CPH127

What happens when 10 architects faces the challenge to build the house of tomorrow? What would the result be when 3 architects, 3 artists and 4  rocket scientists should do the same? Same-same or different?

I’m a strong believer in diversity in almost every aspect of life – and of course also in innovations processes.

Susanne mailed me today – she is writing a Phd. about exactly diversity in Innovation processes.

She asked me to help her out in spreading the word about a conference she is arranging.

I ran through the programme and I MUST say – I think its overwhelming and HIGHLY recommendable.

Just call it an advertisement – it is……

• AIGA - Specialization and design
  Has design students lost sight of the big picture and of their craft’s relevance to larger problem solving?
  (tags: jacob education design aiga specialization globalization problem solving process craft)
• Beyond Brilliance: Recycling Racks for the Homeless
  This should be at INDEX too
  (tags: jacob index recycling environment homeless rack innovation design)
• Blog Entry “design competes” from IA? EH.
  She is right, we are not long from “penetration”
  (tags: jacob design venture capital business bose casestudy)
• Design Inspiration
  Im impressed by the photoreferences - indeed
  (tags: design photo graphicdesign hanshenrik blog)
• IFTF’s Future Now: John Thackara, “In the Bubble: Daily Life as a Design Opportunity”
  (tags: jacob ideo thackara bubble design opportunity iftf)

I know, I know. I talk about China all the time. But it’s really all I have in mind these days, you’ll have to bear with me.

I have been collecting some facts about China lately. Here’s an excerpt to give you something to think about.

• 200 cities with more than 1 million citizens
• 140.000 students graduating from university this year
• 7 major language groups (with over 8000 dialects)
• 56 ethnic groups
• 200 million Muslims (that’s two thirds the total U.S. population)
• Generally not very homogeneous, more multi-cultural than US
• The UN predict that by 2007 Chinese will pass English to become the #1 language on the internet
• "Thaksinomics" (after Thaksin Shinawatra, PM) on "Bangkok Fashion
  City": Managed Asset Reflation (add to brand value of Thai textiles by
  demonstrating flair and design excellence)
• In China there are 250.000 millionaires
• China really never did any offensive wars, except for in Vietnam. That
  might be an excellent point proving that they won’t touch Taiwan.
• All superpowers in history has had one thing in common and that is the
  ambition to rule and dominate. China doesn’t seem to have that ambition
  and that might be the reason why they’ll never become a real superpower.

Do you have any other striking facts? Let us know, use the commentary field below!

Just this evening I was reading some stuff about how some Danish companies has used knowledge about their marketsegments in China to gain greater marketshares, I stunned at the fact that they actually thought a lot about that Chinese children are only-childs. The one-child-policy simply means that all families in China today only have own child. This brings good things and bad things ofcourse. I am not a psychologist and I am definitely not a sociologist, but I somehow feel that creative abilities are stronger with only childs than children with siblings. Is this true? Is there any research in this field? Does it mean anything relating to design and innovation that all Chinese grow up being the only child in the family? Is all that attention really so good? I am not the right one to answer those questions, but you are.

Update: Tiger’s Leap over at Sense Worldwide has much more information about the one-child generation, it’s worth reading.

To day I had the possibility talking to some of – as I see it – the most promising designers in Denmark. Not because they have made a new wonderful chair or invented a new car-design, but because of the fact that their ability to think out of-the-box and daring new ways for their own internal development as a company.

One of the projects they have been busy with is an re-invention or a new perspective on what a possible future could be for Danish farmers. INTERESTING and indeed something worth considering on the political agenda as well……..

Maybe the title is a bit provactive. Maybe that’s OK, I don’t know yet. Anyway what I am going to write now probably will shock a lot of people.

Kevin Roberts is the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and he’s quite a brilliant guy in many ways. He thinks nothing is impossible (nothing is!) and made a wonderful 10-point credo. It’s truly wonderful and about a week ago I introduced this (slightly re-worked) to some politicians in Denmark. We are now working on implementing some ideas that rose within the discussion of this. Let first look at the credo and then I’ll explain how this can help you. This doesn’t just apply to political parties, but everyone - from the largest corporation to the smallest Mom ‘n’ Pop.

1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke … Break it!
3. Hire crazies
4. Ask dumb questions
5. Pursue failure
6. Lead, follow … or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion
8. Ditch your office
9. Read odd stuff
10. Avoid moderation!

