This e-guide is designed to quickly stimulate your thoughts about Design Thinking and Authenticity and explore the link between them. The booklet isn’t a how-to manual, but more of a summary of my philosophy of invention as it applies to designing new and innovative business models.

1. The art of
business design
Copyright Cultivar Consulting Limited 2010
an e-guide to authentic design thinking

2. Contents
✤ introduction
✤ significant moments in time
✤ sustainability & CSR
✤ the next step - authenticity
✤ authentic leadership
✤ a profound sense of purpose
✤ thinking styles
✤ design thinking
✤ the design process
the author ✤ the art of business design
James Rock
Chief Business Designer
Cultivar Consulting

3. introduction ✤ this e-guide is designed to quickly stimulate your
thoughts and encourage you to act further
✤ the booklet isn’t a how-to manual, but more of a
summary of my philosophy of invention as it
applies to designing innovative business models
✤ it introduces the concept of authenticity as a
central core element of the business - a culture
within a new type of business architecture
✤ it describes how creativity and innovation can be
linked to business experience to invent new and
more effective business models
✤ for established business leaders it explains why
now is the time to re-think, re-design and re-
build for the future
✤ for new start-ups it should stimulate you to think
differently and freshly, to seek inspiration in
designing a business that really fires your
passion and helps you to be more successful
✤
its all about - The Art of Business Design

4. significant
✤
sometimes events occur that give us a shock!
✤ if they didn’t happen our life would continue pretty
moments in time
much as-is without the need to change - when they
do arise it usually leads to initial disbelief, followed
by realisation that the status-quo no longer applies
✤ 9/11 was one of those days... perceptions about
managing public safety and transportation changed
overnight, our world was turned upside down
✤ 2008 was one of those years... when consumerism
driven by easy credit suddenly unravelled
✤ these events are often called “black swans” high-
impact, hard-to-predict, and rare occurrences, and
when these significant emotional events hit us we
need to reframe our world...
✤ in 2009 there arose huge public distrust in capital
markets after the banking sector crash, and in public
institutions after the scandal of MP’s expenses
✤ most of us now realise that greed isn’t good, and that
capitalism needs to be re-invented to provide both
economic and social development
✤ we need to look at ourselves critically and determine
if we need to change - we need to fundamentally
address how we act in our life and in our business...

5. ✤ though it often seems like it, sustainability isn’t just
sustainability &
about tree hugging environmentalists
✤ it has become a wide-ranging term that encompases
CSR
taking a long-term perspective of our future
✤ in business this covers three principal areas -
✤ environmental sustainability
✤ societal sustainability
✤ economic sustainability
✤ this holy trinity of sustainability is usually grouped
together to form a company’s corporate sociability
responsibility (CSR) policy - many firms are doing this
✤ in the USA, CSR is often called the “Triple Bottom
Line” i.e. its focus is about using CSR to impact on
profitability and shareholder value - true capitalist
thinking
✤ but isn’t focusing on bottom line profit inherently
unsustainable? doesn’t taking short term profits often
mean investment cutbacks? its well known that you
can’t save your way to sustainable long-term
prosperity
✤ now there is a new trend to something more genuine -
a sustainable approach that works - the new term
being used for this is Authenticity...

6. ✤ authenticity isn’t just a new management buzz-word
✤ its a set of values that guide individuals and
authenticity organisations in facing the many tensions, forces,
pressures, and influences of everyday life with
honesty and integrity
✤ there are growing movements across the world that
are building knowledge and expertise in this field
✤ every day more individuals, organisations and
businesses are adopting authenticity as their way of
becoming truly sustainable
✤ authentic people, leaders and businesses display the
following attributes: -
P - they have a profound purpose beyond profit,
a purpose that is socially and/or
environmentally positive
I - they display integrity between
communication and action
R - they show respect for others
S - they display sensibility to exploitation of
resources and customers; and they have
U - they have a distinct and unique business
personality
✤ are you a truly authentic leader?

7. authentic ✤ being a leader is a difficult role - it requires many
leadership ✤
qualities and skills
we know the ones who inspire us
✤ they are full of life and passion
✤ they believe in the greater power of a team
over an individual
✤ they are ethical and act with integrity
✤ they trust people to act responsibly
✤ they respect the needs of others
✤ they have the courage to follow their
convictions
✤ above all, authentic leaders have a deep and true
sense of purpose and deploy their energy in
pursuit of it
✤ people are always willing to follow inspiring and
authentic leaders
✤ so why not be the leader others choose to follow?

