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The Design Council has been publicising its recent "Eleven lessons" study. Here's chairman George Cox on the Today Programme this morning (11'46" into the 0830 to 0900 slot).



http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_20071126.ram



Not sure how long that link will be live...



The full study is http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/managingdesign/Eleven-lessons/



Interesting stuff.

Last edited by Poster on 26 Nov 2007 15:16

Also reported on Design Week's website: http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/136780/Design+core+to+success+at+top+global+brands.html

Today Programme interview with Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council. Interview held in response to new Design Council research showing that for every 100 pounds spent on design services turnover increases by 225 pounds.



Sir George: “Companies these days can only prosper if they innovate: new products new services, new ways of doing things all the time continuously. The question is, how you go about that. This review of 11 companies shows that it’s not the random picking up of an idea or a response to a crisis, they have a systematic approach to design and it pays off.”



Interviewer: What is design?



Sir George: “Design is taking an idea and turning it into a product or service. Too many people think of design as the end of the story. Indeed, one designer said to me “Too often we’re brought in to put lipstick on the gorilla.” It’s not just the cosmetics at the end of the process. These companies in our research involve design right up front, when they are looking at the issue, the problem or the opportunity. They have designers working up front in multidisciplinary teams, designers working alongside the business people, the customer facing people, marketeers, technologists. It works as an integrated team.”



Interviewer: Isn’t the problem that people think it’s a risky investment?



Sir George: “Absolutely, and what we’ve seen from these companies is that right up front they are looking at that. It isn’t backing every idea, not every innovation is a good one. It’s looking at which ideas are good and how you put them into practice.”



Interviewer: isn’t that a subjective choice?



Sire George: “It is subjective, but you the judgement of a lot of people involved and that’s how you filter out the good ideas.”



Interviewer: Are we good at design in the UK?

Sire George: “In Britain we have a terrific design capability, world leadership. But too few British companies really take advantage of that.”



Interviewer: But that goes across British industry, we have good ideas and we don’t develop them commercially. Surely you haven’t got the answer to that?



Sire George: “The answer is getting more British companies to have an appetite for design. There’s a programme we do at the design council which has been rolled out by five of the regional development agencies already and soon by all of them showing smaller companies how to use it in a practical fashion.”

Sire George is it?