Eleven Lessons: managing design in eleven global brands

Delivering competitive advantage through design

Design plays a fundamental role in the success of many of the world’s leading companies. But how do those firms ensure that they are getting the best return on their investment in design?

To find out, we spent time with eleven of the world’s top design teams.

A qualitative study of the modern design process

For our most in-depth study ever, Design Council researchers visited the design departments of eleven companies, all world-leaders in their fields and all with a public commitment to the use of design to improve their brand strength and product and service offerings.

The study looked at the way design is used in these firms, how designers work with staff from other disciplines and how the design process is managed to deliver consistently successful results. How is design managed across complex, global, product and brand portfolios, we wanted to know. So we asked leading design teams how they select and organise their designers, and when they bring designers into the product or service development process. We also wanted to find out what skills today’s designers need in order to succeed.

From this in-depth examination we aimed to draw out some of the key features that define the state-of-the-art in modern design practice, as well as the unique approaches that set some firms apart.

The full study includes eleven case studies looking in detail at the processes used at each participating company. These can be accessed using the links below. Or you can download a PDF copy of the entire Eleven Lessons study

Alessi

Alessi, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of designer kitchen and tableware, puts design at the very heart of its business and has developed sophisticated processes for finding, commissioning and developing new designs.

BSkyB

BSkyB recognises the potential to use design as a market differentiator. While continuing to evolve its product offering, BSkyB focuses on developing in-house design management capability while building a strong relationship with external design consultancies.

BT

BT is a diverse and rapidly evolving organisation, that makes extensive use of design in many aspects of its business, closely integrating it with the BT brand. The company develops tools and processes to manage an extensive roster of external design suppliers and help them communicate the brand.

LEGO

LEGO, the world’s sixth largest toy maker, streamlined product development and the processes developed by the in-house design function are now used as a method to improve innovation across the entire business.

Microsoft

Having once been a technologically-driven organisation, Microsoft has used design thinking to focus on developing products that answer users’ needs.

Sony

Electronics, games and entertainment giant Sony used design since the 1960s to differentiate its products and maximise the usefulness of its advanced technologies.

Starbucks

From its beginnings as a single coffee shop in Seattle 35 years ago, Starbucks is now a global brand which uses design to aid the delivery of a distinctive service experience to its customers.

Whirlpool

Whirlpool Corporation, a leading manufacturer of major home appliances, developed expertise and processes that helped the company respond to the demand for increasingly sophisticated and complex appliances.

Virgin Atlantic Airways

Virgin Atlantic Airways has innovation as a core brand value and uses design as a key competitive differentiator. The in-house design team manages many aspects of design for the airline, including service concepts as well as interiors, uniforms and airport lounge architecture.