Design luminaries such as Richard Seymour, Sir Terence Conran and Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, are attending a Downing Street Summit by permission of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. They will discuss how manufacturing businesses can still thrive in today’s competitive global business environment if they add value to what they make through the use of design.
Last year Sir George Cox’s Review into Creativity in Business warned that many UK businesses are facing a competitive disadvantage due to a serious shortage of creativity. The Downing Street Summit has been convened to focus on finding ways in which the UK can increasingly use design to add value to its products and services in order to differentiate them in highly competitive markets.
Sir George Cox said: ‘The UK is a world leader in the design industry and has an outstanding record of innovation. Exploiting this creativity will be the key to global competitiveness. Our ability to compete with emerging economies will rely on value-added, knowledge-based industries. Policy-makers and industry need to focus on this.’
The Summit coincides with the publication of new research conducted by the Design Council showing the positive impact of design on business performance. Published in a unique online resource called the Value of Design Factfinder, the survey shows that every £100 a business spends on design increases turnover by £225.
David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, said: ‘Companies that have integrated design into their business are much less likely to compete on price, more likely to be innovative, more likely to grow their turnover, and overall more likely to have a sharp competitive edge.’
The Value of Design Factfinder can be found at:
www.designfactfinder.co.uk
For more information contact Saskia Sissons at the Design Council on 020 7420 5248 or
saskia.sissons@designcouncil.org.uk
The Design Council is the UK’s national strategic body for design. It aims to strengthen and support the economy and society by demonstrating and promoting the vital role of design in making businesses more competitive and public services more effective.
Its work includes a Design for Business Programme, a national programme of design support for managers, a ten-year public design promotion in UK regions and projects generating new thinking on how design can be used to tackle key economic and social challenges.
The data in the Value of Design Factfinder is taken from the Design Council’s 2005 National Survey of Firms. The survey involved two stages: a national survey of 1,500 businesses with more than 10 employees across all sectors of UK business; and a supplementary survey of 250 businesses which had observed an impact from design on a range of business performance measures was conducted.