I was lingering over coffee and the Sunday paper and came across an article/interview by Steve Berg in the Star Tribune titled “Intelligent Design”. A quote from the article:

“On the heels of the Information Age, which seems to have just arrived, come suggestions that we’ve entered a new era, one in which creativity, design, aesthetics and the ability to forge emotional links will drive the American economy.”

The article is about this trend and a short Q&A with Thomas Fisher, dean of the newly formed School of Design at the University of Minnesota. The College of Design encompasses the full range of design disciplines from graphic design, apparel design, and interior design to architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. The college also includes programs in housing studies and retail merchandising. The faculty and students in the college seek to advance the quality and value of the natural, designed, and social environments, with a focus on the interaction of people and their world. (from their website)

In business we’ve spent years using various effiency models such as TQM and Six Sigma to satisfy shareholder’s demands of cost containment and reduction. (full disclosure: I was trained as a Six Sigma Blackbelt at General Electric). We then moved into somewhat delusional territory thinking this efficiency would make employees happier on their jobs as these improvements would remove a fair amount of the mundane from the routine. Finally, as our customers were seeing the billions we saved they asked where their cut was. So, we started applying Six Sigma to customer interactions. Sounds OK so far, right? Efficiency, happy shareholders, happy employees, happy customers. Giving people what they want. Everybody’s happy!

“Look at our cities. Engineers have designed them for efficiency, but they are incredibly inefficient, even dysfunctional. They are like obstacle courses for people.” — Thomas Fisher, dean of the University of Minnesota’s School of Design.

Places Empower People

The writer of the article, Steve Berg, observed upon returning from Europe that America appears “overweight, badly dressed, defeated, and not much impressed by good design.” Mr. Fisher’s response, “For much of history, places empowered people…But in the 20th century we stopped making places that were meaningful…”.

Indeed. From homogenous suburban houses (you can have it any way you want as long as you like beige) and American car design (still competing on price…hello!) to office cubicals and khaki-clad “business casual” clothing, we are accepting efficiency over design. Why?

Efficiency of Systems v. Compatibility with People

Our friends at Starbucks have hit this particular wall. Founder and Chairman Howard Schultz remarked recently in an internal memo to starbucks exeutives that a drive for efficiency has led to a ”watering down of the Starbucks experience.” (New York Times 02/24/07). In a move to create efficency, Starbucks has removed significant parts of the experience for customers: real espresso machines and coffee ground fresh in each store. The aroma of fresh ground coffee is (was?) one of the strongest emotional brand connections available. Gone. (Janet Adamy of the Wall Street Journal has a great synopsis of the memo in her article dated 02/24/07)

Dick Hallstein, managing partner of The Consulting Partners taught me more about consulting in an hour than anyone has in years. He cautions us to, “spend some time on the balcony” looking at ourselves as our customers and non-customers do. We may not like what we’ve become. This isn’t about thinking our customers should be excited and pay a premium because we get their invoice right every time.  This is about inherent, and at times unexpected, value to our customers.

The Chicken/Egg Question

Are American consumers really asking for this bland ’stuff’? Or, with vast prosperity afoot, we are just taking what we’re given? Are we really a “Walmart Nation”, or one that appreciates the value of design?

Good news is that we have a choice: vote with our dollars, the strongest voice we have.

Joe Raasch :: Mar.05.2007 :: Innovation :: No Comments »