The role of design in business has gradually expanded beyond merely creating and communicating better products. Design is now being understood by its totality of value-creating activities, and the competencies that span across innovation, product development, marketing and strategic decision-making. Design has moved from historical product and branding functions to formative ideation and coordination of product and processes across all dimensions of organizational value-creation. Design practices rely on engaging with multidisciplinary stakeholder teams responsible for creating sustainable value propositions that ensure the organization’s future. Ensuring an organization’s future requires another emerging practice, that of strategic foresight. The dynamic complexity of business in globally networked markets and partnerships requires product and service design teams to engage fully with foresight scenarios, continual trend scanning, and futures creation. There is a growing awareness that business organizations, regardless of industry or size, are faced with unprecedented uncertainties over social analyses, globalization, and technology revolutions, as observed by the increasing interest in future studies. Indeed, organizations are required to transform themselves, rethink their business models, innovate, and envisage alternative futures in order to adapt their approach to business, and the way they engage with informed and often empowered internal and external stakeholders. The necessity for businesses to transform, just to survive in their business segment, has created new demands for foresight, value co-creation, envisioning, and design research for assessing value for users and markets.

Purpose In what is going to be an uncertain and rapidly evolving global economic landscape, it is clear that firms will have to become more adaptive and responsive to changes within their marketplace. To do this, businesses will not only need to engage in business model experimentation but also look to embrace business model innovation as a core competency and a means for sustained competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines how a design process of experimenting and prototyping can apply to the design of business models through the case study of hypothetical luggage company Packright. Findings Five meta-models with differing foci are illustrated as an accessible and provoking framework that provides a new logic to classifying, experimenting and prototyping business model designs. Practical implications These five meta-models provide a tangible starting point from which a business can begin to explore different perspectives and gain insights into the internal and external capabilities of their company. Originality/value This paper builds upon the emerging research and exploration into the importance and relevance of dynamic, design-driven approaches to the creation of innovative business models.

Industry sectors are typified by their complex, networked, and open nature, characteristics making them well suited to innovation through the application of design. Despite this apparent suitability, there remains little research published specifically regarding the application of design to sector-level strategy formation. This article describes the application of a design-led innovation (DLI) approach to industry transformation strategy. DLI is a design thinking method that integrates deep customer insights into business models, informing organizational transformation and strategy. This article explores the adaptations and challenges that occur when scaling design to a sector in the form of a proposed framework: the Sector Grand Challenge Framework (SGC Framework). This is described through a case study applying the SGC Framework to the development of a food and agribusiness (agrifood) growth and competitiveness strategy in partnership with Food Innovation Australia Limited, an Australian Federal Government Industry Growth Centres initiative. The SGC Framework uses many of the same principles as DLI, scaling this approach to an entire industry sector. This scale exacerbates key challenges observed within a firm, including poor linkages between groups, large and complex stakeholder networks, and lack of unifying purpose or vision.

We present two approaches for addressing complex societal and business problems: frame creation and design led innovation. Both methods combine a broad systems approach to problem solving together with the reframing of problems based on uncovering deep underlying human values and needs. While the practical usefulness and viability of our methods has been established through a series of projects, design methods need evaluative criteria to enable a more formal discussion and assessment of projects. This is particularly important for enabling comparisons across studies, and/or when attempting to communicate the value of design to non-design audience. For this purpose, we suggest articulating the steps of design methods using S.M.A.R.T. criteria from the management literature. We describe the aims, means, and evaluative criteria of each step of our methods, which can be likened to the specific (S) and measurable (M) indices of S.M.A.R.T. Thus, S.M.AR.T. descriptions enable management of projects by means of their own design methods and contribute to establishing sound design innovation methodologies that can eventually be scaled up for large research programs and educational purposes.

This research presents findings of a research project where the first author worked with a small to medium sized enterprise (SME) manufacturing company in order to integrate design at a strategic level within the company. This study aims to identify the changes experienced in the participating company while shifting the perspective of design from a product focus towards a strategic focus. Staff interviews at two points in time and a reflective journal were used as data sources within an action research methodology. A shift in the perspective of design was noted in three cultural changes within the firm over time: a focus on long term as well as short term outcomes, on indirect as well as direct value and on intangible as well as tangible benefits. These three components are proposed as ‘cultural stepping stones’ that describe how a company transitions from an exclusively product- focused utilisation of design, to a process-level application of design. Implications of this research are provided as considerations for businesses that are attempting to facilitate a similar transformation in the future.

This paper presents findings of an embedded action research project within a small to medium sized enterprise (SME). Through the implementation of design-led innovation processes, this research aims to identify the changes experienced in the participating company during a shift in the perspective of design from a product focus towards a strategic focus. Staff interviews and a reflective journal were used as methods to collect data from a range of design interventions that were facilitated throughout the engagement. A shift in perspective of design was evident through three cultural changes within the firm. First, the perceived outcome focus of design became increasingly long-term. Second, the value of design outcomes became less directed towards current projects, and more directed towards future possibilities. Finally, the perceived tangibility of design outcomes shifted from tangible to intangible. For example, design activities which produced customer insights, rather than product features, became seen as beneficial to the firm. These three components are proposed as cultural stepping stones which describe how a company transitions from an exclusively product-focused perspective and utilisation of design towards design as a company based process. Implications of this research provide considerations for designers who are attempting to facilitate a similar transformation within a business in the future.

This chapter focuses on demonstrating the role of Design-Led Innovation (DLI) as an enabler for the success of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within high growth environments. This chapter is targeted toward businesses that may have been exposed to the concept of design previously at a product level and now seek to better understand its value through implementation at a strategic level offering. The decision to engage in the DLI process is made by firms who want to remain competitive as they struggle to compete in high cost environments, such as the state of the Australian economy at present. The results presented in this chapter outline the challenges in the adoption of the DLI process and the implications it can have. An understanding of the value of DLI in practice-as an enabler of business transformation in Australia-is of benefit to government and the broader design community.

