Designing Demand, the Design Council’s pioneering change programme for SMEs, has reached critical mass, with more than half of the nation’s regional development agencies deploying it to help businesses sharpen their competitive edge by adding value through design.
The milestone coincides with the release of new research which confirms that adding value through design is the most effective means of generating profit for UK SMEs (www.designcouncil.org.uk/factfinder).
The Design Council’s Added Value Research 2007 shows that companies that use design to add value to their products or services see a higher return on several measures – including profitability, turnover, market share and competitiveness - than those who don’t.
Worryingly, the research also indicates that one in five companies don’t add value at all; and that many of them believe added value isn’t relevant to their business or would have no benefit. Ninety per cent are SMEs.
David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, said: ‘The findings relay a significant message to business: adding value through design brings market confidence and competitive advantage and reduces the need to compete on price. Yet too many SMEs use design badly or not at all. We look forward to next year, when Designing Demand will be available in every region.’
As Designing Demand gathers pace across the UK, almost 1,000 companies have already benefited. Participants have increased sales, boosted profit and turnover, launched new products and services and increased their market share.
Developed by the Design Council and delivered by Regional Development Agencies, Designing Demand works by mentoring CEOs and their management teams in their use of design to turn ideas and technologies into innovative, high-value products, services and communications.
The programme consists of four services to meet the demands of different businesses:
- Designing Demand Workshops: fast-paced and practical one-day workshops showing SMEs what design investment could do for them.
- Designing Demand Generate: a support service to help both established businesses and start-ups identify the right design project for their needs and take it forward.
- Designing Demand Innovate: an intensive support service helping early-stage technology ventures use design to commercialise new technology.
- Designing Demand Immerse: an intensive strategic service for mature businesses, helping them embed design to tackle core business issues and make a lasting impact on performance through up to 18 months of direct support.
Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, said: ‘The UK is a world leader in design and exploiting this creativity will be key to global competitiveness. The continued roll-out of Designing Demand will ensure that UK businesses increasingly use design to add value to their products and services in order to differentiate them in highly competitive markets.’
The Design Council has built up a solid body of evidence proving that design is a key driver of business growth and competitiveness and has the power to transform business strategy, decision-making and practice at every level.
For further information please contact Saskia Sissons at the Design Council on 020 7420 5248 or saskia.sissons@designcouncil.org.uk
1. 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.
2. The Design Council’s Added Value Research 2007 surveyed 503 UK firms of all sizes across all sectors. Forty-three per cent of businesses that used a designer to add value had seen a great impact on competitiveness, compared to 26% of those that don’t use a designer www.designcouncil.org.uk/factfinder
3. Designing Demand is a national design support programme developed by the Design Council and delivered by Regional Development Agencies. It came as a result of the extensive Cox Review of Creativity in Business, published in December ’05, which emphasised that Britain needed to move beyond low-cost manufacture and up the value chain in order to continue to compete globally. One of the key recommendations was for a national programme that helped SMEs understand how creativity and design can boost innovation.
4. Designing Demand is currently running in the South East, the West Midlands, South Yorkshire and the South West. It is being rolled out in the North East later this year; and London, the East Midlands and the rest of Yorkshire early in 2008. The North West and the East of England are scheduled to go live in September 2008. To register go to www.designingdemand.org.uk