The Design Council's annual research, covering 1,500 businesses of all sizes and sectors, has once again produced powerful evidence linking design directly to business success indicators including bigger profits, higher share prices and increased competitiveness.
Fast-growing businesses see design as the second most important ingredient of success, while for companies overall it ranks a lowly seventh.
And Design in Britain also reveals a link between the use of design and getting new ideas to the market. Nearly seven out of ten companies who see design as integral have launched a new product or service in the last three years, compared to only 32 per cent of companies overall and just 3 per cent of companies where design plays no role at all.
While only 30% of UK businesses are investing in design, the research suggests they are getting good value for money. On average, they expected a 50 per cent return on their most successful project, but they actually got a return of more than 75 per cent.
The figures contain a stark warning for businesses which ignore design - 45 per cent of them are cutting prices to compete, compared to 21 per cent of companies where design is significant.
Meanwhile, businesses are also missing out on help to stimulate the flow of new ideas. Only a tenth of businesses know that R&D tax credits exist, and only a fifth of those companies have actually gone on to use them.