A sign that the high-end auction world is coming back up for some air after being stuck with every other company well below the surface due to the global financial meltdown? Or just some last minute shaving to appear much more profitable? Reports say that Sotheby’s has returned to profitability, jumping from big losses to big gains in just one year, and that its head, William Ruprecht, best jobs in media.
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pa href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Spowers”Hugo Spowers/a, Founder and Project Leader, a href=”http://www.riversimple.com/”Riversimple/a/p
pRiversimple determinedly don’t think of themselves as a car manufacturer, although in terms of existing business models that’s probably how they are too often described. Founder Hugo Spowers believes, perhaps unusually for someone engaged in manufacturing, that an industrial society based on the sale of products will never be resource efficient. Which puts a big question mark over pretty much every industry you can think of./p
pThe motor industry began with a notorious innovation, when Ford said something like ‘if I gave my customers what they wanted I would have had to invent faster horses.’ As we are all aware, the motor industry is no longer fit for purpose, modern-day constraints are very different to those faced by Ford, but we have yet to see another such step-change in response. Unfortunately, as a hugely advanced, mature, specialised, technology specific industrymdash;it is now ill-suited to achieving a step-change./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/the_big_rethink_thinking_about_the_car_in_a_completely_new_way_16136.asp”(more…)/a
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pbigstrongFirst session: How the change imperative will continue to shake business in the next three years/strong/big/p
pThe a href=”http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/redesigningbusiness/home”Big Rethink/a has officially begun./p
pa href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_V._Vaitheeswaran”Vjiay Vaitheeswaran/a of the a href=”http://www.economist.com/”Economist/a and a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Temple”Martin Temple/a of the a href=”http://www.eef.org.uk/default.htm”EEF/a opened, setting the agenda for the discussion for the next two days: how design can help us get out of the mess we’re in. It’s a good move to get two people who aren’t designers by trade to open by asserting the power of design in not just ‘business’, but in meeting the global challenges we face today – which obviously will affect, and be affected by, business. However, they are preaching to a room of the converted. It will be interesting to see how and if anyone disputes this view over the next couple of days, (but as most of the attendees will have paid 1.5k to be here: I think it’s unlikely.)/p
pAttendees range from designers to business, economists and civil servants. We have a great line-up of speakers, and a slightly disappointing turn-outmdash;the lecture hall is not full. It quickly becomes apparent that the format of discussion is better suited to the fast-paced presenters. And the first session of the morning has set the pacemdash;very snappy indeed, perhaps to match the pace of change in the outside world on which we are here to reflect. (We’ve been given little remote controls to text in answers and questions.) Short shrift was given by VV to the lengthy intervention during QA./p
pstrongRobin Bew: How the change imperative will continue to shake business in the next 3 years/strong/p
pWelcome to the new world of business, definitely not the same as the old world of business. /p
pa href=”http://www.eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?Criteria=FullNameLocator=WORLDSearchTerm=Robin%20Bew”Robin Bew/a, Editorial Director and Chief Economist at the Economist Inteligence Unit, steps up to the platform and describes the scorched earth that is the world’s economy and reminds us of the recent traumatic past./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/the_big_rethink_the_challenge_to_business_16134.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”PACT.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/PACT.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pJeff Denby is Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of a href=”http://www.wearpact.com”PACT/a./p
pJeff starts by sharing his ethical values and then follows up with a slide of two crotches. A guy and a gal. Could this be overshare? It turns out Jeff has developed a new business designing the underwear that encompasses the 12 foot high crotches we’re looking at. Now were looking at two generations for Calvin Kline undies ads. To date innovation in underwear has tended to focus on updating the advertising models who show off the items. In over 15 years we have only progress from Marky Mark to David Beckham it seems./p
pJeff and his partner spent 18 months researching the market before stepping into it and is a firm believe that when you’re looking to innovate you need to leave the building – ‘the answer to your research is not on the Internet’. He also confesses he had to hang around in the underwear section of department stores to watch people buying and trying. Another nice gem shared was that being open about what you are interested in and researching, rather than keeping secrets, has a tendency to attract useful and generous people towards you and your business. (This is something I definitely recommend from personal experience.)/p
