- Digital Transformation – but what should technology enable?
Digital transformation is like giving your business a digital makeover, changing how your organisation operates and delivering value to customers. This trend is fueled by advancements in cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Organisations that do not hop on the digital transformation train risk falling behind their competitors and losing market share.
The issue is that implementing technology is not a goal by itself. Digitising our current bureaucracy should also not be high on our agendas. Technology can be a superpower to cut costs, but the most significant opportunity lies in developing the next big thing your customers will love.
This is where design swoops in by bringing much-needed empathy into technological advancement. As design is a radically people-focused methodology, it empowers organisations to explore and deliver new value to their users, customers, and employees. Value that is enabled by new technology. See it as the perfect tech-push, consumer-pull combo providing you with that much-needed competitive edge.
- Customer Centricity – why is it so scary for some?
While traditional organisations were busy chasing the economy of scale, juggling cost-cutting tactics and monopolistic power plays, they failed to notice the arrival of a new player: the demanding customer. Welcome to the new economy of demand, where delivering customer value reigns supreme and dictates market dominance.
Customer centricity is the art of decoding and prioritising customer needs, behaviours, and preferences to craft bespoke experiences across all touchpoints. In the cutthroat world of competitive markets, organisations must embrace customer centricity to stand out and cultivate customer loyalty.
Design is the secret ingredient that adds flavour to customer centricity, empowering organisations to deliver products and services that resonate with their target audience. By harnessing the power of design thinking and user research, organisations can make an empathic connection with their customers and teams to whip up solutions that satisfy needs and exceed expectations.
- Agility and Resilience – how to stay relevant?
The world’s spinning faster than a DJ’s turntable, and there’s no pause button in sight. Some companies are grooving to the beat, while others are feeling the heat. But, whether you are seizing the day or bracing for impact, agility and resilience are your wingman.
Enter design – empowering organisations to become more agile and resilient by fostering a culture of experimentation and innovation. By having a culture that can actually build stuff and execute smarter and faster than the competition. By embracing design, organisations can align ideas, experiment easier, iterate more swiftly and bring new successful products to market faster and cheaper than their competitors.
So, let’s embrace the ever-changing rhythm of the business world because, with design by our side, we are ready to take aim and pick up the pace!
- Sustainability – and the inertia of companies
Sustainability is like one massive interconnected puzzle with pieces such as reducing carbon footprint, saving precious resources, and rethinking circular economy models. As consumers and employees turn into eco-superheroes, organisations need to embed a purpose-driven culture and strategy to claim their spot on the good side of history and their balance sheet. Most business leaders feel the need for change – but as many organisations appear inert due to a lack of vision and internal consensus, sustainability became a people problem, not a technological one.
Design provides the holistic, user-centred and co-creative approach that helps organisations align on their sustainability goals and a plan on how to get there. Design helps create products and services that minimise waste, reduce energy consumption, and promote responsible use of resources. And design helps people to change their behaviour as well. By incorporating sustainable design principles, organisations can create solutions that will benefit both their bottom line and the planet.
- Talent Management – understanding the next generation
Talent management is like a talent show for organisations, attracting, retaining, and developing top talent to drive innovation and growth. In a job market as competitive as a game of musical chairs, organisations must put talent management as a priority to make sure they have the skilled workforce needed to win the race.
Design can play a key role in talent management by creating an engaging and inspiring work environment that attracts talented people and fosters creativity and collaboration. By investing in design, organisations can create a culture that nurtures innovation and empowers employees to reach their full potential. It is like dishing out a scrumptious Customer Experience, but for a different internal audience, all centred around job needs and our dynamic work-life journey ecosystem.
These trends might seem like a wild roller coaster ride for big organisations. And, let’s face it – it is not an easy task for today’s executives to navigate safely through all challenges and get the organisation to dance to the new rhythms.
The big issue here is that most executives have made a successful career in the old economy of scale. We need to build their confidence and show them the value, the culture, and the tools that are required to thrive in today’s new economy of demand.
By giving design and its principles a strategic position within organisations, we see how they can overcome these challenges and come out on top, stronger and more competitive than ever.
Design is not just about looking pretty; it is a real and proven methodology that helps organisations do things differently, shake things up, adapt, innovate, and flourish in our ever-changing lives. So executives – let’s embrace innovation and create a thriving world made better by design.