Distinct … or Extinct:Design = Differentiator #1

DMI25: Design-Based Leadership in

the 21st Century

Chatham 25October2000

THE BASE CASE: I am a design fanatic. Personally, though not “artistic,” I’m a cool-stuff guy. I love what

I love and I hate what I hate. [Openly.] But it goes [much] further, far beyond the personal. Design has

become a professional obsession. I - SIMPLY – BELIEVE THAT DESIGN PER SE IS

THE PRINCIPAL REASON FOR EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT [or detachment] RELATIVE TO A

PRODUCT OR SERVICE OR EXPERIENCE. Design, as I see it, is arguably the #1 determinant of

whether a product-service-experience stands out … or doesn’t. Furthermore, it’s “one of those things” …

that damn few companies put – consistently – on the front burner.

I. Welcome to the Age of

“Ohmygod!”

NOW THAT’S B-I-G!“The period 2000-2002 will bring

the single greatest change in worldwide economic and

business conditions since we came down from the trees.”

David Schneider & Grady Means, MetaCapitalism

“The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and

financially, yes, but not structurally and economically.”

Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)

Message: Everybody’s scrambling. Nobody’s

“got it right.”

II. The 3B Problem:Better

But Boring!

Quality Not Enough!

“While everything may be better, it is also increasingly the

same.”Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness

of Things,” The New York Times

“We make over three new product announcements a

day. Can you remember them?

Our customers can’t!”Carly Fiorina

“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar

educational backgrounds, working in similar jobs, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.”

Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

Message: Find an edge. Or else.

III. We Must Lead: Different

or Doomed!

“If you worship at the throne of the voice of the customer, you’ll get only

incremental advances.”Joseph Morone, President,

Bentley College

“These days, you can’t succeed as a company if you’re consumer led –

because in a world so full of so much constant change, consumers can’t

anticipate the next big thing. Companies should be idea-

led and consumer-informed.”

Doug Atkin, partner, Merkley Newman Harty

“Our strategies must be tied to leading edge

customers on the attack. If we focus on the defensive

customers, we will also become defensive.”John Roth, CEO, Nortel

Message: You are paid to lead. So … lead!

IV. Design: The No.1 Source of

Passionate Attachment!

(Or undying despair)

Design “is” … WHAT &

WHY I LOVE. LOVE.

I LOVE my ZYLISS Garlic Peeler!

Design “is” … WHY I

GET MAD. MAD.

Wanted: Dead [preferably] or Alive: THE DESIGNER OF MY RADIO SHACK

PHONE. Major Reward!

Design is never neutral.

Hypothesis: DESIGN is the principal difference between love and

hate.

Message: Engage your Client in an

examination- exploration of why we

care about stuff. Or don’t.

V. Design is the Plot of a Great

Story!

“Car designers need to create a story. Every car provides an

opportunity to create an adventure. …“The Prowler makes you smile. Why? Because it’s focused. It has a plot, a

reason for being, a passion.”

Freeman Thomas, co-designer VW Beetle; designer Audi TT

Hmmmm(?): “Only” Words …

StoryAdventure

Smile Focus

PlotPassion

PlotWilliams Sonoma = 5 [was 10]

Crate & Barrel = 8Sharper Image = 9+

Smith & Hawken = 8+Garnet Hill = 9

L.L. Bean = 4 [was 9+]Colonial Williamsburg = ?

Message: “What’s the plot?” is a compelling

exercise!

VI. Great Design

is Respectful

“Sometimes I have episodes of wild fury in rental cars. It’s not road

rage. It’s more like design rage.”

Susan Casey, www.ecompany.com

User …

STOP BLAMING

YOURSELF! (Don Norman/Design of Everyday Things)

Message: Work on Awareness. Start a

Notebook!

VII. Design is not about Lumps!

The I.D. [International Design] Forty*

Airstream … Alfred A. Knopf … Apple Computer … Amazon.com …

Bloomberg … Caterpillar … CNN … Disney … FedEx … Gillette … IBM … Martha Stewart … New Balance …

Nickelodeon … Patagonia … The New York Yankees … 3M … Etc.

