18 views on the definition of design managment
EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE
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18 VIEWS on the definition of
Design Management
H
OW DO WORKING professionals define design management and how do their activities enhance an organization’s day-to-day operations, identity, and business strategies? The executives we asked offered a variety of perspectives and insights. All see design as an essential corporate resource, but they make their cases in many different ways.
Conventional wisdom tells us that design managers supervise the creators of tangible “things.” These things are often used to fulfill or meet an organization’s
TIMOTHY BACHMAN, strategic goals. Yet, the real
PRINCIPAL,
value offered by design manBACHMAN MILLER agement to an organization
GROUP
is its consistent orchestration and nurturing of shared values and realities. Thus, a proficiency in how the organization’s resources and assets should be expressed to continuously meet changing consumer and business demands is acquired.
Design management effectively masters change.
It seizes opportunities to evolve, protect, and build memorable products and corporate identities. It works best when the entire organization adopts, understands, and shares the character, values, and promise of the organization’s “genetic code.” This genetic makeup (real-life stories, visual expressions, textual content, products, and service priorities) evolves as intangible and tangible assets that define the organization’s identity.
Design management articulates simple explicit and implicit communications that mirror the organization’s values. It nurtures individual
14
DESIGN MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
SUMMER 1998
contributions that accurately express and interpret the organization’s business objectives.
Design management is not a departmental or a supervisory role. It is a strategic and purposeful organizing process. Organizations that integrate design management as a continuously reformative activity within their
....................
18 VIEWS on the definition of
Design Management
H
OW DO WORKING professionals define design management and how do their activities enhance an organization’s day-to-day operations, identity, and business strategies? The executives we asked offered a variety of perspectives and insights. All see design as an essential corporate resource, but they make their cases in many different ways.
Conventional wisdom tells us that design managers supervise the creators of tangible “things.” These things are often used to fulfill or meet an organization’s
TIMOTHY BACHMAN, strategic goals. Yet, the real
PRINCIPAL,
value offered by design manBACHMAN MILLER agement to an organization
GROUP
is its consistent orchestration and nurturing of shared values and realities. Thus, a proficiency in how the organization’s resources and assets should be expressed to continuously meet changing consumer and business demands is acquired.
Design management effectively masters change.
It seizes opportunities to evolve, protect, and build memorable products and corporate identities. It works best when the entire organization adopts, understands, and shares the character, values, and promise of the organization’s “genetic code.” This genetic makeup (real-life stories, visual expressions, textual content, products, and service priorities) evolves as intangible and tangible assets that define the organization’s identity.
Design management articulates simple explicit and implicit communications that mirror the organization’s values. It nurtures individual
14
DESIGN MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
SUMMER 1998
contributions that accurately express and interpret the organization’s business objectives.
Design management is not a departmental or a supervisory role. It is a strategic and purposeful organizing process. Organizations that integrate design management as a continuously reformative activity within their