8. a profound sense
of purpose ✤ do you know your own life purpose? it defines you
and helps you to know who you truly are
✤ for most of us there is a gap between the life we are
leading and who we truly are - this gap causes
stress and the bigger the gap the more stress there is
✤ when we know our life purpose and apply our
talents in pursuit of it we feel engaged, fulfilled and
much happier - we become passionate in our work
✤ and if a group of people with a shared purpose
work together their energy rises dramatically - in a
business this energy can deliver amazing results
✤ so do your employees know their purpose? do they
share your purpose? is everyone aligned? are you
all passionate about what you do?
✤ authentic businesses focus on this shared sense of
profound purpose to constantly drive them forward
in pursuit of their goals
✤ they usually outperform their peers too... resulting
in growth and profitability far above average

9. if you have decided that now is the time to re-
thinking
✤
think then is now the time to change the way you
do this too?
styles it is well known that the brain has two distinct
✤
halves - left brain and right brain - and thinking
originates from either side
✤ left brain thinking is described as logical,
sequential, rational, analytical, objective - it
focuses on the parts
✤ right brain thinking is described as random,
intuitive, holistic, synthesising, subjective - it
focuses on the whole
✤ in business, people are predominantly left brain
thinkers - they deal in reality, and are usually
conventional and predictable - our education
system is primarily designed to foster and help
develop these left brain skills but doesn’t do
enough to develop the right side of the brain
✤ but artists and designers are predominantly right
brain people - they deal in creativity and
innovation - often described as lateral thinking
✤ so why can’t these thinking styles can be
combined?
✤ they can - and this is now being recognised...

10. design
✤ leading business leaders have said we need to re-
think, re-design and re-build - but in ways that look
not at the past... but by embracing the future
thinking ✤ society is changing, technology is rapidly
developing, competition is global and on-line
✤ the west can’t compete head-to-head with low-cost
labour producers any longer, and is committed to
creativity and innovation as a competitive response
✤ its recently been said that design schools are the
new business schools - because it’s now apparent
that old-school businesses are out of date and some
lateral thinking is needed - Design Thinking
✤ so leading business schools are beginning to
develop collaborative links with the best art schools
✤ and top-end design companies like IDEO are now
being engaged in business and service design
✤ this is because creativity and innovation is needed
to design the businesses of tomorrow - injecting a
dose of right brain, abductive thinking - so start to
ask yourself what might be?
✤ the design process can then be used to provide a
framework that helps you design your business of
the future...

11. the design
✤ designers manage the process of design in different
ways, but there are similarities in every approach,
typically covered by four common phases :-
process ✤ discovery - the start of the project - beginning with
an initial idea or inspiration in which user needs are
identified
✤ define - in which interpretation and alignment of
these needs to business objectives is achieved
✤ develop - where design-led solutions are developed,
iterated and tested within the company
✤ deliver - where the resulting business model is
finalised and launched in the relevant market
✤ but whilst other design processes can deliver
innovative solutions, they don’t consider the crucial
aspect of embedding authenticity as a central key
element, nor the behavioural aspects of change that
are required to deliver this
✤ so you need a design process that integrates the
technical elements of change alongside those
behavioural ones that are so critical for authenticity
✤ this ensures that everyone understands, buys-in and
supports the business model as it is implemented...

12. the art of
✤ so we know business tensions will hit us from
different directions, including economic cycles,
changing customer needs, competition, and ever
increasing shareholder expectations
business design ✤ we understand that sometimes these tensions arise
at different times, but very often they will occur
simultaneously and require a bigger response
✤ so businesses need to be amorphous structures
that will be flexible and responsive to change
✤ the authentic business architecture is a flexible and
accommodating framework that interlinks the key
elements of the business whilst retaining
authenticity as the central culture at its heart
✤ any tensions cause the whole to flex together, but
authentic values help every part to adjust
accordingly without suffering a critical failure
✤ so while you are re-thinking, re-designing and re-
building you can invent a business of the future
that will cope with the tensions of tomorrow
✤ you can inject creativity and innovation to deliver
excellence, engage your people, and display a
passion that will truly excite your customers
✤
in short - The Art of Business Design

13. contact us now
✤ web: www.cultivar.co.uk
✤ telephone : 44 (0) 121 443 5524
✤ mobile : 44 (0) 7802 976806
James Rock ✤ email : james.rock@cultivar.co.uk