This insight describes an argument that designers tend to stick to design, they have little to no experience in managing other areas, and this being something that defines the necessary flexibility for anyone to get a position in the C-suite of a large corporation. It’s the example of CEO’s that started in a low wage […]
Design Training
7. Scarcity – There aren’t enough qualified designers with the right experience in the market.
This insight was added because several of the interviewees stated that, if the F50 companies decided all at once to hire a new designer for an executive position in their C-suite, they would have a very hard time because there were not enough qualified designers with the right experience in the market, that many of […]
Is it because they don’t have an engineering degree?
According to market data, engineering is the most common undergraduate degree of the F500 CEOs, and it has been for some time. Approximately one third of CEOs majored in engineering and only 11% graduated from business school. This might be another insight that impacts access to Designers to this selective group, a strong engineering, highly […]
6. Preparation – Designers don’t have the right education and training, skill set, mindset.
This insight describes an argument where designers don’t have the right education and training, skillset, mindset. While these elements are all different in nature – education what you get in school, training what you can get throughout your career, skillset embodies hard + soft skills and result from natural and apprehended means, and mindset which […]
5. Access – Designers are not selected for the job, not invited, not mentored and groomed for it.
This insight describes a context in which designers are not selected for the job, not invited, not mentored and groomed for it. While many designers cite this as a true insight impacting the reality described by the question we pose, this is seen by non-designers as a typical complaint of a group of people that […]
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 […]
Why the focus on formally trained designers?
For the purpose of the PhD research, we decided to focus on academically trained designers as a definition of designer. The existence of design as an academic degree justifies the original inquiry ‘why aren’t there more designers in the c-suite of F50’. While design training is a growing trend among large corporations, executives have training […]