Companies of all types are more likely to use design for external or client facing functions, such as marketing and new product development – rather than internal functions, strategic development or planning.
The details
What is design used for?
96% of rapidly growing companies using design do so for marketing. (UK average 71%)
Rapidly growing companies are more likely to use design in every area of business than the average UK firm. The national averages in the table below are also lifted by the manufacturing sector, where design is used for new product or service development in 73% of companies.
Design currently plays a limited role in companies’ long-term strategic goals, with business planning being least common design use by firms. However, 39% of rapidly growing companies use design for business planning – twice the national average.
How extensively is design used in the development of new products and services?
77% of businesses say their new products and services are developed using design.
Figures show that only 41% of UK companies have developed new products or services in the past three years. Well above this average, three quarters (75%) of rapidly growing businesses and two thirds (66%) of manufacturing companies report the same rate of product development. For the development of these products and services, design leads and guides the whole process in 22% of cases.
Micro-businesses (those with under 10 employees) are most likely to use a design-led approach: design leads and guides the development process in 34% of cases – double the proportion found among the largest companies (17%).
Do UK companies use design to overcome business challenges?
41% of large UK companies believe design is important or crucially important in helping to overcome their most significant business challenges.
46% of manufacturing companies agree.
However, 44% of companies overall perceive design as being of no importance in helping to overcome their challenges. Even among rapidly growing companies, which consider design as integral to their success, only 28% believe it has been useful in this particular regard.