I. Welcome to the Age of “Ohmygod!”

1. Distinct … or Extinct:Design = Differentiator #1DMI25:Design-Based Leadership in the 21st CenturyChatham 25October2000

2. THE BASE CASE: I am a design fanatic. Personally, though not “artistic,” I’m a cool-stuff guy. I love what I love and I hate what I hate. [Openly.] But it goes [much] further, far beyond the personal. Design has become a professional obsession. I - SIMPLY – BELIEVE THAT DESIGN PER SE IS THE PRINCIPAL REASON FOR EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT [or detachment] RELATIVE TO A PRODUCT OR SERVICE OR EXPERIENCE. Design, as I see it, is arguably the #1 determinant of whether a product-service-experience stands out … or doesn’t. Furthermore, it’s “one of those things” … that damn few companies put – consistently – on the front burner.

3. I. Welcome to the Age of “Ohmygod!”

4. NOW THAT’S B-I-G!“The period 2000-2002 will bring the single greatest change in worldwide economic and business conditions since we came down from the trees.”David Schneider & Grady Means, MetaCapitalism

5. “The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and financially, yes, but not structurally and economically.”Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)

6. Message: Everybody’s scrambling. Nobody’s “got it right.”

7. II. The 3B Problem:BetterButBoring!

8. Quality Not Enough!“While everything may be better, it is also increasingly the same.”Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,” The New York Times

9. “We make over three new product announcements a day. Can you remember them? Our customers can’t!”Carly Fiorina

10. “The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similarpeople, with similar educational backgrounds, working in similar jobs, coming up with similarideas, producing similar things, with similarprices and similarquality.”Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,Funky Business

11. Message: Find an edge. Or else.

12. III. We Must Lead: Different or Doomed!

13. “If you worship at the throne of the voice of the customer, you’ll get only incremental advances.”Joseph Morone, President, Bentley College

14. “These days, you can’t succeed as a company if you’re consumer led – because in a world so full of so much constant change, consumers can’t anticipate the next big thing. Companies should be idea-led and consumer-informed.”Doug Atkin, partner, Merkley Newman Harty

15. “Our strategies must be tied to leading edge customers on the attack. If we focus on the defensive customers, we will also become defensive.”John Roth, CEO, Nortel

16. Message: You are paid to lead. So … lead!

17. IV. Design: The No.1 Source of PassionateAttachment!(Or undying despair)

18. Design “is” … WHAT & WHY I LOVE. LOVE.

19. I LOVEmy ZYLISS Garlic Peeler!

20. Design “is” … WHY I GET MAD. MAD.

21. Wanted: Dead [preferably] or Alive: THE DESIGNER OF MY RADIO SHACK PHONE. Major Reward!

22. Design is neverneutral.

23. Hypothesis:DESIGN is the principaldifference between love and hate.

24. Message: Engage your Client in an examination- exploration of why we care about stuff. Or don’t.

25. V. Design is the Plot of a Great Story!

26. “Car designers need to create astory. Every car provides an opportunity to create anadventure. …“The Prowler makes yousmile. Why? Because it’s focused. It has aplot, a reason for being, apassion.”Freeman Thomas, co-designer VW Beetle; designer Audi TT

27. Hmmmm(?): “Only” Words …StoryAdventureSmile FocusPlotPassion

28. PlotWilliams Sonoma = 5 [was 10]Crate & Barrel = 8Sharper Image = 9+Smith & Hawken = 8+Garnet Hill = 9L.L. Bean = 4 [was 9+]Colonial Williamsburg = ?

29. Message: “What’s the plot?” is a compelling exercise!

30. VI. Great Design is Respectful

31. “Sometimes I have episodes of wild fury in rental cars. It’s not road rage. It’s more like design rage.”Susan Casey, www.ecompany.com

32. User …STOP BLAMING YOURSELF!(Don Norman/Design of Everyday Things)

33. Message: Work on Awareness. Start a Notebook!

34. VII. Design is not about Lumps!

35. The I.D. [International Design] Forty*Airstream … Alfred A. Knopf … Apple Computer …Amazon.com… Bloomberg… Caterpillar …CNN… Disney…FedEx… Gillette … IBM …Martha Stewart… New Balance …Nickelodeon… Patagonia …The New York Yankees… 3M … Etc. * List No. 1, 1999

36. Lady Sensor, Mach3, and …$70M on developing the OralB CrossAction toothbrush23 patents, including 6 for the packagingSource: www.ecompany.com [06.00]

37. TARGET … “the champion of America’s new design democracy” (Time)

38. Message: Design applies to (1) service companies, (2) departmental affairs, (3) 79-cent items.

39. VIII. Design is the Web!

40. Web =PURE DESIGN MEDIUM

41. “Most companies would do more business on the Internet if they fired their entire marketing department and replaced it with people who could produce interactive content that actually made it easier for users to buy.”Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group

42. Red Herring (01/00)75% of online shoppers don’t complete their purchase!

43. SWASimple!!!!!!!!!!!!(customers call because the process is so easy they can’t believe they’re done)30% of revenues directly from site(vs. 6% for others)Source: Business Week (09.00)

44. Message: The Web is the No. 1entrée for designers into the mainstream!

45. IX. Caution!

46. Message: All the “cool stuff” looks [exactly] like all the other “cool stuff” in this, THE BRIGHT NEW AGE OF DESIGN.

47. “Against Smoothness”(Harper’s Magazine 07.2000)

48. Message: Buy a new CAD package. Or a set of pencils.

49. X. Design & Work: W.W.P.F.

50. White Collar Revolution!