Design and Strategy

What comes to mind when you think of design? Your last office makeover? Your business cards? Perhaps the artwork on the last CD or DVD you bought. Or the last house you saw built on 'Grand Designs'. Yes, these are examples of design, but are you just identifying design as a superficial feature, employed purely for aesthetic reasons, rather than a rigorous process? If you are, then you're missing the real value that design can bring to your business.

Businesses only really get the best out of design when they view it as something of core strategic importance rather than a coat of surface gloss. Think less about, say, the logo on your website's homepage and more about why you have a website in the first place.

It's important to think of design not just in terms of the look and feel of a product or service, but instead think of design as a process, a way of thinking and working that allows you to sift ideas and develop them into products and services that people can believe in and value in their own lives.