Strategic Design

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Many companies would benefit from using design strategically and thus making design a key element in their value creation process. With her Ph.D. dissertation Designs strategiske potentiale – Design i virksomheders værdiskabelse (The Strategic Potential of Design – Design in Companies’ Value Creation), architect Irene Lønne offers a set of research-based ideas for companies wanting to work productively with design.

By Mads Nygaard Folkmann

There is increasing focus on design as something that is not just the finishing touches on a product or a graphic solution but rather something that fundamentally shapes the value creation in companies.
"Design should be incorporated into the company as a strategic asset that helps develop the company," says Irene Lønne, who defended her Ph.D. dissertation at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture on 6 March 2009.

Fills a Gap

Until now, the strategic approach to design has lacked conceptual treatment. Strategic design might be something that some companies actually practice, but it is rarely something they talk about. Here, Irene Lønne’s dissertation fills a gap.

So far, there has been relatively little research into strategic design.
"The existing literature addresses topics such as branding, corporate branding and design management. However, the literature rarely addresses design in a strategic context in a way that clearly explains how design can contribute to the company’s value creation," says Irene Lønne.

With her dissertation Irene Lønne has not only developed a tool, the design landscape, for mapping companies’ use of design in a strategic context. With her research approach, she also offers a new way of articulating what strategic design is, what it does in companies, and how companies can operate with it.

The design landscape model maps a company’s use of design within the fields of product, space and communication as well as the connections and interaction in the use of design. Within the central circle, the company’s design core is identified as the place that holds the greatest potential as a strategic anchor point for design.

Design Has a Powerful Strategic Potential

Irene Lønne’s dissertation springs from a paradox. On the one hand, design is ubiquitous in man-made reality. On the other hand, it is not thematised in its full range and complexity.
"As I see it, the design process is always potentially strategic," says Irene Lønne. "Therefore, it has been my thesis that design is present in all companies, that it has a potential that is not often not utilised, and that design in a corporate context will have a stronger effect and attain a higher level of knowledge if it is incorporated on a strategic level."

Therefore, the dissertation focuses on linking design and strategy.
"The goal for my dissertation has been to prove that there is a potential and a connection between design and strategy in companies," says Irene Lønne.
"Strategic design is a way of integrating design strategically in a variety of contexts; that is, it has to do with how design and design processes can enter into companies’ expression and value creation. I argue that a strategic use of design is capable of generating better design processes and more meaningful design products and of promoting the company’s strategy in a forward-looking perspective."

In her dissertation, Irene Lønne demonstrates how two very different companies, Danisco and DSB, have worked with communication design in relation to the creation of an annual report, which is in itself a strategically designed report about the company.

The Design Process Can Develop the Company

It is precisely in order to be able to articulate and create a context for the company’s strategic use of design that Irene Lønne has developed a new method, the design landscape.

Landscape models play a key role in Irene Lønne’s Ph.D. dissertation. One of them is the Klondike fitness landscape, which consists of areas that are open to exploration. In relation to the design strategy, this means that an open and unplanned search can provide the company new insights and lead to added value. This will enable the company to see the possibilities in the landscape and use them as a strategic resource in order to develop the company.

The design landscape is an analytical tool that can be used progressively in a company.
"Mapping the use of design provides a new perspective in the company," Irene Lønne explains. "Clarifying the design landscape in a company raises design awareness. In a broader perspective, the goal is to use the design process to develop the company."

The design landscape can help clarify the company’s current use of design within the fields of product, space and communication as an indication of the potential for future efforts. The strength of the model is that on the one hand, it is aimed at the overall picture in the company’s use of design, while on the other hand, it is flexible in use, as it can be scaled in relation to the type and size of the company. For example, a small company might choose to focus exclusively on communication.

Irene Lønne points out the benefits in viewing the model as a landscape.
"The model is a first step toward seeing design in companies both as process and product and understanding it as a holistic landscape that is constantly being influenced and developing," she says.

Strategic Design is Forward-Looking

At the Ph.D. defence, one of the opponents, Associate Professor and Head of Institute Jørgen Rasmussen from the Aarhus School of Architecture pointed out the powerful potential of working with the strategic aspect of design.
"In a sense, the strategic dimension is the most important aspect of design. At the same time, it’s essential to maintain that not all design is strategic, but there are various specific ways of bringing the design methods into use in strategic processes," Jørgen Rasmussen explained.

Jørgen Rasmussen pointed out that strategic design is a rapidly developing field, and that Irene Lønne’s dissertation offers an important contribution to its clarification and conceptualisation.