A Conference on Business Design The New Competitive Weapon?
On Jan. 28 the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in Toronto will be presenting their annual business conference "Business Design The New Competitive Weapon". After you finish attending that conference you might be interested in the one presented by the Amish "The Tractor the New Competitive Weapon on the Farm". At first I was pleased to read of such a conference since it promotes the value of design but at the same time I was frustrated. Let me explain where we are presently. After the Roman Empire collapsed, the knowledge of making concrete was lost for 1,500 years until it was rediscovered. Today's familiar concrete was first rediscovered in the middle of the nineteenth century. In the year 2005 some people have now discovered concrete again.
The Rotman School has been doing a great job in promoting design recently through articles in their alumni newsletter, too bad it's not sent to all business leaders. This conference is just a nice way of telling business leaders we missed something along the way but don't feel bad about it.
Business education has failed us and so has design education. This is a good case for interdisciplinary education. York University in Toronto has a great campaign on its web site promoting itself as "The Interdisciplinary University". The inability to see how all elements fit together or the big picture can be the downfall of any organization.
Here is a great example of how an organization went downhill because of its poorly managed brand. Read the article Frederick's of Hollywood at Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge. From my perspective it's a no brainer, if this company had a creative on board managing the brand. All the solutions outlined from the logo redesign, store design, web site, catalogs etc. would never been neglected if design was valued. Thanks to the new CEO Linda LoRe who does get it. This brings up the question as to why today organizations believe that a brand manager should be someone with a MBA. Brands are built by creative people and should be managed by them. Long-standing slogan at Fast Company: The new MBA is an MFA...old news.
The speakers at the conference appear to be all business leaders with the only recognizable design leader being Tim Brown, President and CEO, Ideo Inc. The day this conference is held and business people will be paying to hear a panel of designers speak we shall know it's working. Possibly in 1500 years we shall see the results, until them I shall continue to pretend they have discovered something new.
All I know is that companies who do get it have been profiting greatly.
The Rotman School has been doing a great job in promoting design recently through articles in their alumni newsletter, too bad it's not sent to all business leaders. This conference is just a nice way of telling business leaders we missed something along the way but don't feel bad about it.
Business education has failed us and so has design education. This is a good case for interdisciplinary education. York University in Toronto has a great campaign on its web site promoting itself as "The Interdisciplinary University". The inability to see how all elements fit together or the big picture can be the downfall of any organization.
Here is a great example of how an organization went downhill because of its poorly managed brand. Read the article Frederick's of Hollywood at Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge. From my perspective it's a no brainer, if this company had a creative on board managing the brand. All the solutions outlined from the logo redesign, store design, web site, catalogs etc. would never been neglected if design was valued. Thanks to the new CEO Linda LoRe who does get it. This brings up the question as to why today organizations believe that a brand manager should be someone with a MBA. Brands are built by creative people and should be managed by them. Long-standing slogan at Fast Company: The new MBA is an MFA...old news.
The speakers at the conference appear to be all business leaders with the only recognizable design leader being Tim Brown, President and CEO, Ideo Inc. The day this conference is held and business people will be paying to hear a panel of designers speak we shall know it's working. Possibly in 1500 years we shall see the results, until them I shall continue to pretend they have discovered something new.
All I know is that companies who do get it have been profiting greatly.
posted by Adriano Permalink
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