In my design career I am most proud of… watching students in my classes transform into designers, and designers who worked on my teams transform into the design thought leaders of today.

My time at Disney taught me… the power of story-telling and character motivation. It applies to everything from Mickey Mouse to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It also taught me the importance of relevance. Keeping iconic characters and brands top of mind while maintaining their legacies is a really hard task for designers. You could easily go down the path of a trend and alter a story that has taken decades to build. Sometimes that is a great thing, sometimes it can destroy an icon.

When making the leap from hands-on designer, to design leadership I wish I’d known…to not try to jump in to solve problems for the people I hired to do the hands-on work. I found myself in conflict with some amazing creative talent. When I started to look at the work through the lens of “it’s not good work” vs. “it’s not good work because I didn’t do it,” my relationships, and the work, got infinitely stronger. 

Being a fearless creative is… believing in your convictions without being too stubborn, proud or precious to accept that great creative ideas can come from anyone. Being fearless is also having the courage to fight as hard to ensure work you don’t believe in never makes it to your consumer.

A brand’s heritage should… inspire innovation by looking to the past and leave a legacy for those that will come after.

I’m inspired by… music, theatre and running. All take me to places in my head where I find my best ideas.

I wish I’d designed… The Printing Press.

I’d tell my younger self… chill out and enjoy what you’re doing right now.

I’m most looking forward to… the day we no longer have to prove the strategic value of Design. It’s just Design.

The Hershey Company is a member of the DBA. Ron will be speaking at the DBA’s Design: driving transformation in business event on 12 October in London. Find out more and reserve your place.

The survey found:

• Non-UK EU nationals make up 15% of the total DBA membership workforce (1,000 staff of 6,500).

• 50% of DBA members employ at least one non-UK EU national.

• Most of these are employed on permanent contracts (89%) and are working at a mid to senior level in the agency (73%).

• 99% were employed because they were ‘the best applicant for the job’, rather than because they had a specific skill set not found in the UK (80% said the skills could be found anywhere).

• 30% of DBA members employ staff from outside of the EU.

• Consensus amongst survey respondents is that the current visa system for accessing talent outside of the EU is too complex and lengthy for small businesses (98% of design businesses employ less than 50 people).

• Investment and support for creative education (cited by 57% of respondents) is seen as a priority, if the skills need from the domestic market is to be met in the future.

• Through qualitative questions the survey also identified key issues of significant concern to the industry in regards to the movement of talent post-Brexit.

The results of the DBA survey for DCMS demonstrate, that when it comes to immigration policies, design businesses are less concerned about accessing cheaper talent, or specific skills shortages in the UK – their priority is the ability to continue to compete effectively in the global marketplace, which requires access to a culturally diverse workforce of world-class talent at all levels of experience. Ever increasing numbers of international clients are commissioning UK design agencies, and a key factor is their understanding of the complexities and cultural nuances of those businesses’ marketplaces; an understanding which ensures the delivery of high quality creative and commercial results.

For DBA members, the top ‘asks’ of a new immigration system included:

• Ideally maintaining freedom of movement and work for EU nationals
• Failing that, preservation of existing EU staff rights
• Straight-forward and inexpensive processes that allow businesses to employ whom they believe is best for the role in their business.
• For government to avoid short-sighted quotas aimed at hitting politically motivated targets and to instead consider the country’s business needs (needs that enable access to the best talent to help drive business growth).
• To make it easier for companies to sponsor existing employees who are on short-term visas so they can extend their stay for set periods.

British design is not only world leading, but is also central to the economy, helping to drive innovation and improve productivity. The design economy alone contributes 7.2 percent to the total UK economy and currently employs more than 1.5million people. Design impacts all sectors of the economy and touches every aspect of our lives through the products and services we use.

For the future prosperity of the UK and on going growth of the design industry, the DBA is focused on securing support and recognition for the sector in the government’s long-term plans so that design is rightly seen as a major contributor to the British economy in its own right, as well as a driver for growth in terms of both commercialising innovation and manufacturing.

Says DBA CEO Deborah Dawton, “UK design has earned a formidable global reputation, built on the depth and quality of talent and expertise found across the sector, which – as the DBA survey for the DCMS clearly shows – benefits from being a culturally diverse workforce. An immigration system that considers the country’s business needs, and encourages future growth and competitiveness is imperative.”

Read the survey report here.

Notes:

The survey was completed by 21% of the 440 DBA member agencies. DBA members employ over 6000 staff in total.

There is a possibility that the survey appealed more to those DBA members who employ EU staff because their business is directly impacted by changes to immigration policy and they wanted their voice to be heard. However, the spread of agencies that responded matches the general demographics of the DBA membership as a whole so this is not deemed to be too statistically important.

