Innovation and the Prosperity of Nations

(page 4 of 5)

Bill Moggridge returned to the theme of the Festival of Britain, noting that it “inspired me to be a designer.” The most powerful aspect of being a designer, he observed, is that “design brings in the human element.” Design methods need to be combined with prototyping, which is increasingly important as life becomes more complex, and can be extended to prototyping services—which also benefit from inter-disciplinary approaches. “Do it quickly, as business needs to see things tried quickly and cheaply,” he counselled. Touching on education he noted the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, in which IDEO co-founder David Kelley has a key role, is novel in being “an institute that allows for [inter-disciplinary] collaboration.”

The Summit concluded with three breakout sessions, on Globalisation and Future Trends; Commercialisation of Ideas; and Creative Industries and Innovation.

For a UK conference to be addressed by one government minister is something. For the competitiveness Summit to get two, with Malcolm Wicks MP, UK Minister of State for Science and Innovation, wrapping up was a quite a coup. Unlike Alistair Darling, Wicks spoke off-the-cuff, on a step, to a standing audience. We scare our kids about China, he said, but we will cope. We need to be good and we are good at certain things, such as science and technology. But, following his boss Alistair Darling’s lead, he asked how we might “get the design component in there?” And picking up on David Kester’s earlier observations, he also asked “What about our economy, our lives, isn’t designed?” “I want to learn from you” he concluded. We felt flattered.

Reflection

Ultimately the Competitiveness Summit was a pedestrian, feel-good, networking event that provided few insights or challenges to received wisdom. If this were the first time we had heard these wonderful stories about design, government, education and business, we might have been more optimistic. But over the last 10 or more years—back to the Design Council’s re-founding—we have come to know them well. And it is not clear how much difference is really made by well-researched statistics about design effectiveness in business, or Government ministers’ proclamations of their belief in creativity. Perhaps the problem is being tackled at the wrong level.

First, however, the format of the event. There was no ‘symposiarch,’ as John Thackara would have it, behind or in front of the Summit. Speakers came and ‘did their thing’ without anyone apparently shaping the overall discourse, or the debate. The event was ostensibly chaired by Stephanie Flanders, Economic Editor of the BBC2 Newsnight show. Although having a professional emcee and chair is desirable—and those BBC folks are real pros—they are typically generalists and thus unable to shape the debate or challenge the presenters. One of Flanders’ questions during the education discussion was about whether there was a plethora of government reviews. “Is this initiative-itis?” she quipped, aping itain’s mind-numbing model of media inquiry.

Lacking a symposiarch, the Summit also lacked any clear direction or debate, either between the speakers or with attendees. What was the question that was being answered? Whatever it was, there was no one to try to ensure it was at least addressed. If, as Alistair Darling claimed, UK plc is facing challenges on the scale of the industrial revolution, one would expect more focused, thoughtful and heated debate. Part of the reason for the lack of debate was that the Summit attracted the ‘already converted’ from the design side. I encountered only one person from the business side, the COO of an early stage technology venturing company. The UK design community doesn’t have a recent history of engaging in profound debates with itself.

Even within the design community the discussion was oddly out-of-date, focusing almost exclusively on product design.