Design management

Design management is the business side of design and design managers need to speak the language of the business and the language of design.

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 suitable 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 on all levels of business performance (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 adductive mode of thinking, 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

Design management plays three integrative key roles in the interface of design, organisation and market.

The multifarious 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, combined with a multitude of factors such as industry, company size, market situation and the importance of design within the organisation's activities. Therefore, design management is not restricted to a single design discipline and depends on the individual context of the 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:

1. align design strategy with corporate and/or brand strategy
2. manage quality and consistency of design outcomes across and within different design disciplines (design classes)
3. enhance new ways of user experience, create new solutions for user needs and differentiation from competitors

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

Main article: Design

Unlike unique sciences such as mathematics, the perspective, the activity or the discipline design is not brought to a generally accepted common denominator. The historical beginnings of design are complex and the nature of design is still subject of ongoing discussions. Above all, particularly in design, there (still) are strong differentiations between theory and practice. The design theory provides little concrete evidence to date that can be used in practice, so that the practical operating designer can operate very unattached from a theory. Moreover, in practice, for instance decisions are often referred to as intuition. A practical perspective on design helps to understand the scope of design management, the theoretical perspective should therefore not be subject of this article. 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

Main article: 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 organisation (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 responsible for management information systems. Although it is increasingly 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

Main article: Design leadership

Design managers often operate in the area of design leadership. However, design management and design leadership are not interchangeable, but interdependent. 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 the future direction to achieve long-term objectives. In contrast, design management is re-active and responds to a given business situation by using specific skills, tools, methods and techniques. Design management needs design leadership to know where to go and design leadership needs 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 design management could arise. Throughout its history design management was influenced by a number of different disciplines (e.g. architecture, industrial design, management, software development, engineering) and movements (e.g. system theory, design methodologies) and in its understanding it can be attributed neither directly to design nor to management.

Business

Managing product aesthetics and corporate design (early contributions)

Peter Behrens, around 1913 in his office in Berlin, is one of the first contributors to design management.

The early contributions to design management show how different design disciplines were coordinated to achieve business objectives on corporate level and demonstrate the early understanding of design as a competitive force on national level. In that context design was merely understood as an aesthetic function and the management of design was on a level of project planning. Artists and designers were gradually moving to the industrial realm, by producing small series of their designs. The management of design on a project level has been an integral part of the process of industrial design.

The practice of managing design across several design disciplines 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 an state-sponsored effort to better compete with Great Britain and United States by integrating traditional craft and industrial mass-production techniques. The German designer and architect Peter Behrens designed as an external consultant the entire corporate identity (logotype, product design, publicity, etc.) of AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft) and is known as 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 from consumers and differentiation to competitors. The company Olivetti got famous for its attention to design through their corporate design activities. In 1936, Olivetti hired Giovanni Pintori (publicity department) and promoted Marcello Nizzoli (product design department) to develop design into a comprehensive corporate philosophy. Till the 1960s, the debates in the design community were focused on ergonomics, functionalism and corporate design, while the debates in management addressed Just in time, TQM and product specification. The main contributors to design management in that time were AEG, Bauhaus, British Design Council, Deutscher Werkbund, Olivetti, Peter Behrens and Walter Paepcke.

Managing design systematically (1960s–1970s)

The industrialisation influenced the work of the designers in the 1960s, the debate on design moved from an aesthetic function to how to work together with the industry. Designers had to work in a team with engineers and marketeers and design was perceived as one part of the product development process. In the early years of design management the discipline was strongly influenced by system science and the emergence of a design science (e.g. blooming period of design methodologies in Germany, USA and Great Britain); main contributors were coming from the discipline architecture. The early discussions on design management were strongly influenced by the Anglo-Saxon literature (e.g. Farr, Rittel), the methodological studies (e.g. HfG Ulm, Christopher Alexander) and theories in business studies and dealt with two main issues:

• how to develop corporate systems of planning aims and
• 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, London Business School, Peter Gorb, Design Management Institute and the Royal Society of Arts. Debates in the design discipline were focusing on design science, design methodology, wicked problems, Ulm methodology, new German design, 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. Because companies were unsure exactly how to manage design, there was a market for consultancy, focusing on helping organisations manage the product development process, including market research, concept, project, communication, and market launch phases, as well as the positioning of products and companies.