There’s also never been a better time for selling the creative ‘big idea’ which is increasingly being demanded by clients as the key to addressing the new challenges and complexities of an always-on, multi-channel, real-time ‘brandscape’. Big ideas that can help unify, simplify and amplify the overall brand experience at a time when the traditional notions of marketing disciplines, channels, and agencies themselves, are being increasingly tested and challenged.

Not surprising then that I’m seeing more and more emphasis, time and effort being spent by agencies on the pursuit and high-stakes pitch of the ‘big idea’ that will matter most and make the most difference to clients.

Unfortunately, on such occasions there’s also likely to be a very big elephant in the room that all too often creative businesses completely fail to notice, respect or address.

And that is RISK.

For creative businesses RISK is the flip-side of the IDEA coin. One where, the bigger the creative idea, the bigger the client risk in buying it.

For decades, the Creative Industries have been wrestling with how best to sell and promote the business value of their ideas, the value of design, to nail their value propositions and then how to pitch these ideas with passion and confidence.

But value, like beauty, is always in the eyes of the beholder and in my experience clients can usually see the wider value in a creative idea – even if the agency presenting it struggles to fully appreciate or articulate it.

And once the dust settles on the ‘concept’ discussion – and usually once the agency has left the room – the client conversation will quickly shift from excitement around the potential of the creative ‘idea’ towards the consequences of the ‘risk’ it presents to the client company…the financial risk, the market risk, the technology risk, the consumer risk, the cultural risk, the capability risk, the political risk, the reputation risk (to the client as individuals and as a business). These will all be very real risks serving as potential fatal barriers or blockers that will need to be carefully evaluated and mitigated before any ‘big idea’ will be given a green-light to fly.

Unfortunately, all too often the RISK side of the IDEA coin is completely neglected or avoided by creative businesses when selling ‘big-ideas’ instead preferring to channel all their creative energy and persuasive powers into the upsides of their big idea – how it will transform the business, sell more products, engage staff and customers alike.

All too often this unbalanced approach to selling big ideas in itself betrays the ambition and intent of the creative business looking to position itself as a client ‘business partner’ and will all be for nothing if the client regards the risk as too great.

The agency upon rejection, then consoling itself in the misguided view that the client simply “didn’t get it” before embarking on yet another expensive and unbalanced one-sided toss of the coin.

The truth is that the average client understands risk far better than they understand creativity.

Because anticipating risk, understanding risk, taking risk, mitigating risk and managing risk – in all its forms – is inherently at the heart of what drives the leadership debate in all client businesses.

Given this, I believe that the creative businesses that will flourish in the future – and those that will have the greatest success in pitching ‘big ideas’ and partnering with clients for mutual benefit and growth – will be those that become as capable and confident in embracing the ‘risk’ side of their ‘idea’ coin.

On the one side setting out ever more compelling creative visions and narratives for what the client’s brand future and brand experience can become…

And on the other having the respect, responsibility and diligence to fully appreciate the risks and consequences implicit in bringing these ideas to life and who can put forward equally compelling proposals for how these risks will be mitigated and overcome.

In short, creative businesses no longer prepared to risk their creative future on the toss of a coin.

Sound like anyone you know?

Recovery

This year’s DBA Annual Survey Report tells us that the average recovery rate is 78% – so, in essence, most of you are still working for free on a Friday!

But you shouldn’t have to: you can improve your recovery rate if you have the right systems and processes in place, providing you with reliable, real-time information on which to act.

As the project progresses at each stage there can be time or cost over-runs. You need systems that provide an alert before the cost over-run occurs at a predetermined % of the total – say 80%. Projects that are flagged need to be analysed to understand why, and then, if possible, the reasons should be shared with the client – often these are changes in the brief, additional tasks added or many rounds of revisions. If these issues are raised with the client as they occur it may be possible to convince the client to pay for them. All too often, these issues are left until it is too late.

Sometimes projects are made unprofitable by over-servicing and this too should be flagged and prevented.

Utilisation

This can also be described as Capacity Planning. To improve utilisation you have to know the projects in the pipeline, their deadlines and the resource each project requires vs the resource available. With thorough forward planning, projects can be juggled to better match resource and reduce the need for freelancers.

There must be a single source of truth within your business: running an agency requires real-time data to make informed real-time decisions and knowledge is power.

The most successful agencies will use this knowledge and will focus on the now and the future, not the past.

In 2010 White Logistics had suffered in the recession and had failed to show profits for a few years. A strategic rebrand was commissioned to help the business grow.

