founded in 1975 at
the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Since the
mid-1980s the DMI has been an international non-profit organisation that seeks to
heighten the awareness of design as an essential part of business
strategy, and become the leading resource and international authority on
design management. One year later the first conference was organised. The DMI
increased its international presence and established the "European International
Conference on Design Management" in 1997, and a professional development
programme for design management.
In 2007 the European Commission funded the Award for Design
Management Innovating and Reinforcing Enterprises (ADMIRE) project for two
years, as part of the Pro Inno Europe Initiative, which is the EU's "focal
point for innovation policy analysis, learning and development". The aim
was to encourage companies – especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) –
to introduce design management procedures to; improve their competitiveness,
stimulate innovation, establish a European knowledge-sharing platform, organise
the Design Management Europe Award, and
to identify and test new activities to promote Design Management.
Education (1970 on)
The Royal Society of Arts in London is one of the
first institutions supporting design management, in 1949.
Teaching design to managers was pioneered at the London Business School in 1976 and has been
taught on a full-time basis since 1982. Peter Gorb, a Life Fellow of the DMI
and a long time Fellow of the RSA, has led the design management department for
over 20 years and is seen as a "godfather" of design management. He
defined his design reclassification in 1976 and published his book Design
and its use by managers two years later. The Surrey
Institute of Art & Design, University College has an undergraduate
course in Design Management. It merged with the Kent Institute of Art & Design
on August 1, 2005 to form the University College for the Creative Arts at
Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester, now the University for the Creative Arts.
In 1991 the University of Art and Design
Helsinki founded the Institute of Design Leadership and Management and
established an international training programme. The International Design
Management Conference was organised in the same year by them. In 1995 the Helsinki School of Economics (HSE),
University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), and University of Technology (TKK) cooperated
to create the International Design Business Management Program (IDBM), which aims to
bring together experts from different fields within the concept of design
business management.
The Design Leadership Fellowship at the University of Oxford was founded in 2005. In
the same year the Stanford University Institute of Design founded the D-school,
a faculty intended to advance multidisciplinary innovation. The Finnish Aalto
University was founded in 2010 and is a merger of the three established
Finnish universities – the Helsinki School of Economics (HSE),
University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), and University of Technology
(TKK) – that had been cooperating on the IDBM design management program since
1995. Since 2006 the Lucerne University of
Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland offers one of the few
undergraduate studies in design management, completely taught in English.
Research
The first international research project on design
management, the TRIAD research project, was initiated by Earl Powell, then
president of DMI and the Harvard Business School in 1989. In the
same year Earl Powell and Thomas Walton, Ph.D. developed the Design Management
Review and DMI published the first issue. The publication is solely focusing on
design management and has become the flagship publication of the discipline.
Design and design management have experienced different generations
of theories. In its first generation design focused on the object, in the
second on the process, and in the third on the user.Similar shifts can be seen
in management and design management in almost parallel steps. For design
management this has been illustrated by Brigitte Borja de Mozota, using
Findeli's Bremen Model as a framework. Design management research organised
itself into:
- Organisational studies: design in an economic sector or design in large firms, such as Philips or Olivetti
- Descriptive studies of specific methods of design management
It is difficult to predict where design management research
is heading.
Different types
Different types of design management depend on the type and
strategic orientation of the business.
Product design management
In product-focused companies, design management focuses
mainly on product design management, including strong interactions with product
design, product marketing, research and development, and new product
development. This perspective of design management is mainly focused on the
aesthetic, semiotic, and ergonomic aspects of the product to express the
product's qualities and to manage diverse product groups and product design
platforms.
Brand design management
In market and brand focused companies, design management
focuses mainly on brand design management, including corporate brand management
and product brand management. Focusing on the brand as the core for design
decisions results in a strong focus on the brand experience, customer touch
points, reliability, recognition, and trust relations. The design is driven by
the brand vision and strategy.
Corporate brand design management
Market and brand focused organisations are concerned with
the expression and perception of the corporate brand. Corporate design
management implements, develops, and maintains the corporate identity, or
brand. This type of brand management is strongly anchored in the organisation
to control and influence corporate design activities. The design programme
plays the role of a quality programme within many fields of the organisation to
achieve uniform internal branding. It is strongly linked to strategy, corporate
culture, product development, marketing, organisational structure, and
technological development. Achieving a consistent corporate brand requires the
involvement of designers and a widespread design awareness among employees. A
creative culture, knowledge sharing processes, determination, design
leadership, and good work relations support the work of corporate brand management.
