Mr Brown is an important man. When he asks a question, people work hard to come up with an answer. Last year he asked, ‘How can we best enhance UK business competitiveness by drawing on our world-leading creative capabilities?’ Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, took on the task of finding the answer.
Mr Brown’s question was triggered by concerns about how UK business can meet the challenge of increasingly tough global markets. Emerging economies such as India and China have entered the high-technology, high-skilled sectors with gusto and their low costs give them a dangerous competitive edge.
Identifying design and creativity as the paths to new products and services and the route to greater productivity, the Cox Review made a series of recommendations. They focused on the need to improve the business community’s understanding and use of design and prepare the next generation by bringing business and design education together. They also urged government to stimulate demand for design through incentives and lead by example through innovative procurement.
The review’s five key recommendations were approved by Mr Brown and we’re now working with our partners to help make them happen. We have been asked to take the lead role on the report’s first recommendation to roll out a nationwide programme of direct support to UK firms. Behind the scenes, we’re supporting the cross-Whitehall and ministerial boards as they put the review’s other suggestions into effect.
Fostering demand for design talent and skills is fine, but we also need to address supply. After all, we can’t take our ‘world-leading creative capabilities’ for granted. In a rapidly changing national and international environment designers must learn to seize new opportunities and confront new challenges.
Working in partnership with Creative & Cultural Skills, we’ve set up the Design Skills Advisory Panel of leading design employers. Their ideas to equip the sector with the right skills to thrive in the new global economy are now being debated across the design community before recommendations are submitted to government. With a broader, deeper range of skills and a more receptive client base, the design industry will be well placed to play its part in addressing Mr Brown’s question.
Here at the Design Council, our priority is to help turn the answer into action.
What we’ve done
Moved design to the heart of government thinking on business competitiveness and public sector performance
What we’ll do next
Work to turn Cox Review recommendations into reality and finalise plans to expand design industry skills