Working with agency The Allotment, White Logistics developed a brand proposition and identity that would, says Stracey, “communicate our drive, passion and levels of service not only externally but also to employees.” The new brand and livery reflected White Logistics’ values and started telling the story of how it solved problems for customers. 

Says Stracey, “We started to use design effectively throughout the company”, and the results have been transformational, reinvigorating and turning around the fortunes of the company. Turnover has increased by 65% in the six years since the rebrand, and profits by 70%. The original investment in design was just £50,000. Based on sales increase that shows a return on initial investment of 1:79.

Judith is at the heart of the White’s story. The company was just two years old when she joined founder Rick White in 1974. She was company secretary by 1984 and Finance Director by 1996, before buying out the business in 2002.

Her own rise has mirrored the rise of the business itself from a small distributor of local fruit and veg to the national logistics and storage business it is today. She knows the business inside out and has had a singular impact on the unique culture and passion for problem solving which it’s become famous for.

Design: driving transformation in business 

Join us on Thursday 12 October, at this free event for DBA members, where we’ll be bringing together design leaders from business and consultancy to explore how to embed design across every business function to harness its transformative power.

The event will take a comprehensive look at how design can drive transformation in business, unpacking the value added when design is effectively embedded in an organisation’s practise.

Judith will discuss designers’ role in business, along with her fellow panellists from Royal Bank of Scotland and Heineken International, together delving into how designers can influence and change the perceptions of design in the businesses they work in.

Other speakers at the event include:

• Ron Burrage, Sr. Director, Head of Global Design, The Hershey Company
• Mark van Iterson, Director Global Heineken Design, Heineken International
• Louise Smith, Head of Design and Transformation, Royal Bank of Scotland
• Mark Curtis, Founder and Chief Client Officer, Fjord
• Jon Denham, Vice President Disruptive Innovation & Design, ConAgra Foods
• François Lenfant, General Manager Healthcare Experience, Global Design at GE Healthcare
• Judith Stracey, Chairman, White Logistics
• Oliver King, Director/Founder, Engine Service Design
• Jeremy Bassinder, Exec Partner – Consumer Products & UKI iX Leader for Consumer Products, Retail and Travel & Transport, IBM

The event will be hosted at Imagination in central London, taking place between 10.30 and 17.30 on 12 October. See the full event agenda, speaker line-up and details of how to reserve your place, here. 

Read White Logistic’s Gold winning DBA Design Effectiveness Award case study here. 

IBM can attest to this. With a finger-on-the-pulse style response to the growing evidence around design driven organisations delivering on customer experience and returning value directly to business, in 2012 the organisation invested $100 million into the ‘design enculturation’ of its staff and business practise.

The result was the IBM Interactive Experience (iX) division. The creation of IBM iX saw 1000 new employees recruited, 10 new IX labs created, and three award-winning digital agencies acquired in the same month in 2016. The division supports and drives IBM’s focus on becoming strategically design-driven and prioritising the user and their motivations, a significant shift away from its previously favoured engineering-driven ‘features first’ focus.

With this user-first approach, IBM iX was able to streamline a complex sales process for T-Mobile USA Inc. T-Mobile enlisted IBM iX to create and design a custom sales solution that would enable sales reps to dedicate more time to customer service.

The user-focused design solution to T-Mobile’s sales process included a redesigned experience within Salesforce, and iPad apps that resulted in the elimination of 112 clicks from the sales process, leading to an average of seven hours a week saved for sales reps, enabling them to provide a superior customer experience.

This, and more strategic design-led work, has seen IMB iX named the largest digital agency network in the world, and ranked No.1 in the UK in the same category by eConsultancy.

GE Healthcare’s General Manager Healthcare Experience, Global Design, François Lenfant stated in 2011, “Design, if not connected to the key strategy of the company, cannot provide the right response.” This is why GE Healthcare bases their design practise in an organisation-wide philosophy: ‘The Magic of Science and Empathy’. It helps to drive end results towards more empathetic and caring design that improves user experience.

GE Healthcare’s design team is based in a warehouse in Buc, France, where product designers to graphic designers and ergonomic user interaction specialists work with engineers to remain at the forefront of healthcare design innovation. Lenfant’s mantra, “Change before you need to” filters through the business’s mind-set.

It was GE Healthcare’s “open innovation and design thinking processes,” that have helped VR become an important new tool in healthcare and diagnostics. The product is currently being tested with a customer in France, with plans to expand to the United States and Asia.

Design leaders understand the power of design to produce significant customer impact and business return, and when the Board is like-minded, great things can happen, as both IBM and GE Healthcare can attest.

Says GE Healthcare’s François Lenfant, “We don’t design products for customers, we design solutions for people.”