‘Nothing restricts our ability to innovate more than what we already know, and what we therefore believe not to be possible’ (Geoff Mulgan, founder of think tank Demos)

What is innovation?

Innovation is all about doing things differently, exploiting new ideas and taking risks. It enables businesses to bring new and improved products or services to market, re-energise brands, refine processes and, most importantly, improve profitability.

Innovation should be an on-going process that’s embedded in the company culture at all levels. It’s a team process that thrives when passionate people are encouraged to create ideas that challenge the status quo.

Everything starts from an idea, and the best way to find that magical innovation is to generate a lot of proposals. Success comes from filtering those ideas, identifying ones that the business will focus on and applying resources to exploit them effectively.

Why does innovation matter?

Forward thinking companies see innovation as the fuel for long term business growth. When placed at the heart of an organisation, it adds value to products and services, stimulates sales growth, and exploits new markets.

The innovation process always brings a sense of renewal. Teams and businesses are invigorated from within, and find themselves seeking new trends or ideas that will propel them into the next cycle of innovation and creativity.

What’s design-led innovation?

Design can effectively initiate and manage innovation in products, services, brand communications and processes - and there’s strong evidence that design-led innovation makes good business sense.

A designer’s role is to challenge, experiment, expand boundaries and explore new and different ways of doing things. They are abundant with fresh ideas, and use creative thinking to view problems from a different perspective.

Involving a designer in your company or team is a smart move, but they shouldn’t be left to innovate alone. Success comes from a diverse team of people, perhaps inspired and guided by the designer to help them innovate more effectively.

How do we encourage innovation?

Innovation is not necessarily about spending more money or following a rigid process. It’s fundamentally about changing company attitudes and structures, and allowing a creative culture to develop and light the path ahead.

An organisation must be fertile for the seeds of ideas and solutions to grow. An inclusive environment that is empowering, flexible, welcomes ideas, tolerates risk, celebrates success, fosters synergy and encourages fun is crucial.

Creating this kind of climate is the biggest challenge facing companies wanting to be more innovative. It needs leadership from the top, but participation by all. Here are some essential steps that will help promote the innovative spirit:

·       Commission some market research to better understand the changing needs of your customers, industry trends and what your rivals are doing. It could reveal new opportunities, and it will give you the evidence around which to focus your efforts.

·       Make sure you have processes and events to capture ideas. For example you could setup suggestion boxes around the workplace, hold regular brainstorming workshops or even plan company outings to stimulate new thinking.

·       Create a supportive atmosphere in which everyone can freely express their ideas without the risk of criticism or ridicule. Often there’s something good hidden inside those silly or bold suggestions!

·       Encourage risk taking and experimentation, and certainly don’t penalise those who try new ideas that fail. Exploration is nothing without perseverance.

·       Promote openness between individuals and teams. Good ideas and knowledge in one part of your business should be shared with others. Teamworking, newsletters and intranets can all help your people share information and build an ideas culture.

·       Stress that people at all levels of the business share responsibility for innovation, so everyone feels involved in taking the business forward. The fewer the layers of management or decision making in your organisation, the more people feel their ideas matter.

·       Reward innovation and celebrate success. Appropriate incentives can play a role in encouraging staff to think creatively, and to keep them engaged.

·       Look for imagination and creativity when recruiting new employees. Innovative thinkers are not just those with impressive qualifications, and often employees new to your industry can bring a totally fresh approach to the way you do things.

·       Form a consortium or discussion group with other companies or bodies. Collaboration can bring huge benefits in terms of shared resources, spreading risk and utilising knowledge that is not available in-house.

·       Involve a designer in your project team, or even invite one to become a non-executive director in the company. Professional product and graphic designers are trained to challenge assumptions and traditions, and can rapidly enhance your innovative capability.

·       Try to develop and secure some intellectual property from your efforts. Patents, registered designs and trade marks add value to your ideas, and can protect against competitors who chose to innovate by copying.

·       Organisations do not become more innovative over night. Commitment and patience is required from everyone during the innovative journey, especially if outcomes do not match initial expectations.

Examples of successful design-led innovation

These short case studies deliberately focus on particular designer-business relationships, as it’s essential to understand that the key to success is to put design and innovation at the core of company strategy.

Category: Product and brand innovation
Project: Swatch watches
Client: Swatch
Year: Early 1980s to present day 

Swatch is an example of what design combined with an innovative concept can achieve. The Swiss watch making industry was very weak in the early 1980s, faced with competition from Japanese digital watches. Swatch's revolutionary business concept reversed the decline by redefining the watch market. It transformed a watch from a time measuring instrument into a fashion statement and a collector's item.

Nicholas G Hayek, the consultant who had been brought in to wind down the Swiss watch making industry had the idea of marrying Swiss watch making skills with Italian fashion design. To add to the mix he borrowed plastic engineering skills from Lego to produce watches that were dramatically different from the feature laden watches offered by the Japanese.

As a consequence, people started collecting these relatively cheap watches - choosing a different one, depending on their mood and the occasion. Design and innovation here not only led to the successful establishment of a new company, but to the turnaround for an entire industry.

Category: Product innovation
Project: Quattro
Client: Black & Decker
Year: 1998

Black and Decker realised that there might be a market for a multi-purpose tool. So the company decided to develop a tool that would allow four different operations: sanding, sawing, drilling and screwing.

After an initial design was developed externally, the project champion felt that the concept offered far greater degrees of innovation and differentiation than realised by the initial design and gave it to an in-house designer for review. In-depth understanding of Black and Decker's vision and ambition combined with a passion for improving ease of use and user comfort resulted in a distinctive, innovative design that took the market by storm. When the product was introduced in late 1998 demand was far higher than anticipated.

Instead of starting from the existing design of battery operated tools, the young designer questioned what had been taken as a given and, by doing so, was able to create a superior design in terms of the function and visual appeal. Here, design and innovation have been used to create a new product category.

Category: Product and brand innovation
Project: iMac G4
Client: Apple Computers
Year: 2003

After Apple's initial success with introducing the Mac in 1984, the company had become complacent. In the mid/late 1990s it became clear that something drastic had to happen if the company was to survive. Remembering its roots - user friendliness and imaginative design - Apple hired Jonathan Ive, a young British product designer.

Ive turned the boring, uninspiring grey box that housed the average personal computer into the iMac, launched in 1998. With this example of the benefits of innovation and design, Apple continued to stretch the boundaries of computer design. In early 2003 the company launched it’s most innovative and imaginative computer yet. The iMac G4 features a 15" or 17" LCD screen and a hard drive that’s hidden in the hemispherical base that supports the screen. Here design and innovation were used to revitalise a brand, give it back its credibility, and effectively save a company.

About the author

This article has been written and compiled by Matthew Link – Managing Director of PER Design (UK) Ltd. Supporting material was kindly supplied by the Design Council (www.designcouncil.org.uk), Business Link (www.businesslink.gov.uk) and Innovation Network (www.thinksmart.com). All owner’s rights and marks are duly acknowledged. 

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