Two important publications were published in 1990: the Publication of Design Management – A Handbook of Issues and Methods by Mark Oakley (Editor) and the Publication of Design Management – Papers from the London Business School by Peter Gorb (Editor). The new method-based design management approach helped to improve communication amongst technical and marketing managers. Examples of the new methods included trend research, product effect triad, style mapping, milieus, product screenings, empiric design methods, service design etc., 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 has been an important contribution to the definition of design as a core element in business. At Philips Design, Stefano Marzano became CEO and CD in 1991, continuing the work of Robert Blaich to align design processes with business processes, furthering design strategy as an important asset of the overall business strategy.

Managing design for innovation (2000s–2010s)

Since 2000, design management has taken a more strategic role within business, and more academic programmes for design management have been established. Design management has been recognised (and subsidised) on European Union level as a function for corporate advantage for companies and nations. 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 following management trends: 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 and 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. In the same time the design community discussed methodologies for design. Christopher Alexander's work played an important role in the development of the design methodology, he devoted his attention to the problematic of form and context and focused on disassembling complex design challenges into constituent parts to approach a concrete solution. His intention was to bring more rationalism and structure into the solving of design problems.

In 1965, the term design management was published first 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 on corporate management level by providing the language and method to effectively manage it.

Politic (till 2000s)

The British Design Council was founded in 1944 to promote design in the British industry.

Design policies have a long history and reach 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 by twelve architects and twelve business firms as an state-sponsored effort to better compete with Great Britain and United States by integrating traditional craft and industrial mass-production techniques. The success of the Deutscher Werkbund inspired a group of British designers, industrialists and business people (who have seen the organisation on the Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne in 1914) to found the Design and Industries Association and campaigned for a greater involvement of government in the promotion of good design. In 1944, design management as 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 realised the national importance of design as well during the second world war. Between 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler instrumentalised design, architecture and propaganda to stage his power, most exemplary 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 Prof. Karl Diebitsch and Walter Heck in 1933), the Dachau concentration camp (designed by Theodor Eicke and prototype for the 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 design to promote design as part of their efforts of fostering technology, manufacturing and innovation.

Promotion and conference (till 2000s)

The Royal Society of Arts in London is one of the first institutions supporting design management, in 1949.

The 15th European International Design Management Conference organised by the Design Management Institute

In America, Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke of the Container Corporation of America founded the Aspen Design Conference in the United States 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 Art Presidential Medals for Design Management was instituted in June 1964 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 this award 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 1975, at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Since mid-1980s, the DMI is an international non-profit organisation that seeks to heighten 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 is organised. The Design Management Institute 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 ADMIRE (Award for Design Management Innovating and Reinforcing Enterprises) project in 2007, 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 SME – to introduce Design Management procedures for improving their competitiveness, to stimulate innovation, establish a European knowledge-sharing platform, organise a European Design Management Award and to identify and test new activities to promote Design Management.

Education (till 2000s)

Teaching design to managers is 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 Design Management Institute and a long time Fellow of the RSA, has led the design management department for over 20 years and is seen as a godfather for design management. He defined his design reclassification in 1976, and published his book Design and its use by managers two years later.

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 the University of Art and Design Helsinki. A few years later, in 1995, the Helsinki School of Economics (HSE), University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), and University of Technology (TKK) cooperate to create the International Design Business Management Programme (IDBM), which aims to bring together experts in different fields within the concept of design business management.

The Design Leadership Fellowship at the University of Oxford is 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 Finish universities, that cooperate since 1995, on a design management programme: Helsinki School of Economics (HSE), University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), and University of Technology (TKK).

Research

The first international research project on design management is initiated by the Design Management Institute and the Harvard Business School, the TRIAD research project in 1989. in the same year the Design Management Review is published by the Design Management Institute, as first magazine (still) solely focusing on design management. 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 to; but there are still a few white gaps on the landscape of design management research.

Different types

Different types of design management exist depending on the type and strategic orientation of the business:

Product design management

Product design management helps to create a distinctive design. The image shows the Saab hockey stick as an automotive design feature.

In product focused companies the design management focus lies mainly on product design management, including strong interactions with product design, product marketing, R&D 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 qualities and manages diverse product groups and product design platforms.

Brand design management

File:Product range.jpg

Brand design management helps to align products within the product range and establishes a clear design language.

In market and brand focused companies the design management focus lies mainly on brand design management. It can be distinguished into corporate brand management and product brand management. In this perspective of design management the brand is the core, which results in a strong focus on the brand experience, customer touch points, reliability, recognition and trust relations. The design, like all brand elements, is strongly driven by the brand vision and strategy.