In the built environment sector, a range of innovations are delivering environmental improvements with mixed success worldwide. The authors of this paper argue that a more “disruptive” form of innovation is needed to bring about significant and systemic change within the sector. Critical to this transition is the development of new behaviours and values. In particular, built environment professionals need to become active change agents in cultivating these new behaviours and values through the development of collaborative visions, scenarios, practices, and ideas. This paper identifies and discusses the critical role that design (in its broadest sense) can play in this process. Drawing on a comprehensive review of literature, the authors highlight a number of transformational opportunities for cross professional learning and sharing between design and built environment disciplines in achieving environmental innovation (eco-innovation). The paper also considers several design-based concepts that have a potential application in the built environment sector including: design thinking, social innovation (human-centered), and disruptive innovation (transformational) approaches. The research findings will assist in building the capabilities of designers and innovators to create sustainable solutions to global problems, and in supporting the social diffusion of systems-changing ideas in the built environment sector.

Recently many international tertiary educational programs have capitalised on the value design and business can have upon their interception (Martin, 2009; Brown, 2008; Bruce and Bessant, 2002; Manzini, 2009). This paper discusses the role that two teaching units – New Product Development and Design Led Innovation – play in forming an understanding of commercialisation needed in today’s Industrial Design education. These units are taught consecutively in the later years of the Bachelor of Industrial Design program at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. In this paper, each teaching unit is discussed in detail and then as a conglomerate, in order to form a basis of knowledge students need in order to fully capitalise on the value design has in business, and to produce a more capable Industrial Design graduate of the future.

The mining equipment technology services sector is driven by a reactive and user-centered design approach, with a technological focus on incremental new product development. As Australia moves out of its sustained mining boom, companies need to rethink their strategic position, to become agile to stay relevant in an enigmatic market. This paper reports on the first five months on an embedded case study within an Australian, family-owned mining manufacturer. The first author is currently engaged in a longitudinal design led innovation project, as a catalyst to guide the company's journey to design integration. The results find that design led innovation could act as a channel for highlighting and exploring company disconnections with the marketplace and offer a customer-centric catalyst for internal change. Data collected for this study is from 12 analysed semi-structured interviews, a focus group and a reflective journal, over a five-month period. This paper explores limitations to design integration, and highlights opportunities to explore and leverage entrepreneurial characteristics to stay agile, broaden innovation and future-proof through the next commodity cycle in the mining industry.

Constant changes in the global economic environment require companies to revisit traditional assumptions about how businesses create and capture value (Teece, 2010). In recent years, management practice literature has focused largely on better understanding business models and business model innovation (Amit, Zott and Massa, 2010; Johnson, Christensen and Kagermann, 2008). Much has been written on the benefits of linking design and design thinking to organisational strategies and business transformation. However, very little has been researched and reported on regarding the impact of design led approaches to triple bottom-line opportunities such as, social innovation enterprise. In the context of this paper Design Led Innovation is defined as the tools and approaches which enable design thinking to be embedded as an element of cultural transformation within a business. Being Design Led requires a company to have a vision for top line growth founded on deep customer insights and expanded through customer and stakeholder engagements. The outcomes of this are then mapped to all aspects of the business, enabling the vision to be successfully implemented and achieved. It is the latter part of this definition where we believe Design Led Innovation has the greatest value in transforming social innovation enterprise into a sustainable business venture. However, we also acknowledge that enabling these firms to think strategically about their business model is difficult given the unique operational and funding challenges that often characterize many social enterprises. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to pose the question, do sustainable innovation enterprise innovate their business model? And if so, how? It is the authors’ opinion that such enterprises only innovate at the product or system level without a complete understanding of the business model structure, which underpins the long term viability. However, in this paper we challenge this notion and explore if such firms can overcome their size and operational constraints to become sustainable enterprises using a design led approach. This is achieved through contextualizing business model innovation, briefly defining social innovation enterprise and profiling a new and emerging industry in Australia – Clean Technology. Future research challenges and opportunities are also presented.

This paper presents and discusses organisational barriers and opportunities arising from the dissemination of design led innovation within a leading Australian airport corporation. This research is part of a greater action research program which aims to integrate design as a strategic capability through design led innovation within Australian businesses. Findings reveal that there is an opportunity to employ the theoretical framework and tools of design led innovation in practice to build collaborative idea generation by involving customers and stakeholders within the proposal of new to world propositions. The iterative gathering of deep customer insights also provided an opportunity to leverage a greater understanding of stakeholders and customers in strengthening continuing business partnerships through co-design. Challenges to the design led approach include resistance to the exploratory nature of gathering deep customer insights, the testing of long held assumptions and market data, and the disruption of an organisational mindset geared toward risk aversion instilled within the aviation industry. The implication from these findings is that design led innovation can provide the critical platform to allow for a business to grow and sustain internal design capabilities necessary to challenge prevailing assumptions about how its business model operates to deliver value to customers and stakeholders alike. The platform of design led innovation also provides an avenue to support a cultural transformation towards anticipating future needs necessary for establishing a position of leadership within the broader economic environment.

Major changes to regulations, funding and consumer demand in the Australian aged care industry are driving not for profits in this sector to reshape and rethink the services they offer and the ways in which they deliver their services to consumers. Many not for profit organisations facing these new challenges are also facing organisational cultural barriers in the development and implementation of innovative strategies. This paper presents a case study where one organisation, using design led innovation, explored consumer insights and employee values to find new ways to facilitate change.