Concept Design

CIID 6/3 2008 Jørgen Rosted, Director of FORA, The Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority’s Division for Research and Analysis

Innovation

Companies today ask WHAT instead of HOW or WHAT before HOW .

Companies ask for new concepts.

Concepts

A new concept is a solution to a problem that has not yet been solved or which so far has been solved in an unsatisfactory way.

A new concept is a platform for (a series of) new products and services.

Who can company calls to answer the HOW questions?

External partners Internal

Management consultants

Design companies

Advertising agencies

Consulting engineers R&D department

The study

However, none of these companies are single-handedly able to answer the question WHAT . Hence, we are witnessing industry break-up and gliding.

The ambition of the study was to learn more about this dynamic and fascinating development – with a particular focus on possibilities and consequences for the design industry.

Concept design companies

Definition

The task of answering the question WHAT is termed ‘concept design’ and the companies working with concept design are termed ‘concept design companies’.

Inspired by Richard Grefe A model for concept design

Inspired by Richard Grefe Where concept design happens

Criteria for including consultancies in the sampling

Advise on innovation

Methods and competences

Methods and tools from social science and humanities

Methods and tools from economy and business economy

Competences in collecting data regarding user behavior (today and in five years)

Competences in interpreting user data (today and in five years)

Competences in utilizing knowledge about users (today and in five years)

Client level

Collaborates with consumer insights departments

Collaborates with strategy or innovation departments

Network

Network with companies from other industries

The mapping method

Through interviews with international experts, the study of websites, and the snowball technique, this study has attempted to map the world’s concept design companies.

Number of concept design companies found in each concept design hub

The score model

The score model result – ranking the located concept design companies by point score Note: The Top-10 list should be treated with some reservation as relatively few companies responded to the questionnaire in the international section of the survey. Among the companies that did not respond, but which were considered of particular interest to the study, interviews were conducted that made it possible to assess the companies’ abilities to work with concept design. On that basis it was considered that 7 concept design companies that did not respond to the questionnaire would have scored at the same level as those in the Top-10. Of these companies, 2 are located in New York, 2 in San Francisco, 1 in Boston, 1 in Portland, OR and 1 in the Netherlands .

Result of the Danish part of the study –How the Danish concept design companies has registered themselves (industry code):

International findings

Finding one

The 3 archetypes of concept design companies

1. The holistic concept design company

2. The design expert concept design company

3 . The strategic concept design company

Finding two

How concept design companies get the right competencies within design – business – social science

A) By having an interdisciplinary staff

B) By collaborating with others

C) By making sure that the employees do have all three competencies

Finding three

Future challenge and opportunity

Exciting and growing market for strategic concept design

Finding three

” Today, I would estimate that there are about 50-100 companies like us in the world. In ten years` time I believe there will be about 200 companies in the world working this way.” Dinesh Goburdhun, Gravity Tank

Finding three

” I think that if design firms aren’t prepare to learn more about strategy and growth, they are going to lose the field to strategy consultancy campanies. Then the strategy consulting firms will just bay design firms, strip out the best from them and integrate it into their offering – and design firms will have lost their place in the sun.” Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, Toronto

Finding three

Outsourcing of traditional design to India and China

Further specialization of traditional design

Finding four

In house departments become consultants

Leading in house concept design departments such as Philips Design have started to work for other companies

Policy implications of the concept design study

In Denmark we have taking several political initiatives to improve the conditions for concept design and user driven innovation.

There are deliberations about establishing a Global Network that can discuss how to get deeper into the findings.

The Nordic innovation centre (NICe) financed a new project on User Driven-Innovation

The purpose of the project is to map best practice within User Driven-Innovation in the Nordic Countries and benchmark Nordic Best Practice with best practice world wide.

Temporary model to the NICe study

Temporary model for the NICe study