The way we think about the future has an impact on the shape of the world we live in, and the way we design the products, services, systems and experiences that make up much of our daily quality of life. Are current global challenges presenting us with an opportunity to create positive new visions, or do they represent a threat to the survival of humanity? How can design help to shape a more optimistic view of the future?

1. Design as an
Enabler of
Change
Kathryn Best
kathrynbest.com
@kvbest

2. 2
@kvbest

3. The way we think about the future has an impact
on the shape of the world we live in, and the way
we design the products, services, systems and
experiences that make up much of our daily
quality of life.
Are current global challenges presenting us with
an opportunity to create positive new visions, or
do they represent a threat to the survival of
humanity?
How can design help to shape a more optimistic
view of the future?
@kvbest

4. Kathryn Best
Architecture/Interiors
Brand Consultancy
Course Leader/Research Professor
Author, Teacher, Consultant
@kvbest

5. The way in which people, processes and projects are managed and
lead can have an enormous impact on the success, or failure, of the
final outcome.
Design management is an interdisciplinary, integrative process.
2006
2010
15 languages
differentiation | competitive advantage | collaborative advantage | culture change | innovation
@kvbest

6. Organise things to make sense
@kvbest

7. 7
@kvbest

8. 8
@kvbest

9. Design management is about the successful management of
• People, projects, processes and procedures
• Products, services, environments and experiences
• Disciplines, roles and stakeholder relations
product-service-experience systems
@kvbest

10. @kvbest

11. The Design Management Europe Survey
Connecting design with strategy
@kvbest

12. The process and practice of design management:
Legible London
@kvbest

13. The process and practice of
design management:
Legible London
Legible London
Yellow Book
A prototype wayfinding
system for London
LegibleLondonYellowBook
@kvbest

14. design management international
@kvbest

15. @kvbest

16. The way we think about the future…
@kvbest

17. Kathryn Best Second Edition
Design plays a key role in shaping the world and
generating new products, systems and services.
Managing design can be a strategic leadership role
promoting and demonstrating the positive impact
that design can contribute to an organization at many
different levels.
Combining both theory and practice in an accessible
overview of the subject, Design Management
introduces you to design’s role in business and the
broader context, as well as to the importance of design
as a way of creating value in any organization. With
and interiors, to brand agencies, to product and retail
design plus interviews with managers of design from
around the world, Design Management is a guide for
students of design, design management, marketing,
media communications and business studies, and
for anyone involved in the management of design
and creativity. This book will lead you through the
key knowledge, practice and skills areas of design
management, focussing on strategy, process and
implementation techniques.
The second edition features new key skills exercises
and new interviews with international design leaders
and managers who offer advice and insights into the
effective leadership and management of design.
Kathryn Best is an author, speaker and entrepreneur,
with more than twenty years of experience in academia,
architecture and design consultancy. Kathryn provides
insight on the power and value of design as an enabler
of positive change in business and society. She has worked
extensively in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, coaching
and inspiring students and professionals at universities,
conferences, design centers and government
organizations. Her experience includes professional
engagements with HOK, RTKL, WATG, Wolff Olins,
Starbucks and Orange, and academic positions at higher
education institutions such as Inholland University of
Applied Sciences, University for the Creative Arts,
the Royal College of Art and Fachhochschule Salzburg.
Kathryn is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts
(FRSA). www.kathrynbest.com
www.bloomsbury.com
“Kathryn Best guides you towards an
understanding of the importance of aesthetics
and design in the world of business, providing
inspirational and invaluable insights into
both the processes involved and the further
opportunities available therein.”
Professor Frans van der Reep, Inholland University
of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
DesignManagement
ManagingDesignStrategy,
ProcessandImplementation
SECONDEDITION
KathrynBest
Required Reading Range
Design Management
Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation
…impacts where we will end up.
The way we think about the future…
@kvbest

18. …impacts where we will end up....
The way we think about the future…
…which impacts the shape of the
world we live in.
@kvbest

19. Business as usual is over, as a structural
overhaul of many man made systems,
institutions and business processes takes
place. In some cases, change is intentional,
and it others, change is inevitable.
What kind of future do we aspire to?
What are the benefits in shifting our
perspective by design ?
What kind of future can design inspire?
Current global challenges
@kvbest

20. May you experience
much upheaval and
trouble in your life .
Uninteresting times of
peace and tranquility are
less life enhancing.
may you live in
interesting times
@kvbest