Product brand design management
The main focus of product brand management lies on the
single product or product family. Product design management is linked to
research and development, marketing, and brand management, and is present in
the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)
industry. It is responsible for the visual expressions of the individual
product brand, with its diverse customer–brand touch points and the execution
of the brand through design.
Service design management
Service design management deals with the newly
emerging discipline of service design. An example is the Car2Go concept from
Daimler AG,
as seen in Austin, Texas.
Service design management deals with the newly emerging
field of service design. It is the activity of planning and
organising people, infrastructure, communication, and material components of a
service. The aim is to improve the quality of the service, the interaction
between the service provider and its customers, and the customer's experience.
The increasing importance and size of the service sector in terms of people
employed and economic importance requires that services should be well-designed
in order to remain competitive and to continue to attract customers. Design
management traditionally focuses on the design and development of manufactured
products; service design managers can apply many of the same theoretical and methodological
approaches. Systematic and strategic management of service design helps the
business gain competitive advantages and conquer new markets. Companies that
proactively identify the interests of their customers and use this information
to develop services that create good experiences for the customer will open up
new and profitable business opportunities.
Companies in the service sector innovate by addressing the
intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability of service (the
IHIP challenge):
- Services are intangible; they have no physical form and they cannot be seen before purchase or taken home.
- Services are heterogenous; unlike tangible products, no two service delivery experiences are alike.
- Services are inseparable; the act of supplying a service is inseparable from the customer's act of consuming it.
- Services are perishable; they can not be inventoried.
Service design management differs in several ways from
product design management. For example, the application of international trading
strategies of services is difficult because the evolution of service 'from a
craftsmanship attitude to industrialisation of services' requires the
development of new tools, approaches, and policies. Whereas goods can be
manufactured centrally and delivered around the globe, services have to be
performed at the place of consumption, which makes it difficult to achieve
global quality consistency and effective cost control.
Business design management
Business design management is used in the development
of business models. The business model canvas by Alexander Osterwalder.
Business design management deals with the newly emerging
field of integrating design thinking into management. In organisation and
management theory, design thinking forms part of the Architecture / Design / Anthropology
(A/D/A) paradigm which characterises innovative, human-centered enterprises.
This paradigm focuses on a collaborative and iterative style of work and an
adductive mode of thinking, compared to practices associated with the more
traditional Mathematics
/ Economics
/ Psychology
(M/E/P) management paradigm.Since 2006, the term Business Design is
trademarked by the Rotman School of Management; they
define business design as the application of design thinking principles to
business practice. The designerly way of problem solving is an integrative way
of thinking that is characterised by a deep understanding of the user, creative
resolution of tensions, collaborative prototyping, and continuous modification
and enhancement of ideas and solutions. This approach to problem solving can be
applied to all components of business, and the management of the problem
solving process forms the core of business design management activity.
Universities other than the Rotman School of Management are offering similar
academic education concepts, including the Aalto
University in Finland, which initiated their International Design Business
Management (IDBM) programme in 1995.
Engineering design management
Engineering Design Management is the
management of data and people for production, tooling design and engineering
design. The production planning and tool design is nothing more than planning
how to mass-produce the project and which tools should be used in the
manufacturing of the part. Tasks to complete in this step include selecting the
material, selection of the production processes, determination of the sequence
of operations, and selection of tools, such as jigs, fixtures, and tooling.
This task also involves testing a working prototype to ensure the created part
meets qualification standards.
Urban design management
Urban design management involves mediation among a range of
self-interested stakeholders engaged in the production of the built
environment. Such mediation can encourage a joint search for mutually
beneficial outcomes or integrative development. Integrative development aims to
produce sustainable solutions by increasing stakeholder satisfaction with the
process and with the resulting urban development.
Conventional real estate development and urban planning
activities are subject to conflicting interests and positional bargaining. The
integrative negotiation approach emphasises mutual gains. The approach has been
applied in land use planning and environmental management, but has not been
used as a coordinated approach to real estate development, city design, and
urban planning. Urban design management involves reordering the chain of events
in the production of the built environment according to the principles of
integrative negotiation. Such principled negotiation can be used in urban
development and planning activities to reach more efficient agreements. This
leads to integrative developments and more sustainable ways to produce the
built environment.