* List No. 1, 1999

Lady Sensor, Mach3, and …$70M on developing the

OralB CrossAction toothbrush

23 patents, including 6 for the packaging

Source: www.ecompany.com [06.00]

TARGET … “the champion of America’s new design democracy” (Time)

Message: Design applies to (1) service

companies, (2) departmental affairs,

(3) 79-cent items.

VIII. Design is the Web!

Web = PURE DESIGN MEDIUM

“Most companies would do more business on the Internet if they

fired their entire marketing department and replaced it with

people who could produce interactive content that actually made it easier for users to buy.”

Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group

Red Herring (01/00)

75% of online shoppers don’t complete their

purchase!

SWA

Simple!!!!!!!!!!!! (customers call because the process is so easy they can’t

believe they’re done)

30% of revenues directly from site (vs. 6% for others)

Source: Business Week (09.00)

Message: The Web is the No. 1 entrée for designers into the

mainstream!

IX. Caution!

Message: All the “cool stuff” looks [exactly]

like all the other “cool stuff” in this, THE

BRIGHT NEW AGE OF DESIGN.

“Against Smoothness”

(Harper’s Magazine 07.2000)

Message: Buy a new CAD package. Or a set

of pencils.

X. Design & Work: W.W.P.F.

White Collar Revolution!

So what will be the Basic Building

Block of the New Org?

Answer: PSF![Professional Service Firm]

Department Head

to …

Managing Partner, HR [IS, etc.] Inc.

“P.S.F.”: Summary

H.V.A. Projects (100%)Pioneer Clients

WOW Work Hot “Talent”

“Adventurous” Point of View (Methodology)

W.W.P.F. (100%)When: Now!

Message: W.W.P.F. Prove your worth!

[E.g., get outside work.]

XI. Get Over It: ALL YOU NEED

IS ONE!

The next slide begins the Boss-free Implementation of Stuff

That Matters section.

Many of the slides have notes. Use Normal View to access.

Topic: Boss-free

Implementation of STM /Stuff That

MATTERS!

THE IDEA

“4Fs”: Find a Fellow

Freak Faraway

World’s Biggest Waste …

Selling “Up”

Heart of the Matter

F2F!*

*Freak to Freak … or K2K [Kook to Kook]

“Lead” customers!

K2K redux!

Great + risky design is always [??] a product of

engaging the Client – from the start – in a

journey to the unknown.

THE SOFT STUFF

Show Up!Connect!

Infect!

Message: It’s Community

Organizing, stupid!

See: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He

talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a

bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

BOTTOM LINE

The Enemy!

Epitaph from Hell … Epitaph from Hell …

Joe T. Jones Joe T. Jones

1942 - 20001942 - 2000

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

Message: Find one freak. Find one offline project.

Forget selling “up.” Drop the “attitude.” Quit bitching about

powerlessness.

XII. Design & the Individual: Self-design &

Brand You!

2010 “Demographics”:

By 2010, full-time workers will be in the

minoritySource: MIT study (28August2000)

New World of Work< 1 in 10 F500

#1: Manpower Inc.Freelancers/I.C.: 16M-25MTemps: 3M (incl. CEOs & lawyers)

Microbusinesses: 12M-27MTotal: 31M-55M

Source: Daniel Pink, Free Agent Nation

Design is … THE PRESENTATION OF …

Me.

“You are the storyteller of your own

life, and you can create your own legend or not.”

Isabel Allende

“The time seems appropriate to rethink the

notions of self and identity in this rapidly

changing age …”

Tara Lemmey, Project LENS, past president Electronic Frontier Foundation

Message: This is an impact issue. Attach

yourself to HR. Help others with

“Brand You.”

XIII. The All-Out WAR FOR TALENT!

“Seller’s Market”: Tomorrow’s Headline*

“Molecular biologists are up 3 points, economists

down 1/4, in moderate trading”*futureWEALTH, Stan Davis and

Christopher Meyer

The Cracked Ones Let in the Light“Our business needs a massive

transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found

among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.”

