This group of blue chips are working together with the Engineer Design Centre of the University of Cambridge to identify and grasp new opportunities to increase the market for their products and services by making them attractive to older consumers.

1. © Centre for Business Innovation 2012 Page 1
Second European Inclusive Design
for Competitive Advantage Consortium (ID-2)
Introduction
The Centre for Business Innovation (CfBI) is an independent organisation based in Cambridge, UK.
The CfBI runs Consortium programmes for leading companies across Europe seeking to benefit from
a shared programme of work which addresses a key business issue, having the potential to
significantly increase revenues or reduce costs.
Inclusive Design (Universal Design in the USA) is about designing mainstream products and services
that are usable by the greatest possible percentage of the population, without special adaption.
The Opportunity
There are already 130 million people over fifty years old in the European Union – by 2020 one in two
European adults will be over this age. The demographic change of an ageing population brings a
major opportunity for companies to develop products and services that better meet the needs of this
growing and affluent sector. But designing products that this population loves to use is not easy.
The First Inclusive Design Consortium
To address this challenge the CfBI ran the First Inclusive Design for Competitive Advantage
Consortium (ID-1) during 2010/11. Members included the BBC, Roche, Bayer Schering, Nestlé, Marks
& Spencer, Bosch & Siemens, the University of Cambridge and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Consortium held its launch meeting in Cambridge,
followed by meetings around Europe as guests of
Consortium members. Members learned the strategic
value of Inclusive Design and how to apply practically the
very latest inclusive tools and techniques to enhance
competitive advantage within their businesses.
Following the successful completion of ID-1 we have been
working actively with members to integrate and roll out
Inclusive Design within their organizations. First products
using the new Inclusive Design techniques are in development and one of the largest member
companies has already placed Inclusive Design on its corporate agenda at the core of its forward
business strategy. This achievement is testimony to the value delivered through the Consortium.
Launch of the Second Consortium
The success of ID-1 has led us to plan the launch of a second Consortium (ID-2), which will start
around April 2012 and run for one year. This will take a similar course to ID-1, benefiting from the
experience gained from running the first group.
The programme will include five one-day business meetings,
preceded by networking dinners at memorable venues.
Meetings will include tutorials covering key elements of the
Inclusive Design process together with group workshop
sessions to apply what we learn.
There is a full set of deliverables for each member, including
presentation material, reference books, software tools and
simulators, plus appliances to simulate impairments in vision
and manual dexterity (see picture over the page).

2. © Centre for Business Innovation 2012 Page 2
Second European Inclusive Design
for Competitive Advantage Consortium (ID-2)
We are now seeking leading companies from across Europe to become members of ID-2.
Consortium membership will be limited to a maximum of twelve companies and the programme will
benefit any organisation whose products or services are used by consumers in their daily lives.
Expert Partner – University of Cambridge Engineering Design Centre
In both these Consortia we are working closely with the renowned Engineering Design Centre (EDC)
at the University of Cambridge to apply new Inclusive Design techniques they have developed to
enhance competitive advantage for companies in the Consortia.
One example EDC technique is Exclusion Audits, which allow us to
measure the proportion of a target population that will be excluded
from using a particular product, or will find it difficult and frustrating
to use. This measure can be related directly to the bottom line in
terms of missed sales and potential customer complaints. We can
re-run the audit on an inclusively designed solution to yield a
quantitative measure of the improvement in usability, and hence
sales potential and customer satisfaction of the better design.
Use of Exclusion Audits allows a closed loop to be formed between features (and their cost),
potential sales volumes and after sales costs. This greatly improves the accuracy of ROI calculations
and eases the challenge of selecting features that the market will value.
The EDC is also now ready to apply its recent work on 'multiple
minor impairments', which allows account to be taken of real-
world abilities in the population. For example, ageing often
leads to some degradation in eyesight, hearing, cognitive ability
and dexterity, but most older people are not blind or deaf.
With up half the adult population expected to fall into this
category by 2020, there is both a social need and a substantial
commercial opportunity to increase product differentiation and
market share by designing for diversity.
The subtlety of designing inclusively is that it isn't obvious to the customer – the best inclusive
products don't shout that they are for older people or those with reduced abilities. They are just
seen by most people to be good products that are a delight to use.
Joining the Consortium
Membership of the Consortium costs just £10k (ten thousand GBP) for a full one-year programme
including the five business meetings, research reports, Inclusive Design aids, software simulators and
project support. With costs shared amongst all Consortium members this is a highly cost-effective
way of moving forward an Inclusive Design agenda. A full Prospectus for the Consortium is available
upon request.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact:
Rob Morland
Director, Inclusive Design Programme
Centre for Business Innovation
"Creating Collaborative Communities"
Registered in England and Wales Number 06839754. Registered Office: St Andrews House, St Andrews Road, Cambridge CB4 1DL, United
Kingdom. VAT Number: GB 971 8593 71
___________________________________________________________________________________________
e: rob.morland@cfbi.com
m: ++44 7775 918263
w: www.cfbi.com