Urban design management offers prescriptive advice for
practitioners trying to organise city planning activities in a way that will
increase sustainability by increasing satisfaction levels. Real estate
development and urban planning often occur at very different decision-making
scales. The practitioners involved may have diverse educational and
professional backgrounds. They certainly have conflicting interests. Providing
prescriptive advice for differing, possibly conflicting, groups requires
construction of a framework that accommodates all of their daily activities and
responsibilities. Urban design management provides a common framework to help
bring together the conventional practices of urban and regional planning, real
estate development, and urban design.
The work on Integrative Negotiation Consensus Building
and the Mutual Gains Approach provide a
helpful theoretical framework for developing the theory of urban design
management. Negotiation theory provides a useful framework
for merging the perspectives of urban planning, city design, and real estate
project proposals regarding production of the built environment. Interests,
a key construct in negotiation theory, is an important variable that will allow
integrated development, as defined above, to occur. The path-breaking work of Roger Fisher and William Ury (1981), Getting
to yes, advises negotiators to focus on interests and mutual gains instead
of bargaining over positions.
Architectural management
Architectural management can be defined as an ordered way of
thinking which helps to realise a quality building for an acceptable cost or as
a process function with the aim of delivering greater architectural value to
the client and society. Research by Kiran Gandhi describes architectural
management as a set of practical techniques for an architect to successfully
operate his practice. The term architectural management has been in use
since the 1960s. The evolution of the field of architectural management has not
been a smooth affair. Architectural practice was merely considered a business
until after the Second World War, and even then practitioners appeared to be
concerned about the conflict between art and commerce, demonstrating indifference
to management. There was apparent conflict between the image of an architect
and the need for professional management of the architectural business.
Reluctance to embrace management and business as an inherent part of
architectural practice could also be seen in architectural education programmes
and publications. It appears that the management of architectural design, as
well as architectural management in general, is still not being given enough
importance. Architectural management falls into two distinct parts: office or practice management and project management. Office
management provides an overall framework within which many individual
projects are commenced, managed, and completed. Architectural management
extends between the management of the design
process, construction, and project management, through to facilities management of buildings in use. It
is a powerful tool that can be applied to the benefit of professional service
firms and the total building processes, yet it continues to receive too little
attention both in theory and in practice.
Business
Value for business
Design plays a vital role in product and brand development,
and is of great economic importance for organisations and companies. Creativity
and design in particular (as an activity: design skills, methods and processes)
play a growing role in creating products and services with high added value to
consumers. Design generates 50% of world export revenue in the creative industries' products (goods and
services). The creative industry workforce is 3.1% of total employment in the
European Union (EU), which creates a revenue that is 2.6% of the EU gross
value. Creative industries have attained an unprecedented average annual growth
rate of 8.7 per cent across the EU between 2000 and 2005.
The increasing importance of creative industries (and
especially design) in knowledge-intense industries is reflected not only in the
policies and studies on EU levels, but has initiated design and creative
policies and programmes in the most advanced economies. Furthermore, design and
creativity has been recognised on a regional and local level as a driving force
for competitiveness, economic growth, job market, and citizen's satisfaction.
The investment in creative and cultural industries are considered a significant
component of EU growth in the Lisbon Strategy and the Europe 2020 strategy; and
designers are increasingly involved in innovation issues.
To better understand the value of design and its role in
innovation, the EU holds a public consultation on the basis of their
publication Design as a driver of user-centred innovation and have
published the mini-study Design as a tool for innovation. The report
highlights the importance of design in user-centred innovation and recommends
the integration of design into the EU innovation policy. In addition to the
design share in the export of all creative industry products, design can also
have a positive impact on all business performance indicators; from turnover
and profit to market share and competitiveness.Design management research
results can be classified as follows:
- Design improves the performance of the innovation policy and of the communications policy of the firm
- Design improves the global performance of the firm; it is a profitable investment
- Design is a profession that creates value on a macro economic level
- Design improves the competitive edge of a country in the international competition; it develops exports
- Design can help the restructuring of an economic sector in regional economic policy
If and how design management is applied in a company
correlates with the importance and integration of design in the company, but
depends also on industry type, company size, ownership for design and type of
competitive competence. A research from the Danish Design Centre (DDC) led to
the "Danish Design Ladder", which shows how companies interpreted and
applied design in differing depth:
- Non-design: Companies that do not use design (15% in 2007).
