Innovation at Risk

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Design Drives New Growth

The contrasting approaches to design as an agent of change and growth at Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) help illustrate this problem. At HP, the approach is strategic. As CEO Mark Hurd works toward a leaner organization, HP's design leaders have focused on simplification, reducing SKUs and crafting reusable design elements for application across a wide variety of products. By using design thinking to craft products that are more attractive, easier for consumers to use, and less expensive to produce, designers at HP are connecting with both a larger corporate strategy and real people's needs to drive growth and profitability. Design is being used as a lever within a larger strategic framework, yielding focused innovations in products, processes, and metrics that are clearly benefiting the company's top and bottom lines.

At Dell, design appears to be operating mostly in response to marketplace trends, unconnected to a larger strategy. Flashy new colors and finishes introduced last year are grabbing attention but are also likely to increase costs and add production complexity. As the company moves beyond the direct-to-consumer model into multibrand retail venues, its products must now compete side-by-side with the likes of HP, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Is more style at a higher price what people want from Dell—the onetime champion of ever-improving value? Only time will tell. It's too early to determine the impact of these changes on the company's overall performance. For now, design for its own sake seems to constitute the whole of Dell's innovation strategy.

Build a Bigger Toolkit

Giving design a seat at the leadership table can and should deliver real business benefits. Applying the tools and techniques of design practice to large, complex business challenges can yield interesting insights and novel solutions. But promising more than design thinking can deliver risks a real backlash that could not only discredit design, but also accelerate the rejection of innovative growth as a goal.

Leading development of the Harley-Davidson (HOG) Museum, I faced a range of business challenges: selecting the right location, synthesizing the needs of the company and Milwaukee city planners, shaping a building that was both iconic and timeless, telling stories that would engage visitors from casual tourists to the devoted Harley faithful, and designing a sustainable business model. Design thinking was often helpful, and sometimes essential, in solving these complex problems—but only when connected with empathy and business strategy. And other techniques were equally valuable in identifying hidden opportunities for community-building, co-created experiences, and new business platforms. There is no single, turnkey innovation solution.

Design thinking is a useful innovation tool, not the absolute source of sustainable growth. Meeting complex growth challenges requires a broad range of capabilities from across the social sciences, business strategy, and design. Just as there is no one, best approach to innovation, there is also no evidence that profitable growth is impossible in a slow economy. As the economic cycle turns again, managers face a critical choice: Will they join the packs that give up on growth while waiting for better times? Or will they find new ways to grow during the coming storm?

Lara Lee is a directing associate of Jump Associates and former VP of Enthusiast Services at Harley-Davidson.