21. finance
@kvbest

22. People have had enough.
They know what they don t want.
They are disillusioned with the
mainstream system.
They demand change, a clearing
out the old to make way for the
new.
It s the public, not the
corporations that will determine
the future .
Yael Chanoff, SF Bay Guardian
business as usual is meeting resistance
@kvbest

23. adjust and adapt to
revenue streams
grow and diversify
revenue streams
adapting to new operating models
@kvbest

24. It is a time of financial austerity in the UK and across the rest of
Europe.
This unique event will provide arts and cultural organisations
with a range of ideas to help them decrease their reliance on
public subsidy by offering examples of strategies, examples,
collaborative opportunities and alliances.
@kvbest

25. Organisationally resistant to change
Is there a better example of a
very good idea gone terribly
wrong? It is worse than having
no UN at all.
If we had nothing we could
craft a new organisation that
actually worked. As it is, we
have this monstrosity that
masquerades as an effective
international body
The Economist/Mangopop
Verbosity at the UN: Keep Talking
structurally too big to fail
@kvbest

26. Individually open to change
Ray Anderson
Interface
Big business - the only institution
large enough, pervasive enough, and
powerful enough, to leave mankind
out…
TED: The Business Logic of Sustainability
Restructured from the bottom up:
Responsibility
Accountability
Transparency
@kvbest

27. The shape of the world we live in
social : technological : economic: environmental: political
Industrial Economy | Knowledge Economy | Creative Economy | Wisdom Economy
the reality: resistance and imbalance
@kvbest

28. -­‐ An
increased
sense
of
community
and
responsibility
towards
the
environment
and
society.
-­‐
An
increased
demand
for
more
transparency
and
ac9ve
par9cipa9on
in
poli9cs
and
the
economy
-­‐
An
increased
familiarity
with
the
technological
tools
that
enable
people
to
connect,
share,
collaborate
and
communicate
in
new
ways
–
and
have
their
voices
heard.
The shape of the world we live in
the aspiration:
harmony and balance
@kvbest

29. Every business is in one of 5 cycles (Tom Ferry)
Start up
Growth
Cash cow
Fading
winner
Restructuring
good agent,
stuck in the past,
falling behind
‘the death of the
old’. time to go
back to start up
50% or higher
profits
consistent lead
generation and
conversion
under 3 yrs in
the business
The shape of the world we live in
@kvbest

30. Change is
disruptive…
…and it
brings out
human
ingenuity
Change is
risky!
Change is
natural.
@kvbest

31. human ingenuity: efficiency and creativity
@kvbest

32. human
ingenuity:
efficiency
and
creativity
Thailand
@kvbest

33. Buckminster Fuller
Change
creates a
new
opportunity
to do things
differently.
@kvbest

34. alternative models: being the change
A blossoming of alternatives
Yael Chanoff, SF Bay Guardian
12 ways the Occupy movement and other
major trends have offered a foundation for a
transformative future .
Sarah van Gelder
@kvbest

35. @kvbest

36. new models: start ups, entrepreneurs (inventors)
(no change necessary)
Message: Quirky is powered by its people.
@kvbest

37. from competition to collaboration
Attracting small businesses to Ireland and rewarding
people for introducing new connections.
@kvbest

38. from profit….to people, planet and profit
triple bottom line
@kvbest

39. from protection to expansion
Creative Commons, Creative Barcode
@kvbest

40. from value to values
@kvbest

41. from corporation to co-operation
1 billion people
world-wide
now work in
co-ops
International
Year of the
Cooperative
(UN) 2012
@kvbest

42. from employment to engagement
apprenticeships projects
@kvbest

43. from confusion to clarity
Confusion sells more stuff and creates more waste
@kvbest

44. from shaping products to shaping meaning
@kvbest

45. from business as usual to conscious business
@kvbest

46. Consequences (unintended… and intended)
@kvbest

47. creativity and design
@kvbest

48. countries (through
growing a creative culture,
economy, skills and talent)
the creative industries
One of the best ways to increase competitive
advantage between
commercial companies
(through the provision of innovative
products and services).
CBI: the top country brands in the world
www.futurebrand.com
Quality of life matters!
Businessweek’s most innovative companies
@kvbest

49. ‘The industries of the C21st will
depend increasingly on the
generation of knowledge through
creativity and innovation.’
Ideas are increasingly important to
economic well-being – individually,
locally and globally.
John Howkins, 2001. The Creative Economy. London:
Penguin
the growing power of ideas
(and how people make money from ideas)
@kvbest

