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, in balance, then 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 with which she can ensure that the facts can be weighed – in balance, and therefore 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!
more…Businesses are re-discovering the customer! After years of inward focussed, efficiency-driven business doing, where the bottom line is a result of a business’ savviness, rather than of customers’ engagement, the focus now is shifting. With companies like Apple and Nike thriving on the dedication of their devoted and happy-spending customers, others want to follow suit. The question remains how to grow a customer base as loyal and motivated as the one of Apple: loyalty is not enough, customers also need to spent and motivate others to do the same! more…
How can we prove that an investment in design correlates, or even causes, an increase in stock value? Marty Neumeier recently tweeted: „It seems to me that design investment is a leading indicator of higher profit margins and stock prices. Need to prove!“ more…
Organizations are not that different from us, human beings: both are organisms that – as long as they are nourished properly – can survive for a substantial amount of time. Likewise, if you want to make them more attractive, you dress them up; if you want to put them in a competition, you make sure they are lean and fit; and if you want them to be happy, you make sure that they have a purpose. more…
As there was something important to discus, my colleague took me „to catch some fresh air“: for me it was just fresh air, for him the same, but compounded with the heavy fume of a filterless Gauloises.
Soon after we had reached the terrace, the smoke started to penetrate in small cloudlets from his nose and mouth: the clear predictor of an imminent eruption! more…