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Endless Innovation:
The Role of Industrial Design in Maintaining the
Relationship between Business & Society
Dominika Potuzakova, Nick Sturkenboom, Dirk Snelders
Department of Industrial Design
Eindhoven University of Technology
Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, NL
+31634 415170, +31640 683164, +31624664834
d.potuzakova@student.tue.nl, n.sturkenboom@student.tue.nl, h.m.j.j.snelders@tue.nl
ABSTRACT
There are many businesses on the market that cannot clearly
see the strategic value of industrial design. Managers often
see designers as a separate concern in a developmental
process, namely to give a product or system a final look and
shape. In this paper we would like to change this view, and
stress that industrial design is of strategic value to
companies, and should be implemented early and
throughout the whole developmental process. The strategic
value of industrial design is presented here as a capacity
that creates and sustains a symbiotic relationship between
business and society. By presenting this strategic capacity
of design in a diagram and further explaining the various
implications in the text we intend to promote the view of
industrial design as a central capacity of innovation in
business.
Keywords
Industrial design, concept innovation process, radical
meaning, strategic value, business
INTRODUCTION
Many companies are hesitant to invest in a design
department. On the one hand, they tend to see industrial
design mainly as a capacity that helps shape the form of
their products (thus stimulating sales) and that assists in
limiting production costs (thus stimulating profits). On the
other hand, they fail to see industrial design as a strategic
capacity that is of value over individual development
projects [1]. As a result, they underestimate the full value of
a design department. As stated in Verganti‟s book, Design
Driven Innovation [2] “Executives like Ernesto Gismondi,
Alberto Alessi, and Steve Jobs did not invest in design on
the basis of a financial analysis.”
A design department and its employees consisting of
different types of designers can, however, hold the key for
sustained profits to the company, from one new product to
the next. Like Verganti, we believe that industrial designers
are devoted and trained to initiate the radical innovations of
meaning, and on the basis of that create products that side-
steps the competition, and with life cycles significantly
longer than that of the competition [2]. The focus of
industrial design is broad, and can range from form
expressiveness to interaction, mechanics, electronics, and
technology processes. The meaning design instills in
products can range from philosophical to socio-cultural,
psychological, or even physiological. Each individual
designer usually concentrates her focus on one or two of
these areas of competence. However, it is important to
stress that these professionals are devoted and trained to
appreciate and develop most of these competencies to such
a level that they can communicate concepts clearly to
designers and other stakeholders such as experts and
management. In this article we would therefore like to
explore the role of industrial design within concept
innovation processes. It is in conceptual design that the
strategic value of designers becomes most apparent, and the
least tainted by the direct project-related concerns of sales
and cost. We would like to stress their strategic value of
design in such processes, in that it facilitates the
communication of the needs, desires and opportunities
perceived by the involved stakeholders, and transforms this
information into radical innovations of meaning. This role
of design is expressed visually through a developed
diagram that represents design as the conduit for a
symbiotic relationship between business and society.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS & SOCIETY
Concept Innovation Process
Innovation processes have been described many times in
past, and in many different ways. However, most of these
processes are represented as linear, describing innovation
projects from a fuzzy start to a clear end. Here, we would
like to give a new point of view to such processes. We have
created a diagram that symbolizes the concept innovation
process as being a part of a symbiotic cellular organism (see
Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Symbiotic Relationship between Business &
Society
The living organism represented by the diagram grows and
shrinks according to influences stemming from businesses
and society. The organism is maintained by a concept
innovation process, which is a continuous cycling process
(the purple arrowed lines), without a clear beginning or end.
This cycle leads through various components that make up
the symbiotic organism, which are focal areas for design:
Radical Meaning
Socio-cultural Influence
Human Refinement
Technology Influence
Technology Refinement
Concept Outcomes
These components are absorbing the contributions from
society and businesses surrounding the whole cycle
continuously, and each can be seen as a specialized process
necessary for the maintenance of the symbiotic relation.
Thus, one part of this symbiotic organism would not survive
without the other, and the role of industrial design in the
concept innovation process can thus be seen as a longer
term (strategic) commitment to the betterment of business
and society. Also note that all the components are
influencing each other, although the intensity of the
influence depends on the scope of the innovation, e.g.
whether it is a more or less technology or socio-culturally
driven innovation. The component where the technology-
based and socio-cultural influence merges is critical for the
concept innovation process. This is the place where the
radical meaning of a concept is born, and where industrial
designers play a key role.
Radical Meaning
Radical meaning is one of the most important components
of the concept innovation process. This is the place where
the socio-cultural and technology influences intertwine, and
it is here the radical meaning of a concept emerges. This
radical meaning corresponds to the evolution stemming
from the technology and socio-cultural influences, and by
doing so it can be seen as a new interpretation of the brand
values of an innovative business. This „reframing‟ of brand
values allows a company to sidestep competition, and
dream up new markets. As known, consumers tend to
attach, consciously and subconsciously, specific functional
and symbolic qualities to the product and brand, thus
deriving meaning out of them [3]. The entangled spot of
technology and socio-cultural influence is the place where
many industrial designers will be found. This is a
community of industrial design professionals who
individually focus on many different aspects of design. In
this place designers communicate extensively with other
stakeholders, including experts from different fields, as well
as businesses and general audiences in society. It is here
that they create concepts with radically new meaning.