pWhat Jeff’s company PACT do is create premium, ethically produced cotton underwear that brings three stakeholders together. Each new design is developed as a partnership between one charity (who gain 10% of all sales), a designer (who creates the pattern for the briefs) and the manufacturer, PACT (who manage, produce, distribute and sell the underwear). The value in their product lies in the stories that can, and are told, through the creative process and the connections between the stakeholders./p
pAs a href=”http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/yves_behar_on_designing_objects_that_tell_stories.html”Yves Behar/a says/p
ul
liDesign brings stories to life/li
liStories bring design to life/li
liLife brings stories to design/li
/ul
pNot content with just creating a demand for ethical undies Jeff and his gang have also focused on the packaging, designing cotton bags, created using the off-cut material from the underwear. Instead of throwing this packaging away many purchasers utilise the bags and even send photos of how they’re using both the bags and the undies back to the company (see the wedding above). /p
pimg alt=”underwear.png” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/underwear.png” width=”500″ height=”318″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/the_big_rethink_designing_around_what_consumers_want_ethical_underwear_16135.asp”(more…)/a
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pOver the next couple of days my colleague Jocelyn and I’ll be blogging live from the emEconomist/em’s a href=”http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/redesigningbusiness/home”Redesigning Business Summit/a in London for Core77. Under the title ‘a href=”http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/redesigningbusiness/home”The Big Rethink/a’ the event sets out to develop some fresh ideas on how design thinking can be used to seize business opportunities in our increasingly volatile world./p
pOver the two days we’ll be hearing from over a href=”http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/redesigningbusiness/speakers”30 speakers/a from across business, academia and design. Take a look at the a href=”http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/redesigningbusiness/dayone_programme”full programme/a and if you have any questions to the speakers or any particular workshops you’d like us to report on please share below./p
pIf you’d also like to follow the event on Twitter the hashtag is #redesign2010./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/ready_for_a_big_rethink_16133.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”0cctvbid.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/0cctvbid.jpg” width=”468″ height=”301″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pA A HREF=”http://english.cctv.com/program/bizchina/20100310/102208.shtml” newscast released today by CCTV/A discusses China’s industrial design boom. Unfortunately the newscast is poorly produced, poorly written (“industrial design” is written “industries design,” for instance) and laden with good ol’ Commie propaganda-speak (i.e. “highest levels of achievement,” etc.), although, if the figures are to be believed, there are some interesting takeaways:/p
blockquoteChen Dongliang, Director, Beijing Industrial Design Center, said, “The output value of industrial design in Beijing reached 80 billion yuan in 2008. Now around 250-thousand employees are working for nearly 20-thousand design companies in the city. Beijing is also expanding technology service and high-end manufacturing industries, both of them can help boost the industrial design sector.”
p…The global financial crisis has made more and more companies realize that it’s not sustainable to depend on cheap and low-end products. They must think more about added value. The central government has also called for more attention on industrial design, pledging to change “Made in China” to “Invented in China”./p
pChen said, “Industrial design is the key point of the value chain. Figures show that in Britain, 100 pounds of investment in design can yield 225 pounds of output. According to our survey, in China, one yuan investment could bring 13 yuan of output….”/blockquotebr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/chinas_industrial_design_boom_16124.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”_47406455_kiavenga.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/_47406455_kiavenga.jpg” width=”468″ height=”573″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pThe past two years have seen a lot of upheaval in the auto industry, with some operatic rises and falls. Two of the world’s automakers that have been chugging along largely unnoticed amidst the drama (while quietly making profits and increasing in size) are Hyundai and Kia; and the good news for us is that in both companies, design is playing an increasingly significant role, particularly since they have each invested in design centers on three continents./p
pIn A HREF=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8547116.stm” an article looking at Kia, the BBC reports/A that /p
blockquote[Paul Philpott, Kia Motors Europe’s COO] believes the key driver to future growth lies within the cars’ design, penned in Kia’s global design headquarters in Frankfurt, as well as in Seoul and in California.
