Leading in the new reality of design and businessThe current design market is the reality of design and business. It’s not an aberration we will overcome and it’s not enough to adapt; we have to disrupt to get ahead. In the new reality design leaders have to use disruption to position themselves at the front of the market.
We have seen many previous disruptions in our industry and in turn seen leaders who disrupt.
When Hewlett-Packard developed the LaserJet desktop laser printer in 1984, it was quickly teamed with the Apple Mac, Adobe’s PostScript page description language and Aldus’s PageMaker to become the desktop publishing revolution – the first major disruptor for designers.
It heralded a massive opportunity for designers and also disrupted the ‘paste up’ model in design studios. The design leaders adopted early and adapted to the technology.
Design studios in Australia began by disrupting the ad industry. Les Mason was was a design leader as one of the first to establish a graphic design studio in Melbourne in the early 60’s, He cut across the ad industry by taking on top manufacturers of consumer goods such as Cadbury Schweppes and pharmaceutical companies such as Sigma Pharmaceuticals. He took them away from ad agencies.
But the question is How do you become a leader and disruptor?
In our recent research on design impact we have seen a growing number of agencies disrupting the status quo. We have examined their business models to understand how they’re doing it.
From this we have developed a roadmap to disrupt the status quo in positioning of design services, and it doesn’t rely on the latest flashiest technology.
Creative businesses are racing to keep up with the promise created by new technologies. Digital infrastructure such as AI and social media promise a disproportionate impact for relatively small actions and investments. This has creative business owners facing increasing stress as they try to stay up with ever-changing tech. In the chase they fall back to known business approaches and focus on their regular markets and capabilities. They focus on the short term and become reactive. This exacerbates the problem.
This is where the designer who leads with disruptive innovation can take control.
Let’s look at how it works for a design leader who wants to disrupt their competitors.
Disruptive innovation helps create a new market and value network to disrupt existing markets and value networks. The concept was actually coined in 1995 by a professor at Harvard; Clayton Christensen.
The term is used to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways the market does not expect.
Disruption in the design industry happens when the current time and materials approach is superseded by true client focused thinking; design impact. By targeting segments of the market and their customers that have been neglected by larger agencies, the smaller agency can develop a design impact mentality and disrupt the major players.
The theory is, although the once dominant agencies possessed the power to adopt new technology they kept innovating with the same business model. They thought this was being a leader and disrupting using new technology.
It’s the thinking that needs to change not the technology.
The disruptive design agency leader knows the design process has become far more complex; clients are demanding new services and new ways of thinking. The new design leader is shifting the thinking away from technology and looking at the human impact of design.
If you want to know more about how design impact can change your positioning contact Greg Branson.
Design Business Review is Australia’s only online design management magazine. It’s professional development information written specifically for Australian designers by Australian designers. Best of all, it’s free.
Greg Branson
Greg’s passion is the research and development of methods that improve design management and the role of design in business.
Greg and Carol developed the Design Business Council as a management school for design leaders. Contact Greg to learn more about developing your skills as a manager.