First point is quite simply the most important one. At the party we had a large problem that when ever we made any suggestions to a current political issue, it took us too long to write the proposal and when we were done it wasn’t a current subject anymore. I suggested that we assign spokesmen that would be spokesmen for a period of like 14-days. Imagine some spokesmen here. Spokesman of Design and Innovation. Spokesman of Childrens Care. Spokesman of More Policemen On The Streets. Heck, anything! Along with these spokesmen we are writing very small whitepapers on the situation, most like 2-3 pages. Now we can go out there and provoke the decisions being made before they are made!

Number two is also fairly important. It’s quite a tradition within political parties that you need to keep everything that’s working in the same way, but now we are trying to dismantle everything and looking for potential issues.

Number three is fairly easy to accomplish; I am already there! Besides from kidding, I believe that we are now listening a lot more to the crazies. Atleast I hope so, since I am among them.

Number four should actually have been higher up the list, although I wouldn’t know what to put below it then. Anyway this is very important when making political decisions; ask about everything. The question you dare not to make might mean that people will die. Asking dumb questions is hell important, everywhere!

The next one up is fairly connected with breaking up everything. We try to look for the bad in everything and turning that into an issue. Recently the government made suggestions for changes in the education of the danish language to foreigners and our spokesman (assigned to the post as long as it is current, could be two days) sat down and read it through. It didn’t take many hours for him to find out that the suggestions made wasn’t that good and he quickly wrote up some suggestions of his own.

Leading or getting out of the way applies to all members of the party, not just the leaders. This is pretty logical.

The next three points (7,8 and 9) will also help us shake up the organization and be more competitive (yes, political parties have to competitive too!).

Now you are probably thinking that we are just a small political party without any influence. But that is in fact not true. The party I am talking about is the youth organization related to Denmarks largest party. You can do the math and figure out who I am talking about. But since we are the youth organization we have to avoid being moderated by the "real" party, and this is essential for everything we do!

This is not the last time I will mention Kevin Roberts here. When I get the time I’ll try and talk about how his "lovemarks" relate to design and innovation.

The other day I held a speech on design and innovation together with the guys from Index in Malmoe, Sweden. The audience had very diverse backgrounds and since the theme for the evening was design and innovation people could basically be split into two "schools of thought". The ones that believe that the design process leads to innovation and those that believe that the innovation process leads to innovation…

We had a very interesting discussion and it got me thinking (again and even harder) about the new definition of design i.e. as a business development process and applicable in problem-solving situations in general. A friend of mine argued that the whole thing with mixing design and innovation was just a way for the design community to join the innovation wave, to take advantage of the buzz! Another one wondered what the difference between the "new" design process and any other development process (including innovation processes: "they are user-centric too") was?

Good questions! Good indeed…do anyone have any perspectives and views on this? If we want to sell it I guess we have to be able to tell it, but I haven’t gathered my (latest)thoughts on thise one just yet.

While having a rant with one of my friend on the value of industrial design these days, i stumbled across this fantastic term of the “postindustrial designer”, and thought: “Ah! At last!”.

I have hoped for many moons that the industrial design industry would stop being so in love with itself and heavy production and manufacturing and constantly pretending to design for people as opposed to designing for clients with enormous costs to the environment and the waste industry.

I think with these kinds of words put out there, there might be a chance that we may one day switch to a sort of service-based economy as the great Ezio Manzini would like to see that happen. But maybe im wrong? On reading recent articles on the great need for good industrial design in China for example, is this idea just right for some countries and far from feasible in others?

http://www.dexigner.com/graphic/announcements-g1245.html

• Thinking and Making
  (tags: design blog hanshenrik architecture proces)
• Does Size Matter?
  (tags: design innovation hanshenrik companies blog iit)
• Perspective
  (tags: nitibhan design perspective hanshenrik innovation blog)

Niti Bhan is rambling over at Carlsons about the development in the design industry:

….Traditionally, the majority of the design profession considered itself
above and apart from "big business", perceiving it as obsessed with
numbers, dollars and the bottom line…..

…In the short term, design firms can partner with business strategy
consultants to offer new and expanded service offerings above and
beyond the norm. Expanding their services, hiring marketing and product
management professionals with business degrees and incorporating them
into their design teams will allow them to present complete solutions
to their existing clients as business cases for new products….

We’ve seen that before, haven’t we? Try to Google the early phase of the Internet-industry evolution. EXACTLY the same ball game.

Do you see the same thing? Or is it only me who is hunted by a ghost?