Sara Little Turnbull was born in 1917 and grew up in Brooklyn as the youngest of a Russian immigrant family of very sparse means. This early experience shaped the rest of her life and career. She attended Parsons School of design on a full scholarship. Using her insatiable curiosity allied with a multi-dimensional approach, Sara […]
Has the value of design in business improved in the last 30 years?
In 1988 Peter Lawrence, co-founder of the DMI Design Management Institute and the Corporate Design Foundation, stated that design was a corporate asset requiring management like any other asset, commenting on the fact that many executives still treated design as superficial and expendable and suggesting designers need to participate in the customer research process. Though […]
What makes a designer a designer?
If the definition and history of design is far from consensual, so is the definition of a designer. Beyond craft elements that make a designer an apt professional, what makes a designer a designer are more core beliefs and view of the world, as well as how we are seen by others. When we address […]
References
I realize many of your would like to follow up on the references, attached.
What about where design and business are not aligned?
Revenue models propose a great way to understand the alignment and misalignment between design and business project cycles. Typical models map cumulative cash flow over time, through stages of Idea Generation, Commercialization and Realization. With differences in terminology, this model holds true to many organizations, and though it allows designers to perform and add value […]
What is a core element that aligns design and business?
At the core of designer education, though not specific to design, we have the ‘project’ as a unit that designers learn to apply their skills and competencies to. The ‘project’ is a process through which occupations organize themselves to attain market power and recognition, and it is an essential component of design attitude. Though in […]
Who is this research for?
The result of this research is aimed at a mid-level senior designer, who has had formal design education, who has already done some people management and enjoyed it, who believes in the power of large companies and desires to be in a position where she can influence the design direction of the company throughout its […]
How was your question received?
Regarding the question “Why Aren’t There More Designers in the C-Suite of F50 Corporations”, the interaction with both designers and non- designers revealed a certain uneasiness with the question. Some senior designers felt there was a certain insinuation that they were either not able or willing to be in high level positions in large corporations, […]
What were your research objectives and hypothesis?
Objective 1: Discover existing research specifically dedicated to reasons why trained designers do not occupy high level positions in large corporations; Objective 2: Establish via engagement with designers and executives, insights that might be impeding designers from assuming high level positions in large corporations; Objective 3: Generate a number of hypothesis that could be researched […]
What about women designers in the C-suite of large corporations?
This research would be remiss if it didn’t address the fact that there is an ongoing debate about the lack of women in the C-suite of large corporations, as well as in the CEO role. As the HBR puts it in an article on the topic “The news about U.S. women’s presence in the C-suite […]