Be Economical with your Design Re-Thinking

Design was put firmly at centre stage in the strategic direction of business at the Economist Big Rethink - Redesigning Business Summit. The Summit Conference which was closed by Sir George Cox and Robin Bew saw contributions from leading thinkers and practitioners such as Jonathan Sands of Elmwood - who explained how Elmwood had embraced and understood the opportunities in the BRICs, about how design and branding had turned 'Muck into Brass' at Serious* and left us laughing at his alpacas, Joe Ferry of Virgin - who drew a strong link between design and financial return and concluded with a picture of a goose and golden egg. Joe forgot to mention that Virgin provide the most comfortable and effectvie earplugs of any long haul carrier! Paul Bennett of IDEO made the audience rethink the 'purpose' of their businesses. And there were many others. There was an Innovation Masterclass by Professor Eddie Obeng and Friends from the Design Council , and what brilliant friends they were. Richard Seymour of Seymour Powell explained the true essence of design, David Kester CEO of the Design Council used the iconic Design Bugs Out! project to explain how design could transform the public sector and Bonnie Dean used her vast experience of commercialising design and examples of new market opportunities which arose from Designing Out Crime in the mobile telephony sector to show how design could create and drive new markets.




The audience and Economist Bloggers warmed to the key models, Old World vs New World, The SparqTM map of innovation, the Double Diamond which resolves the New World issue of problem defintition and the Design council Safe Space as a way of bringing together many different interests skills and ideas quickly to deliver surprisingly good, amplified results.