“The microbe is nothing; the milieu is everything.”
Pasteur, only late in life, recognized that disease severity stems not just from a pathogen, but from the conditions in which it evolves. The core insight is this: health, whether for organisms or organizations, depends more on the environment than on isolated threats. To affect health, the focus must shift from singular agents to the system as a whole.
more…Many creatives believe that, due to AI, design tasks are shifting from manual work to cognitive work. And this shift is in a specific direction: from less reflective to more predictive.
more…Design is a topic on everyone’s mind and will remain so in the coming years. According to the dictionary, the word originally comes from the Latin verb designare, meaning “to mark out, point out, devise, choose, designate, or appoint”. Additionally, it has roots in signare, meaning “to mark,” from signum, meaning “identifying, marking, or sign.” French adopted both these senses from Italian in different forms and passed them to English, which uses the term in all senses. It has been used since the 1540s to mean “to plan or outline, form a scheme,” and since 1703 to mean “to contrive for a purpose.” The transitive sense of “draw the outline or figure of,” especially for a proposed work, appears from the 1630s, while the meaning “plan and execute, fashion with artistic skill” dates from the 1660s. The intransitive sense of “do original work in a graphic or plastic art” goes back to 1854. Initially, design was all about devising, and the artistic aspect of signing or drawing was incorporated later on.
more…“The purpose of a business is to create and maintain a customer.” This quote is how Peter Drucker once summed up the purpose of a business. Although this saying has fallen out of fashion in some circles, it still holds: business focuses not on creating a product or service but on building close relationships between people and the company. Only when the service is used can a business be considered a business. So, everything that happens before that is, in the truest sense of the word, “advance payment” and, therefore, not yet a business.
more…When does a musician decide whether they prefer to perform or to compose? Is it a decision of the head or the gut, or do genetics determine which path the musician takes? The fact is that, with a few exceptions, they will either take one direction or the other. It is also a fact that most musicians will make a living as performers.
more…Last year I was invited to talk at a great conference in Slovenia. My Keynote: The role of design innovation in facing business and societal challenges. Check it out!
The designer and podcaster Sebastian Gier asked me some intriguing questions on design, business, purpose and meaning. Luckily he recorded our conversation! I think it’s one of the best podcasts so far and it reveals some insight into how design and business can come together in a meaningful way.
A long, deep interview that Arne van Oosterom recorded with we, about being in bubbles, being between sides and going into industrial design, to pick up a career at Philips. And a lot about Philips!
more…Balance is a state that people perceive as an ideal of particular attractiveness. If something is evenly distributed and in balance, we attach a high value to it. Equilibrium of forces, of markets, of forms and structures, of opinions or even of values in themselves, is something “beautiful”. It is not without reason that Justicia carries a scale to ensure that the facts can be weighed in balance and therefore be just.
more…A recording of my speech at the TIDE conference, January 2018. A short introduction to what Design Thinking is, and how it is best enabled in organizations!
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