Will Design Thinking Deliver to the Consumer?

A new mantra among the corporations of the world is emerging for the teen years of the 21st century - Design Thinking.  Just like the concept of Innovation rose in the early 2000s, Design Thinking as an idea is finally on the rise.

The leaders in this space have existed for a while, couple of examples being IDEO and Procter & Gamble (with its Innovation Centers).  The level of understanding, misunderstanding or not understanding this space are clear from the Business Week article "Inside the Design Thinking Process", here.  The author, Helen Walters, discusses the Aspen Design Summit where multiple design driven sessions were conducted to solve hard problems.

I give credit to Ms. Walters on stating about the Design Thinking process as implemented at the Aspen Design Summit, "... the strongest takeaway was that those looking for a prescribed way to implement design thinking are destined to be disappointed. It's a messy, opaque process that depends as much on group dynamics as intellect or insight."

Preparation of such sessions requires experience and insights into human behavior.  Someone I personally know to be exceptionally talented at this is the Marketing Consulting Services of Copenhagen, see information here.

Yet, the one reason I suggest giving this article serious consideration is because the author highlights the key to the success of all Design Thinking processes, having the end user or consumer of the product or service engaged, which apparently was missing from all the sessions conducted at the Aspen Design Summit.  The author termed the results being developed out of the sessions to "seem like entirely inappropriate bunk" for the end user or consumer.

Perhaps all this is becoming news due to Roger Martin causing an uproar with his open challenge to the research driven, heavily analytical product and service development organizations and management consultancies, see my blog "Roger Martin - On Designing the Future", here.

I believe that exciting times are ahead as the left and right brained individuals realize that to truly deliver a breakthrough to their consumer, they must work collaboratively, break down the silo and unburden themselves from the past to really "create".

The Economist Looks at Business Through Schumpeter's Eyes

This is probably the best article I have read to date that puts the past, the present and what may be the future of business and management into perspective. The Economist's "Schumpeter, Taking Flight" is a new column launched on September 19th, 2009, read here, says of Schumpeter - "Joseph Schumpeter was one of the few intellectuals who saw business straight." I agree.

As an entrepreneur and a global businessman, Schumpeter's concepts on economics have made the most sense to me. Especially, the concept of "Creative Destruction" (see a primer here) has been a key to my thought process in the past twenty years as I conduct and build businesses around the world. The Economist states:

"[Schumpeter] regarded business people as unsung heroes: men and women who create new enterprises through the sheer force of their wills and imaginations, and, in so doing, are responsible for the most benign development in human history, the spread of mass affluence."

I look forward to the Economist's perspectives as it perceives business today through Schumpeter's eyes.

Education Systems

Here is a link to a good TedTalk on Creativity and Education (given by Ken Robinson) forwarded by Aylin Koca. I have seen across the world while lecturing in Universities in North America, Scandinavia, Middle East and South Asia that a large number of students coming out are thoroughly unprepared for the 21st century. From having no concept of what the Global business world is about to not being able to look beyond what they have been taught. I truly see some of these students looking like deer when they look at headlights coming at them at 60 mph.

I believe that just like the consumer has come to realize that they can choose, similarly the students will start to ask why we are still using the same methods of teaching from 100 years ago while the world is moving at 100 times the speed from 100 years ago.

And the students must (as they are the consumers of education), otherwise... the educational bureaucracies (the corporation) must continue to sell and make money from the shortest and easiest paths available to them.