COVER STORY 41
Apple sold over 2 million iPads in the first 60 days after its launch
Design case study Alessandro Finetto, Director of Global Consumer Design Europe for Whirlpool, on the history of design thinking at the appliance manufacturer
The Dyson Airblade uses 80% less energy than warm air hand driers
The history of Whirlpool in Europe, and in the world, is quite recent, as the decision to become global only came at the beginning of the 90s with the acquisition of the white appliances business from Philips. In order to be a global company it was decided that we needed to have multiple brands in our portfolio that could work locally for different requirements. It was at that time that there was a decision to invest in design in order to create what we call internally a ‘Visual Brand Language’ that can create a consistent style and aesthetics across our brands . Industrial design was then used on a different level in order to put the customer at the centre and to really understand customer needs. After this we started to concentrate on brand evolution over three, four, five years. So it became very important for the company to have a dialogue with designers about what the scenario would be five years from now. And this was the start of ‘design thinking’ at Whirlpool. The people that are part of the design team participate in a review with the CEO of the company about what is going to happen in the next five years. What we have done is to instill an innovation attitude in everybody that works for Whirlpool. We have tools like the Whirlpool Virtual University, so all the employees can follow courses if they want to. Even in the factory you have monthly meetings for educational training of new people, new employees; frequently people of the design team are part of this and they train people in what exploration and research means and how you can do research in your normal every day life by just observing. So we are all on the front line when it comes to transforming ideas to concepts and the concepts to an eventual business case.
However, it is not always easy for businesses to follow the lead of the most successful design-led companies, particularly if they do not understand design in the fi rst place. “Companies who want to be successful with design have to understand the meaning and the value of design, and they need to work with design strategically,” says Zec. “The most important thing for any company is to do their homework in the area of how to install design within the company and they certainly need to have good research and development programmes. Because if they don’t, design cannot help. Design comes on top. But if you already perform well with your technology and if you have your fi nances in order, then design can really make the difference.” However, many companies today have yet to grasp the power of design as a strategic business tool that can be used as a way to increase sales. In fact, in many cases just the opposite is true. Investments in design are all too often misunderstood as expenses and this is what Dr Zec
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23/09/2010 13:12