The British Design Fund

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The British Design Fund is an investment fund that invests in and provides support for early stage UK product design and manufacturing companies. It seeks to invest between £25,000 and £150,000 in return for circa 15% to 30% equity.

DBA Design Effectiveness Awards: 2017 winners announced

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DBA Design Effectiveness Awards celebrate 42 impactful, wide-ranging examples of design that have had a tangible and measurable effect upon business success at our 2017 ceremony.

What can a Non-Executive Director do for me?

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Need an alternative view on a big decision? Want to raise your consultancy’s profile? Planning for a sale? Developing a new vision and strategy and need to test it? Is there an impasse between the executive directors that needs unblocking? Concerned no-one is scrutinising your accounts? A non-executive director (NED) can help the leadership team address these challenges and more. Adrian looks at what a good NED actually does, and how you go about appointing one.

Member stories: the transformative power of design

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Design has the power to transform businesses, public services and people’s lives, but day-to-day, DBA members are facing design sceptics; those who may not understand the breadth of challenges design can solve. Here is a selection of great examples of DBA members in action; converting sceptics, building the importance and integrity of design in the minds of their clients and throughout the businesses they work in.

Crazy times call for courageous creative thinkers

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Seize the opportunity, understand the context, change the context and create the impossible. Management and clients alike hate uncertainty and unpredictability, a space we all find ourselves in today but creativity in itself is surely an unpredictable process so the creative mindset should have an advantage with the events that now affect us all.

Brexit: legal implications for the design industry

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Following the Prime Minister's speech the DBA has already considered some of the implications of the likely change in status of the European Court of Justice and OHIM and the likely impacts on the design industry.

Sharpening the focus on design

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Renowned author Raymond Turner examines design’s ability to define and manifest corporate strategy.

Converting the sceptics

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Getting design understood and valued at board level is the holy grail – but that means talking in business terms
 and converting the sceptics, argues Raymond Turner.

DBA CEO on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

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DBA CEO Deborah Dawton outlines why the review of the tax credit environment for R&D outlined in the Autumn Statement is important to the design industry.

Expert advice – all wrapped up

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With Christmas fast approaching, our Wise Men and Women of the DBA Experts Register share some top tips for your business in 2017.