Socio-Cultural Influence
Socio-cultural influence in this case symbolizes the socio-
cultural research needed for concept innovation. This socio-
cultural research can be imagined as studies in fields of the
arts and humanities, and the social and life sciences. It is
important for innovative companies to conduct such
research continuously, in close cooperation with in-house
and out-house experts, so that a prospective concept
meaning can be derived out of them by industrial designers.
However, the influence is two-way: industrial designers
themselves play a key role in communicating new meaning
within the innovation process to the involved stakeholders
and experts in the socio-cultural fields.
Human Refinement
The human refinement component is a place where
feedback related to concept outcomes and socio-cultural
research is collected from all stakeholders involved in the
innovation process, as well as external experts and users
reviewing the concept. This feedback then serves for further
refinement of a concept.
Technology Influence
Technology influence in the diagram more or less
represents a technology research that influences the concept
innovation process. The technology research can
accommodate investigations into new electronic and
mechanical findings as well as possibilities of incorporating
new technology processes and exploration of advanced
materials. Such technology research can be done in-house
by the company itself or by cooperating with external
research associations. Those can be ranged from established
high-tech companies through small research consultancies
to academic research. It is however important for an
innovative company to invest and keep up with an extensive
technology research, so that the socio-cultural inputs can be
fitted with suggested technologies and translated by
industrial designers into concepts with a meaning. The
quicker the company responds to a potentially meaningful
technology development the more successful the company
can become [2].
Technology Refinement
Technology refinement component is a place where
feedback related to technology research and concept
outcomes is collected from all stakeholders as well as all
experts involved in the innovation process. This feedback
then serves to refine the concept.
Concept Outcomes
Concept outcomes represent envisioned concepts that are
distributed to society and businesses. These concepts
usually carry (or are planned for carrying) the radical
meaning of the whole innovation.
Society
Society in our diagram represents everyday living, acting
and behavior of current and potential users. It is however
important to point out that even a stakeholder from business
who is involved in the concept innovation process can
become a potential user very easily.
Business
This part of the symbiotic organism can be seen as any
organization that is searching for potential markets to
establish new radical meanings. These businesses also carry
out socio-cultural and technology research so the newly
created radical meanings can fall into the context of the
business.
It should be understood that Society and Business
components can float freely in the symbiotic cell
representing our diagram. That means they can freely
intervene more or less anywhere within the whole cycling
process. The whole diagram should be seen as one living
creature that implies continuous dynamic changes of the
symbiotic relationship between business and society.
Role of Industrial Designers in the Concept Innovation
Process
We believe that an industrial designer is a creative
professional with strong communication skills at several
different levels. Such a designer can recognize and
communicate clearly technology and socio-cultural
influences. He is able to initially listen to different
stakeholders involved in the innovation processes as well as
thoroughly observe the society [4]. He interprets these
inputs derives from them the radical meaning of an
innovation. This meaning is then transformed into the initial
concept innovations, which can be communicated to all
involved stakeholders. These can be representatives from
all sort of different fields ranging from laboratory
researchers, technology professionals, specialists in soft
skills to marketing and sales persons, and potential users.
The industrial designers then derive a feedback out of their
reactions and synthesize a refinement of the concept within
a business context. By re-considering all of the influential
elements in the diagram the concept outcomes are acquired,
which will then have their own influence on further
innovations in meaning. In this cycle of concept innovation
there is no clear beginning or end, and the cycle is strategic
in that it may instigate and set directions for product
development projects at particularly opportune moments.
CONCLUSIONS & USE OF DIAGRAM
Reviewing the diagram, we see as its main value that it can
serve as a tentative model for endless conceptual
innovation. As such the model can serve to empower
managers and designers to communicate and assess radical
meaning and radical new concepts. By appreciating the
importance of in and outputs of both business and society,
the model also calls for a carefully planned strategy and the
management of multi-modal teams and networks. This
diagram could help both managers and industrial designers
on how designers can be positioned within teams and
networks, and provide a sense of continuity when relating
new concepts to the vision of higher management. It is
within this sense that we believe that managers can realize
the value of industrial designers other than cost
optimization and generation of aesthetically pleasing and
coherent products within their business. Thus our model
should bring the two groups closer and enable management
to derive business value out of the radical new meaning for
concepts, and thus support circles of multi modal teams and
networks.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank to the following people for
their contribution and great discussions throughout the
Strategic Value of Design learning module at Technology
University Eindhoven (TU/e): Gerda Gemser and Oscar
Person from Delft University of Technology; Jeroen
Keijzers from TU/e; Kees de Man from MUNDRIO and
Andre Rotte from Designlink.
REFERENCES
1. Bohemia, E. (2002). Designer as integrator: Reality or
rhetoric? The Design Journal, 5 (2), 23-34.
2. Verganti R., Design-Driven Innovation, Harvard
Business Press (2009).
3. Karjalainen, T. (2007). It looks like a Toyota:
Educational Approaches to Designing for Visual Brand
Recognition. International Journal of Design (1) 67-80
(67)
4. Gornick, N. (2006). Convergence: New management
imperatives and their effect on design activity, Design
Management Review, 12, 10-14.
