In 2006 our former Chairman, Sir George Cox, was commissioned by The Treasury to undertake a review of creativity in business, and to recommend how the government, educational institutions and businesses could help support economic growth.
Supporting innovation sat at the heart of his recommendations because he saw that the UK currently earns most of our living through high value creative industry, and that without protection, investment and development, our creative industries could falter in the face of developing international competition. Sir George saw that designers working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, with business managers, engineers, scientists and technologists, can support innovation in the UK.
In the Cox Review he offered a definition of design:
Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.’The Cox Review
UK businesses can stay ahead of their global rivals by drawing on the country's world-leading design capabilities, said Sir George, and the then Chancellor Gordon Brown, who commissioned the report, supported this conclusion.
"Five years later, the world has moved on," says Sir George. "There's been great international interest in The Review and we've gone through recession and economic crisis." Continuing international competition means we now, more than ever, have to invest in developing our innovation economy, and working with designers offers technologists and scientists the opportunity to turn their inventions into marketable products that meet people's needs and provide an enjoyable experience that customers want to buy.
Other design and innovation experts agree.
When people talked about innovation in the '90s, they really meant technology. When people talk about innovation in this decade, they really mean design.' Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek
Read the rest of Nussbaum's article on innovation
The Government too has changed. It's no longer lead by Gordon Brown and the coalition government has new priorities. Yet, in November 2010, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills released a Blueprint for Technology as part of its plan to put the technology industry at the heart of the UK's economic recovery. This Blueprint shares much of the same vision as people in the '90s who said innovation was technology led:
This Government believes technology-based innovation will be one of the key drivers of the private sector led economic growth that Britain so urgently needs. The dynamics of the global economy have been changing for some time, with technology and innovation at the heart of new global economic opportunities. Blueprint for Technology, 2010
Over the last decade the Design Council has worked with business people, technologists and designers to demonstrate that it is through collaboration and working as part of a multi-disciplinary team (involving technologists, engineers, business managers, scientists, marketeers, designers and consumers) that market leading innovations are created.
Apple, Dyson, Virgin Atlantic all know that designers are an essential part of new product and service development, and that innovation can secure and sustain a business. Sir George says: "Dyson. There's no recession at Dyson. If you use design properly you don't experience any recession."
As part of the Multi-disciplinary Design Network, we have investigated how design practice and education can work more closely with business and STEM subjects.
We offer support programmes for UK businesses and university technology research centres. Find out how we're showing technology developers at UK universities how working with designers can help them market their inventions.
You cut to survive, not to succeed Sir George Cox
Jonathan Sands, designer and founder of design business Elmwood agrees."In this current economic climate, there will be lots of losers. There’s absolutely no doubt of that. Sadly, businesses will go bust. But the successful ones are those that will invest in design, because, if you do what you’ve always done, actually you won’t even get what you’ve always got. But, if you think about new futures, you will get new and exciting results. And it requires a bit of bravery. And, sometimes, that does mean putting a year’s profits aside to, to do something new. But only one business or brand or product can be the cheapest. The rest have to do something different. And, actually, in this current economic climate, most businesses have got margins of zero anyway, because we’re in the credit crunch, people can’t afford stuff. So, do you really want to compete in that space? Well, I would argue not. You have to do something that’s better and different where you can make money and move forward," says Sands.
Read and watch on for more on design-led innovation and how it can enable economic growth.