Vol. 2: design-management.de

believe it or not, but design seems to be on the corporate agenda these days (at least outside of germany ;-): for the second time within 3 months DESIGN is the headline on the front page of BusinessWeek! this time the lead article by Bruce Nussbaum is about the Palo Alto based design firm IDEO. [...]

in an online article called “guru nation” published in ‘Workforce Management’ samuel greengard examines the value these ‘gurus’ add to the business community. well, he’s very critical about it as he says the following: “‘There are only about 25, maybe 50 management gurus in the world. They are the heavyweight thinkers that mold the business [...]

in the april 2004 issue of MIT’s Technology Review Michael Schrage wrote an interesting article called “Designed and Made in China”. Schrage a consultant and codirector of the MIT Media Lab’s e-Markets initiative is widely known for his books on product development and prototyping and has been a speaker at DMI conferences in the past [...]

in the march 2004 edition of WIRED the “godfather of innovation + technology magazines” is presenting the “Complete Guide to Googlemania”. according to WIRED “Google’s a library, an almanac, a settler of bets. It’s a parlor game, a dating service, a shopping mall. It’s a Microsoft rival. It’s a verb. At more than 200 million [...]

even though the term “designmanagement” or “design manager” attracts adequate attention and respect in the meantime the discussion about the definition of a “design manager” is still multifaceted. however I don’t regard this as a weakness of the concept itself. it is rather an indication that the construct (! – not management concept!) incorporates a [...]

it seems as if I’ve discovered a hot issue with my post of february, 9th. car design becomes an important issue not only for car manufacturers. the latest edition of business week both print and online makes “designer cars” the international cover story. according to editor gail edmondson: “Never before has design been so vital [...]

if you walk through an average shopping mall and watch the products offered it seems that the average consumer does not care too much about design for everyday products. however when it comes to automobiles the picture looks much different. according to my perception automobile design becomes more and more a key differentiator beside technological [...]

well I’ve neglected my blog for some days, but I used my time to discover new inspirations and resources for new posts. I must say it was worth it and I’ll want to start right away with an article I’ve found in the latest edition of BAH’s strategy + business online edition. “The Four Bases [...]

my credo in design management education has always been that managers do not have to understand every detail of a technology. rather they should be able to understand the underlying notion and impact of new technologies in order to participate in general discussions right from the start. this principle is also reflected in the addressing [...]

after several years believing in and following an interactive approach in my design management workshops I still experience that ‘Apple Computer’ is a highly appreciated discussion and illustration topic. if nothing helps to stimulate the discussion I simply quote that the market share ratio between ‘windows’ and ‘mac os’ is 98% compared to 2%. questioning [...]

the european business forum (ebf) is an international business journal which also runs an online version of their magazine. on their website you’ll find a section about latest trends in management research. in the current edition of the online journal morgen witzel reports about a research project by ‘Dr Karin Tweddell Levinsen of the Department [...]

finally the powerpoint discussion also arrived in the german press :-) read the news in the online editions of stern.de or zdf.de. as I reported in an earlier post this summer, information graphics guru edward tufte posed the question if the microsoft piece of software is “evil”. or to be more precise he compared it [...]

every business student should have heard at least about michael porter’s [HBS] value chain concept. [however I'm not quite sure if he is really the inventor of it; maybe just a good promoter and marketer] design management students from my module ‘straegic management and the business of business) at the ‘Master of Design Management’ programme [...]

as reported in an earlier post the spectrum of definitions about ‘design management’ is quite diverse. however what most professionals agree upon is that managing ‘corporate identity’ is one of the core elements of design management. consequently corporate logo design definitively belongs to the area of interest for a design manager. in an article which [...]

one of the core competencies of design managers is their comprehensive view and understanding of organizations which is not only limited to focusing on the contribution of design to corporate success (this is at least what we wish design managers to be like ;-). however if design managers ever want to get closer to the [...]