- Design as styling: Companies that use design as styling appearance (17% in 2007).
- Design as process: Companies that integrate design into the development process (45% in 2007).
- Design as innovation: Companies that consider design as key strategic element (21% in 2007).
The research showed that companies that considered design on
a higher level of the ladder were constantly growing. Additionally, the Danish
Design Centre published an Evaluation of the Importance of Design in
2006, with the result that most companies considered design as a promoter for
innovation (71%), as a growth potential for the company (79%), and to make
products more user friendly (71%). With increasing importance of design for the
company, design management also becomes more important.
The value of design can be leveraged if it is managed well.
Research by Chiva and Alegre shows that there is no link between the level of
design investment and business success, but instead a strong correlation
between design management skills and business success. This means that
efficient and effective design management is crucial for maximising the value
of design. Effective design management increases the efficiency of operations
and process management, has a significant positive impact on process
management, improves quality performance (internal and external quality), and
increases operating performance. To measure and communicate the value of design
management, Borja de Mozota suggests adapting the Balanced Score Card model and
structuring the values in the following four categories:
- Internal business processes: Design management as an innovation process, providing improvements in company performance and processes. Here, these innovations and processes are totally invisible to outsiders.
- Learning and growing: Beyond advanced design management. Design explicit knowledge is applied to strategic focus and improves the quality of staff.
- Customer and brand: Design management as perception and brand. Design knowledge is applied to corporate difference building and strategic positioning.
- Financial: The historic design management economic model. Design management as an explicit and measurable value for company reputation and stock market performance.
Relation to other disciplines and departments
Three different orientations for the choice of design
management can be identified in companies. These orientations influence the
perception of management and the responsibility of design managers within the
organisation. The strategic orientations are; market focus, product focus and
brand focus.
- Product-driven organisations often have design responsibility in their research and development (R&D) departments.
- Market-focus driven organisation often have design responsibility in their marketing departments.
- Brand-focus driven organisations often have design responsibility in corporate communication.
Depending on the strategic orientation, design management
overlaps with other management branches to differing extents:
Marketing management: The concepts and
elements of brand management overlap with those of design management. In
practice, design management can be part of the job profile of a marketing
manager, though the discipline includes aspects that are not in the domain of
marketing management. This intersection is called "brand design
management" and consists of positioning, personality, purpose, personnel,
project and practice, where the objective is to increase brand equity.
Operations management: At the operational
level design management deals with the management of design projects. Processes
and tools from operations management can be applied to design management in the
execution of design projects.
Strategic management: Due to the increasing
importance of design as a differentiator and its supporting role in brand
equity, design management deals with strategic design issues and supports the
strategic direction of the business or enterprise. The debate on design
thinking suggests the integration of design thinking into strategic management.
Design thinking and strategic thinking have some commonalities in their
characteristics, both are synthetic, adductive,
hypothesis-driven, opportunistic, dialectical,
enquiring and value-driven.
Innovation management: The value of the
coordinating role of design in new product development has been well
documented. Design management can help to improve innovation management, which
can be measured by three variables: it reduces time-to-market, by improving
sources and communication skills and developing cross-functional innovation; it
stimulates networking innovation, by managing product and customer information
flows with internal (e.g. teams) and external (e.g. suppliers, society) actors;
it improves the learning process by promoting a continuous learning process.
Hierarchy
Like the management of strategy, design can be managed on
three levels: strategic (corporate level or enterprise wide), tactical
(business level or individual business units), and operational (individual
project level). These three levels have been termed differently by various
authors over the last 50 years.