50. the creative economy
The contribution of Dutch
designers to NL GDP = €2.6
billion (2005).
In terms of value added in the
Dutch economy (2001), the
design industry (€2.6 billion)
was on par with the petroleum
industry (€2.1 billion) and air
transport (€2.6 billion).
Design in the Creative Economy,
Netherlands Organisation for Applied
Scientific Research.
design policy and promotion programmes
Droog
@kvbest

51. ‘’I love anything with
an i at the start of it –
the iPhone, the iPad,
the iMac, they’re
great. And something
like the iPod… it’s a
little work of art, objet
d’art, so aesthetically
pleasing’.
Ricky Gervais
creativity, innovation and design
are big business
@kvbest

52. Creative Clusters
Creative Class
The greatest assets of any region are its people,
their individual creativity, skill and talent…
A Creative Economy Green Paper for the Nordic Region, Nordic Innovation Centre
@kvbest

53. the opportunity for creativity (media)
Creative expression as a way of life
@kvbest

54. @kvbest

55. design recap
noun
A design (noun) has form and function; it is the outcome of
the process of designing.To design (verb) is to plan, to create
or to devise. It is a process, a practice, and a way of thinking.
verb
@kvbest

56. design is holistic and people centered
Aging Better by Design
Engaging design to benefit cultural, societal,
environmental and business agendas.
@kvbest

57. @kvbest

58. stimulate and facilitate
conversation, idea generation
prototyping: no judgments, no mistakes
(design thinking)
facilitating different conversations
planning and control
decision-making in companies
cross-functional internal boards
reach decision quickly
(silo thinking)
@kvbest

59. Facilitating different conversations by taking
people out of their comfort zones.
Providing fresh thinking, creative ideas and
contextual perspectives that are outside the
boundaries of a specialist domain…
ping pong
design tools for creativity and innovation
People-powered design –
tapping into human ingenuity
to unlock innovation
@kvbest

60. @kvbest

61. "There are two Indias - those who were born before 1980 and those after.
Those born before expected to have things created for them.Those born
after want to create things for themselves. This new attitude is what's
driving growth across the nation.
Subhabrata Gosh, CEO of Celcius 100
@kvbest

62. India on track to become the world's largest economy by 2050.
As the middle class continues to emerge from the slums that are still rife all
over India, there's a growing desire for the technologies and services that we
have in the west - and more. www.smarta.com
India
India: consumers or creators?
@kvbest

63. Annual design for impact bootcamp (SWSX)
open source design library (free)
DIY creative expression
@kvbest

64. Design is a people-centred
transformational process
- envision the future
- engage stakeholders
- change how people see things
‘People-powered design engages
human-ingenuity’
- inspire new visions
- aspire to new visions
- create new propositions
…in our product service systems
…Anything is possible..
@kvbest

65. What if?
@kvbest

66. What if we freely shared best practices globally?
sharing international best practice
Each year communities that have met at the Finals of The LivCom Awards
have exchanged Best Practice and practical experience and have joined
forces to address mutual challenges.
These partnerships have inevitably lead to mutual technical advances and
more effective use of resources, including finance, and the improvement of
the quality of life within a community.
@kvbest

67. What if collaboration replaced competition?
Innovation requires a huge leap of imagination
@kvbest

68. What if economics went back to being the
science of living well ?
design for a circular economy
@kvbest

69. What if politics moved from debate to conversation?
@kvbest

70. What if design tools were given away for free?
@kvbest

71. What if you could turn poverty on and off?
What would it look and feel like?
@kvbest

72. What if society was designed around well being?
@kvbest

73. What if the health of the people was the highest law?
@kvbest

74. What if there were no dumb people, only dumb
systems to which people have adapted?
@kvbest

75. What if we designed for a service (to others)
economy/society?
@kvbest

76. If design can help
companies change, then
design can help people
change
@kvbest

77. Creative expression: toolkitsfrom design commission to design success
human-centered design company-centered design project-centered design
YOU NEED A VISION!
(a story)
YOU NEED A PLAN!
(a matrix)
YOU NEED A RESULT!
(a goal)
@kvbest

78. Enabling change by design means helping
companies, countries and people transform by
seeing things differently:
- future scenarios, alternative choices
- aspirational and inspirational propositions
(not just practical and attractive)
- new ways to do things
- envision: envisioning and communicating
- engage: engaging and empowering
- transform: transforming mind-sets
@kvbest

79. danke
thank you
What kind of future
do we aspire to?
Making better
choices
Making more
conscious decisions @kvbest
Kathrynbest.com
@kvbest