Corporate brand design management

Brand and market focused organisations are concerned with the expression and perception of 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 (internal branding). It is strongly linked to strategy, corporate culture, product development, marketing, organisational structure, and technological development. To achieve a consistent corporate brand, the involvement of silent designers and widespread design awareness among the employees. A creative culture, knowledge sharing processes, a strong vision, 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 not on the corporate, but on the single product or product family. Product design management is linked to R&D, marketing and brand management and is strongly 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. The image shows the Car2Go concept from Daimler in Austin, Texas.

Service design management deals with the newly emerging field of service design. It is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service, for improving its quality, the interaction between service provider and customers and the customer's experience. The increasing importance and size of the service sector, both in terms of people employed and economic importance, requires services to be accurately designed in order for service providers to remain competitive and to continue to attract customers. Design management focuses traditionally on the design and development of manufactured products. Service design managers can use many theoretical and methodological approaches from product design management. Systematic and strategic management of service design helps the business to gain competitive advantages and to conquer new markets. Companies that pro-actively identify the interests of their customers open up new and profitable opportunities if they develop service offerings that create good and pleasant experiences for the customer.

Companies in the service sector are innovating by addressing the IHIP-challenge, they are addressing the Intangibility, Heterogeneity, Inseparability and Perishability of service:

• Services are intangible, they have no physical form and they cannot be seen before purchase or taken home after.
• Services are heterogen, because unlike tangible products no two service delivery experiences are alike.
• Services are inseparable, because the act of supplying a service is inseparable from the customer’s act of consuming it.
• Services are perishable, they can not be inventoried.

Based on the specific characteristics of services, service design management differs in several aspects from product design management. For example, the application of international trading strategies of services faces big problems, because the evolution of service ‘from a craftsmanship attitude to industrialisation of services’ asks for 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 not only difficult for global quality consistence, but also for effective cost control.

Business design management

Main article: Design thinking

Business design management deals among others with the development of business models. The image shows the business model canvas from 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 characterizes innovative, human-centered enterprises. This paradigm also 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 characterized through 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 its management is what business design management is about. Although the Rotman School of Management trademarked the term Business Design, other universities are offering similar academic education concepts, like the Aalto University in Finland with the International Design Business Management (IDBM) programme (since 1995).

Urban design management

Urban design management contributes to the development of urban districts. The image shows the newly build HafenCity Hamburg, Germany.

Urban design management involves mediation among a range of self-interested stakeholders involved in the production of the built environment. Such mediation can encourage a joint search for mutually beneficial outcomes, or integrative development. Integrative development links stakeholders at diverse scales and in multiple contexts. Integrative development aims to produce more sustainable solutions by increasing stakeholder satisfaction with the process and content of urban development.

Conventional real estate development and urban planning activities are framed in conflicting interests and positional bargaining. Integrative negotiation approaches focusing on mutual gains have been applied in land use planning and environmental management, but not at intersection of 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. The approach of urban design management aims increasing the stakeholders’ satisfaction both to the process and content of development. 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 has provided 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

Main article: Architectural management

Architectural design management contributed to the development of Heathrow Terminal 5 and Heathrow express by managing the design development and applying visionary leadership.

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. A research by Kiran Gandhi describes architectural management as a subject of practical aspects 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 an 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 the 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. Within the world exports of all creative industry products (goods and services), design generates 50% of the revenue in the creative industry (the creative workforce is 3.1% of the total employment in the EU, who creates a revenue that is 2.6% of the EU gross value added with an an unprecedented average annual growth rate of 8.7 per cent 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 level, but has initiated design and creative policies and programmes in the most advanced economies. Furthermore design and creativity has been recognised on regional and local level as a driver for competitiveness, economic growth, job engine and citizen satisfaction. The investment in creative and cultural industries are underlined as a significant component in EU growth in the Lisbon Strategy and the Europe 2020 strategy. Designers are increasingly involved in innovation issues. To better understand the value of design and its role in innovation, the EU hold a public consultation on the basis of their publication Design as a driver of user-centred innovation and published the Mini study Design as a tool for innovation. The report highlights the importance of design in user-centred innovation and recommended the integration of design in 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 the 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 different depths:

1. non-design: Companies that do not use design (15% in 2007).
2. design as styling: Companies that use design as styling appearance (17% in 2007).
3. design as process: Companies that integrate design into the development process (45% in 2007).
4. 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 promoter for innovation (71%), as growth potential for the company (79%) and to make products more user friendly (71%). With increasing importance of design for the company, also design management gets more important.