David Ogilvy

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century.

Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the

blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity,

nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth

and empowers nations.”G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New

Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

Women and new-economy

management …

“Tomorrow belongs to women.”

Helen Fisher, The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are

Changing the World

Women’s Stuff = New Economy Match

Improv skillsRelationship-centric

Less “rank consciousness”Self determinedTrust sensitive

IntuitiveNatural “empowerment freaks” [less

threatened by strong people]Intrinsic [motivation] > Extrinsic

Message: Design - writ large, as the Mother of Passion – dramatically

affects the basic “Great Place to Work”

value proposition.

XIV. Design: The Most beautiful

Systems Win!

Design + Beauty is Fred S.’s “mediocre” thesis and Herb K.’s

napkin.

Progressive“We don’t sell insurance anymore. We sell speed.” – Peter Lewis

Digital cameras, wireless Net links, etc.: SOME CLAIMS PAID

WITHIN 20 MINUTES!Source: Business Week (09.00)

Message: “Systems business” is

design business. Inject yourself!

XV. Design & Women:

Opportunity No.1?

?????????Home Furnishings … 94%

Vacations … 92%Houses … 91%

Bank Account … 89%Health Care … 80%

Consumer Electronics … 51% Cars … 50%+/80%

Etc.

$4.8T > Japan

9/27.5/$3.6T > Germany

Read This Book …

EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women

Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold

27 March 2000: email to TP from Shelley Rae Norbeck

“I make 1/3rd more money than my husband does. I have as much financial

‘pull’ in the relationship as he does. I’d say this is also true of most of my women

friends. Someone should wake up, smell the coffee and kiss our asses long enough

to sell us something! We have money to spend and nobody wants it!”

STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY: I am a businessperson. An analyst. A pragmatist. The enormous social good of increased women’s

power is clear to me; but it is not my bailiwick. My “game” is haranguing business leaders

about my fact-based conviction that women’s increasing power – leadership skills

and purchasing power – is the strongest and most dynamic force at work in the American

economy today. Dare I say it as a long-time Palo Altan … THIS IS EVEN BIGGER THAN THE

INTERNET!Tom Peters

Message: Men cannot design for women’s needs.

Period.

XVI. Design & the Aging:

Opportunity No. 1A?

Subject: Marketers & Stupidity

It’s 18-44, stupid!

Subject: Marketers & Stupidity

Or is it: 18-44 is stupid, stupid!

2000-2010 Stats

18-44: -1%55+: +21%

(55-64: +47%)

Aging/“Elderly”

$$$$$$$$$$$$“I’m in charge!”

Priorities: Aging/“Elderly”

Experiences … Convenience … Comfort … Access … Respect!

Message: You wannabe relevant?

This is a [VERY] Big Deal. Listen up.

XVII. Design = Cornerstone of The Age of the

Brand

“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated: emotion.

Imagination, myth, ritual - the language of emotion - will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how we work with others. Companies will

thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand that

their products are less important than their stories.”

Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

Brand = You Must Care!

“Success means never letting the competition define you. Instead you have to define

yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about.”

Tom Chappell, Tom’s of Maine

Message: THIS IS THE BIG ENCHILADA. Case logic: (1) Brand

is it. (2) Brand = Emotional reaction. (3) Design is THE KEY

to emotional reaction. (4) Designers are “the key” to the

strategic success of the enterprise. [If they’d only flick the

chip off their collective shoulders.]

XVIII. Design & Leadership:

Passion Rules!

“Create a Cause, not a ‘business.’ ”

Gary Hamel, Fortune (06.00), on re-inventing a company (Exemplar #1:

Charles Schwab)

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective

communication of a story.”

Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

“I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.”

Ben Zander

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon

Message: Designers – appropriately considered –

are the script writers for The Compelling Story called Our Company Matters

Because …