|
Terms used to describe levels of strategy management and
design management
|
|||
|
strategic level
|
tactical level
|
operational level
|
author / source
|
|
corporate strategy
|
business strategy
|
functional strategy
|
Haberberg and Rieple, 2001
|
|
corporate strategy
|
business strategy
|
operational strategy
|
Johnson and Scholes, 1999
|
|
business management / office management
|
individual project / job management
|
Brunton, 1964
|
|
|
corporate / innovation design management
|
design agency management
|
design project management
|
Topalian, 1980
|
|
design policy management
|
N/A
|
operational design management
|
Oakley, 1984
|
|
strategic design management
|
N/A
|
operational design management
|
Olins, 1985
|
|
strategic (macro)
|
organisational (meso)
|
team / individual (micro)
|
Francis and Fischbacher, 1996
|
|
corporate design management
|
design organisation management
|
design project management
|
Chung, 1998
|
|
anticipative / strategic design management
|
functional design management
|
operational design management
|
de Mozota, 1998
|
|
strategic design management
|
tactical design management
|
operational design management
|
Joziasse, 2000
|
|
board / top function
|
middle / business function
|
design activity function
|
Cooper, 1995
|
|
design strategy management
|
design resource management
|
design project management
|
Kootstra, 2006
|
Operational level
Operational design management involves the management of
individual design projects and design teams. Its goal is to achieve the
objectives set by strategic design management. Success of good design
management can be measured by evaluating the quality of operational design
management outcomes. It includes the selection and management of design
suppliers and encompasses the documentation, supervision, and evaluation of
design processes and results. It deals with personal leadership, emotional
intelligence, and the cooperation with and management of internal
communications. Regular management functions, tools, and concepts can often be
applied to the management of design on the operational level. It is implemented
to achieve specific design objectives and manage the judgment of design
proposals. It can help to build brand equity through the consistent creation
and implementation of high-quality design solutions that best fit the brand
identity and desired consumer experience, in the most efficient way. Depending
on the type of company and industry, the following job titles are associated
with this role: operational design manager, senior designer, team leader,
visual communication manager, corporate design coordinator, and others.
Tactical level
Tactical design management addresses the organisation of
design resources and design processes. Its goal is to create a structure for
design in the company, bridging the gap between objectives set through
strategic design management and the implementation of design on the operational
level. It defines how design is organised within the company. This includes the
use of a central body to coordinate different design projects and activities.
It deals with defining activities, developing design skills and competencies,
managing processes, systems and procedures, assigning of roles and
responsibilities, developing innovative products and service concepts, and
finding new market opportunities. Outcomes of tactical design management are
related to the creation of a structure for design within the company, to build
internal resources and competencies for the implementation of design. Depending
on the type of company and industry, the following job titles are associated
with this function: tactical design manager, design director, design &
innovation manager, brand design manager, new product development (NPD)
manager, visual identity manager, and others.
Strategic level
Strategic design management involves the
creation of strategic long-term vision and planning for design, and deals with
defining the role of design within the company. The goal of strategic design
management is to support and strengthen the corporate visio by creating a
relationship between the design and corporate strategy. It includes the
creation of design, brand and product strategies, ensuring that design management
becomes a central element in the corporate strategy formulation process.
Strategic design
management is responsible for the development and
implementation of a corporate design programme that influences the design
vision, mission, and positioning. It allows design to interact with the needs
of corporate management and focuses on the long-term capabilities of design.
Where strategic design management is applied, there is often a strong belief in
the potential to differentiate the company and gain competitive advantage by
design. As a result, design thinking becomes integrated into the corporate
culture. Depending on the type of company and industry the following job titles
are associated with this function: strategic design manager, chief design
officer, vice president design and innovation, chief creative officer,
innovation design director, and others.
Role and responsibility
Design management is not a standard model that can be
projected onto every enterprise, nor is there a specific way of applying it that
leds to guaranteed success. Design management processes are carried out by
humans with different responsibilities and backgrounds, who work in different industries
and enterprises with different sizes and traditions, whilst having different target
groups and markets to serve. Design management is multifaceted, and so are
the different applications of and views on design management. The function of
design management in an organisation depends on its tasks, authority, and
practice.
Task
Similar tasks can be grouped into categories to describe the
job profile of a design manager. Different categories in management that
encompass design were defined by several authors; those tasks occur on all
three design management levels (strategic, tactical, and operational):
|
Terms used to describe categories of tasks of design
managers
|
|||||
|
strategy and purpose
|
personnel and organisation
|
organisational culture and presence
|
projects
|
practice and process
|
author / source
|
|
strategy and purpose
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
projects
|
N/A
|
Topalian, 1980
|
|
strategy and policy
|
human resources
|
N/A
|
projects
|
N/A
|
Oakley, 1984
|
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
process
|
Hetzel, 1998
|
|
strategy and policy
|
human and material resources
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Blaich, 1998
|
|
Strategy
|
organisation and human resources
|
information resources
|
projects
|
N/A
|
Chung, 1998
|
|
strategy and purpose
|
human resources
|
organisation culture
|
projects
|
process, practice and support
|
Powell, 1998
|
|
strategy and vision
|
human resources, organisational structure
|
organisational culture
|
N/A
|
process, tools and methodologies
|
Joziasse, 2000
|
|
strategy, planning
|
structure, finance, human resources
|
information and communication, link to R&D, link to
branding
|
project management
|
evaluation
|
de Mozota, 2003
|
|
strategy and policy formation, goals, targets, objectives
|
people and structure, investment and finance, training and
learning, resourcing
|
communication
|
projects, planning and scheduling, implementation,
monitoring, documentation
|
process planning, evaluation
|
Cooper, 1995
|
Authority and position
The authority and position of the design management function
has a large influence on what the design manager does in his or her daily job.