The value of design can be leveraged if it is managed very 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 efficient and effective design management is crucial for maximising the value of design. Effective design management increases the efficiency of operations management and process management, it has a significant positive impact on process management, quality performance (internal and external quality) and operating performance. To measure and communicate the value of design management, Borja de Mozota suggests to adapt the Balanced Score Card model and structure the value in following four categories:

• Internal business processes: Design management as innovation process. Design management providing improvements in company performance and processes, these innovations and processes being totally invisible for outsiders.
• Learning and growing: Beyond advanced design management. Design explicit knowledge applied to strategic focus and improve the quality of staff.
• Customer and brand: Design management as perception and brand. Design knowledge applied to corporate difference building and strategic positioning.
• Financial: The historic design management economic model. Design management explicit and measurable value for company reputation and stock market performance.

Relation to other disciplines and departments

In companies three different orientations for the choice of design management can be identified. These orientations influence the perception of management and responsibility of design managers in 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 the other management branches to different 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 the elements positioning, personality, purpose, personnel, project and practice, with the objective to increase brand equity.

Operations management: On 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 support of brand equity, design management deals with strategic design issues and supports the strategic direction of the 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, inquiring 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: Design management 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. Design management 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	—	operational design management	Oakley, 1984
strategic design management	—	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, 2005
design strategy management	design resource management	design project management	Kootstra, 2006

Operational design management deals among other things with individual design projects and teams. Standing by the scale model's left front fender is Richard Teague, a design manager at American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1961.

Operational level

Operational design management is concerned with 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 made tangible by measuring 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 / management of internal communications. Regular management functions, tools and concepts can often be applied to the management of design on 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 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 etc.

Tactical design management deals among other things with creating awareness for design issues in the company. Training meeting in an eco-design stainless steel company in Brazil.

Tactical level

Tactical design management addressed 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 operational level. It defines how design is organised within the company. This includes the coordination of different design projects and activities through a central body. 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 type of company and industry the following job titles are associated: tactical design manager, design director, design & innovation manager, brand design manager, new product development (NPD) manager, visual identity manager etc.

Strategic design management deals among other things with envisioning the future. Visionary automotive concept BMW GINA, BMW Museum, Munich, Germany.

Strategic level

Strategic design management involves the creation of the strategic, long-term vision & 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 vision, 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 and gain competitive advantage by design. As a result, design thinking becomes integrated in the corporate culture. Depending on type of company and industry the following job titles are associated: strategic design manager, chief design officer, vice president design & innovation, chief creative officer, innovation design director etc.

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 would lead 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	—	—	projects	—	Topalian, 1980
strategy and policy	human resources	—	projects	—	Oakley, 1984
N/A	—	—	—	process	Hetzel, 1998
strategy and policy	human and material resources	—	—	—	Blaich, 1998
strategy	organisation and human resources	information resources	projects	—	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	—	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, 2005

Authority and position

The authority and position of the design management function has a huge influence on what the design manager does in his or her daily job. Kootstra (2006) distinguishes design management types by its 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 is the extensive authority and the direct responsibility for the result. Design management as 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 is their limited authority and their function 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. Other 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
centralisation vs. decentralisation design at top-level management	flexibility vs. consistency autonomy vs. control	grouping of activities	pre-development activities product development and testing commercialisation	Cooper, 2005
N/A	—	Design made without interorganisational cooperation (sub-contract) design made with interorganisational cooperation (company-wide design culture) making design together (network) design made alone (internalisation, selling design expertise)	N/A	Mozota, 2003
staff-function line-function support-function	N/A	—	—	Kootstra, 2006
functional structure (basic structure) independent project organisation (self-contained group) matrix organisation	N/A	design champion design policy design programme design as function (like a design department) design as infusion (everyone is concerned with design, silent designers)	N/A	Stamm, 2005
N/A	—	—	Fuzzy Front End (FFE) Product Development Process (PDP) Market Operations (MO)	Buckler, 1997

Politic (since 2010s)

Today almost every developed country has some kind of design promotion programme and 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 general or economic objectives:

• support business: increased use of design by companies, particularly by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and growth of the design sector (use dimension);
• promote to public: increased exports of design and design sector, and attractiveness to international investment (international dimension);
• educate designers: improved 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 (2005) to communicate the competitive advantage of design for the British industry.