p”With the new products that we are now bringing to the market, the product design is coming together as one family,” he says./blockquote/p
pMeanwhile A HREF=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754604575095102431859856.html?mod=googlenews_wsj” the IWall Street Journal’s/I report on Hyundai/A points out that/p
blockquoteHyundai slowly beefed up its design capabilities over the past decade, adding staff in South Korea and building new design centers in Irvine, Calif., in 2002 and Russelsheim, Germany, in 2003…. Inside Hyundai, the designers battled a tradition that gave engineers and factory-process experts the final say in product design. In one recent instance where designers won out at Hyundai, the new Sonata has a thin line of chrome that stretches from the headlights along the hood and top of both doors to the back window. Keeping that lined up in production is a challenge for factory workers and, as a result, engineers resisted it, say company officials./blockquote
pThe article also points out that Hyundai, like BMW and the other big dogs, is seeking a unified design aesthetic across its fleet, the sort of “design DNA” we often hear about at lectures championing the importance of design in business./p
pSpeaking of business, the already-giant Hyundai’s global sales grew 10% last year, while the rest of the industry’s declined by 2.5%; meanwhile up-and-comer Kia saw a staggering 1,200% (that’s not a typo) increase in net profits and a 270% increase in operating profits in 2009. So while there are currently tons of auto designers being downsized worldwide, hopefully they’ll soon have a place to go.br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/amidst_the_crisis_korean_automakers_doing_well–and_they_seem_to_get_design_16079.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”adpig.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/adpig.jpg” width=”468″ height=”121″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pMPs and senior construction industry experts Monday night attended a dinner hosted by the Associate Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group and engineering consultancy Buro Happold. The purpose? To thrash out a tricky question: How to make good design a central concern to the construction industry./p
pThe assembled worthies, seated around a very long table at the Institute for Civil Engineers in London and overlooked by portraits of engineering ancestors, were addressed by the Shadow Minister for Construction Mark Prisk(pictured above) and the Government’s Chief Construction Advisor, before attacking the debate themselves over dessert and coffee. /p
pThe background: With some worthy and notable exceptions, the UK construction industry is accused of being resistant to change, motivated by cost, and adversarial in attitude. This is not only inconvenient, it is a major problem for a country with the massive challenge of meeting (legally binding) sustainability targets, in the midst of a recession, in the face of growing global competition. We are a small island, sinking in the wake of larger powers. /p
pThe APDIG assembled this group of concerned individuals with a view and leverage on the issue to try and identify a solution. Or, perhaps more realistically, a path towards a solution./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/better_design_in_construction_policy_dinner_and_debate_16065.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”0syreen.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/0syreen.jpg” width=”468″ height=”1049″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pHere’s a good example of design’s capability to shake up the supply chain for positive gain: A HREF=”http://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/news_pr265.html” Cambridge Consultants’ new Syreen/A, a green syringe concept “designed to ease the resource intensity and material wastage associated with traditional syringe development and manufacture.”/p
blockquoteInstead of glass, Syreen syringes are made with COP (cyclic olefin polymer) plastic, which has enabled Cambridge Consultants to shed the need for secondary packaging altogether, a first in this medical device arena. The makeup of the Syreen allows syringes to clip together, nesting in a pack while the COP design doubles as the outer shell of the packaging itself. The Syreen therefore eliminates the need for wasteful fillers such as cardboard and styrofoam, reducing the packaging weight by 30 percent and volume by 50 percent from today’s standard packaging. The United States alone produces 6,600 tons of medical waste per day, equalling well over two million tons per year–approximately 85 percent of which goes to landfills throughout the country.1
p”What makes Syreen so exciting is that while it is a sustainable alternative to the status quo, it can truly introduce a paradigm shift in the existing supply chain,” said Phil Lever, Commercial Director, Drug Delivery Devices for Cambridge Consultants. “We found that typical glass syringes use many materials from all over the world and that shipping costs are egregious due to inefficiencies in packaging. This marriage of economy and ecology shows that medical device companies will likely see competitive benefits by taking sustainability seriously.”/blockquote/p
pCambridge Consultants is currently seeking a member of Big Pharma to team up with and get this thing into production.br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/cambridge_consultants_syreen_re-thinks_the_syringe_16068.asp”(more…)/a
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Back at the end of 2009, you’ll likely recall all the talk about Design Within Reach, from Jeff Chu‘s illuminating story about the company’s disarray, then the hiring of John Edelman as the furniture retailer’s new CEO and his preparations for big changes. Since then, there haven’t seemed to be many high-profile moves as the company tries to return to smooth waters, but perhaps this small item in the Sacramento Business Journal is a sign of things to come. They report that DWR will make their first store closing there, starting a discounted sell-off immediately. Should other cities be worried that their own DWR’s might be next on the well-designed cutting board? We’ll have to wait and see. Here are the details:
The company confirmed it would close the 2,700-square-foot store at 1020 16th St. — in the ground-floor of the Loftwork’s o1 Lofts development, which includes Bistro 33 Midtown and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro. Design Within Reach will close March 15, with a 30 percent-off sale until then, a company spokeswoman said.
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