Kootstra (2006) distinguishes design management types by organisational
function: design management as line function, design management as staff
function, and design management as support function. Design management as a
"line function" is directly responsible for design execution in the
"primary" organisational process and can take place on all levels of
the design management hierarchy. The main attributes for design managers in the
line are authority over and direct responsibility for the result. Design
management as a staff function is not directly responsible for design execution
in the "primary" organisational process, but consults as a specialist
on all levels of the design management hierarchy. The main attributes for
design managers in this function are their limited authority and the need to
consult line managers and staff. When the design process is defined as a
"secondary" organisational process, design management is seen as
"supportive function". In this function it has only a supportive
character, classifying the design manager as a creative specialist towards
product management, brand management, marketing, R&D, and communication.
Various authors use different concepts to describe the authority and position
of design management; they can be grouped as follows:
|
Terms used to describe categories of position and
authority of design management
|
||||
|
organisational structure & decision-making
|
leadership / management style
|
collaboration / intergroup conflict
|
process integration
|
author / source
|
|
|
|
|
Cooper, 1995 [94]
|
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
N/A
|
Mozota, 2003
|
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Kootstra, 2006
|
|
N/A
|
|
N/A
|
Stamm, 2005
|
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
Buckler, 1997
|
Design Policy (since the 2010s)
Today, most developed countries have some kind of design
promotion programme. The Design Management Institute has dedicated three issues
to design policy development. Although initiatives promote design in different
complexities, scopes and focuses, specific targets tend to address the following
objectives:
- support business: increase use of design by companies, particularly by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and grow the design sector (use dimension);
- promote to the public: increase exports of design and attract international investment (international dimension);
- educate designers: improve design education and research (academic dimension).
A very comprehensive analysis on the situation of design on
national level in Britain is the Cox review. The chairman of the Design
Council, Sir George Cox, published the Cox Review of Creativity in
Business in 2005 to communicate the competitive advantage of design for the
British industry.
Innovation policies have been excessively focused on the
supply of technologies, neglecting the demand side (the user). There have been
several initiatives by the European Commission to support and research design
and design management in recent years. However, a European-wide policy to
support design has never been planned, due to the inconsistencies and
differences in design policies in each nation.Nonetheless, there are currently
plans to include design in the EU innovation policy.
Education (since the 2010s)
Design management is usually first taught at business
school. Teaching design to managers was pioneered at the London Business School in 1976, and the
first programme of design management at a design school was started in the
1980s at the Royal College of Art (RCA), DeMontfort,
Middlesex, Staffordshire. Although, in the UK, some design management courses
have not been sustainable, including those at the RCA, Westminster and
Middlesex, other postgraduate courses have flourished including ones at Brunel
and Lancaster with each providing a specific point of view on design
management.
BusinessWeek annually publishes a lists of the
best programmes that combine design thinking and business thinking (D-schools
2009 and D-school Programmes to Watch 2009). The article Finland
– World´s Innovation Hot Spot in the Harvard Business Review shows the
interest of business leaders in the blended education of design and management.
Business Schools (such as the Rotman School of Management, Wharton University
of Pennsylvania and MIT Sloan Executive Education) have acted on this interest
and developed new academic curricula.
Integrated education models are emerging in the academic
world, a model which is referred to as T-shape and π-shaped education. T-shaped
professionals are taught general knowledge in a few disciplines (e.g.
management and engineering) and specific, deep knowledge in a single domain
(e.g. design). This model also applies to companies, when they shift their
focus from small T innovations (innovations involving only one
discipline, like chemists) to big T innovations (innovations involving
several disciplines, like design, ethnography, lead user, etc.). Like in
education, this shift makes breaking down silos of departments and disciplines
of knowledge essential.
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