Innovation policies have been excessively focused on the supply of technologies and neglected the demand side (the user). There have been several initiatives by the European Commission to support and research on design and design management in recent years. However a European-wide policy to support design was never planned, due to the inconsistency and differences of national design policies. Against this background it is interesting to see that there are plans to include design into the EU innovation policy.

Education (since 2010s)

Design management was first taught at the London Business School, in 1976.

Design management was first taught on a business school, since teaching design to managers is pioneered at the London Business School in 1976 and the first programme of design management on a design school started in the 1980s at the Royal College of Art, DeMontfort, Middlesex, Staffordshire. Although in the UK many of the courses have not been sustainable, for instance the RSA course was closed, so was the Westminster MBA. However other courses came through and continue for example Brunel, Salford, and Lancaster.

The BusinessWeek publishes every year a list of the best programmes that combines design thinking with 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 on the blended education of design and management. Business Schools realised the need and developed new academic curricula (e.g. Rotman School of Management, Wharton University of Pennsylvania and MIT Sloan Executive Education).

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 educated to have 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 it essential to break down silos of departments and disciplines of knowledge.

See also

Brand management Business model Corporate Identity Design Design leadership Innovation

Leadership Marketing Operations management Perception management Product management Programme management

Project management Reputation management Strategic management Strategic planning The Design of Business

Further reading

Books

• Farr, M. (1966). Design Management. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Oakley, M. (1984). Managing Product Design. London. ISBN 0-471-81637-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Kicherer, Sibylle (1987). Industrie Design als Leistungsbereich von Unternehmen (Dissertation ed.). München.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Wolf, Brigitte (1993). Design Management in the German industry (Dissertation (supervisor: Koppelmann, U.) ed.). Frankfurt: Anabas Verlag. ISBN 3-87038-247-3.
• Spieß, Heinrich (1993). Integrated Design Management. Cologne: Fördergesellschaft Produktmarketing. ISBN 3-922292-28-3.
• Hammer, N. (1994). Die stillen Designer – Manager des Designs. Essen: Design Zentrum NRW. ISBN 3-929227-12-6.
• Rummel, Carlo (1995). Designmanagement (Dissertation ed.). Wiesbaden.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Cooper; Press (1995). The Design Agenda / A Guide to Successful Design Management. Chichester.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Buck; Vogt (1997). Design Management / Was Produkte wirklich erfolgreich macht. Wiesbaden.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Meier-Kortwig, Hans Jörg (1997). Design Management als Beratungsangebot.
• Bruce, M.; Cooper, R. (1997). Marketing and Design Management. Boston: Thomson Business Press. ISBN 1-86152-173-1.
• Koppelmann, U. (2000). Produktmarketing (6th edition ed.). Berlin. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Kern (2000). Design als integrierender Faktor der Unternehmensentwicklung. Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-540-67147-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Meyer, D. (1994). Design management in middlesized companies. Frankfurt a. M.: German Design Council. ISBN 3-922885-71-3.
• Myerson, J. (2001). IDEO: Masters of Innovation. London: Neues Publishing Company. ISBN 3-8238-5485-2.
• Kelley, J.; Peters, J. (2001). The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm. Currency. ISBN 0-38549-984-1. {{cite book}}: |first3= missing |last3= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Jerhard; Hands; Ingrim (2002). Design Management Case Studies. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Bruce, M.; Bessant, J. (2002). Design in Business – Strategic Innovation through Design. Essex (Great Britain): Pearson Education. ISBN 0-27364-374-6.
• Buck, H. (2003). Design Management in der Praxis. Stuttgart.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Mozota, B. (2003). Design management: using design to built brand value and corporate innovation. New York: Allworth Press. ISBN 1-58115-283-3.
• Phillips (2004). Creating the Perfect Design Brief / How to Manage Design for Strategic Advantage. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Kern (2005). Designmanagement / Die Kompetenz der Kreativen. Hildesheim.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Koostra, G: (2006). Designmanagement, design effectief benutten om ondernemingssucces te creeren. ISBN 9-04301172-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Rizal (2006). Managing Collaborative Design in the Conceptual Design Phase.
• Best, Kathryn (2006). Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation. Lausanne. ISBN 978-2940373123.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Brauer (2007). Erfolgsfaktor Design-Management / Ein Leitfaden für Unternehmer und Designer. Basel.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Moultrie (2007). Development of a Design Audit Tool for SMEs.

External links

Organisations

• Design Management Institute

Conferences

• Design Management Institute Conferences (EU, Asia, US)
• Design Management Forum (DE)
• Raymond – design managers retreat

Awards

• Design Management Europe Award