Designful Company, The: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation

Product Author Bios

Marty Neumeier's professional mission is to "incite business revolution by unleashing the power of design thinking." He does this by writing books, conducting workshops, and speaking internationally about the power of brand, innovation, and design. His bestselling "whiteboard" books include THE BRAND GAP, ZAG, and THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY. His video, MARTY NEUMEIER'S INNOVATION WORKSHOP, combines highlights from all three books into a hands-on learning experience. Marty serves as Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency, and divides his writing time between California and southwest France.

Audio

Listen to our publisher's interview with Marty Neumeier.

Part manifesto, part handbook, THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY provides a lively overview of a growing trend in management—design thinking as a business competence. According to the author, traditional managers have relied on a two-step process to make decisions, which he calls “knowing” and “doing.” Yet in today’s innovation-driven marketplace, managers need to insert a middle step, called “making.” Making is a phase in which assumptions are questioned, futures are imagined, and prototypes are tested, producing a wide range of options that didn’t exist before. The reader is challenged to consider the author’s bold assertion: There can be no real innovation without design. Those who are new to Marty Neumeier’s “whiteboard” series may want to ramp up with the first two books, THE BRAND GAP and ZAG. Both are easy reads.

Covered in THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY:
- the top 10 “wicked problems” that only design can solve
- a new, broader definition of design
- why designing trumps deciding in an era of change
- how to harness the “organic drivetrain” of value creation
- how aesthetics add nuance to managing
- 16 levers to transform your company
- why you should bring design management inside
- how to assemble an innovation metateam
- how to recognize and reward talent

From the back cover:
The complex business problems we face today can’t be solved with the same thinking that created them. Instead, we need to start from a place outside traditional management. Forget total quality. Forget top-down strategy. In an era of fast-moving markets and leap-frogging innovations, we can no longer “decide” the way forward. Today we have to “design” the way forward—or risk ending up in the fossil layers of history. Marty Neumeier, author of THE BRAND GAP and ZAG, presents the new management engine that can transform your company into a powerhouse of nonstop innovation.

Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful Neumeier's most valuable book so far, January 7, 2009 By  Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews             This review is from: The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation (Paperback) Those of us who have read Marty Neumeier's The Brand Gap (2003) and/or Zag (2006) realize that he has a tough act to follow: himself. In these previously published "whiteboard overview" books, he shared his thoughts about the gap "between logic and magic," and then zoomed in to help readers "build a sustainable competitive advantage." He explained how and why, when focus is paired with differentiation, supported by a trend, and surrounded by compelling communications, "you have the basic ingredients of a zag"--in other words, a point of radical differentiation. In his most recent book, Neumeier briefly reviews these and other key ideas before shifting his attention to the challenge of organizing a company for agility by developing a "designful mind": that is, a perspective that enables decision-makers to invent the widest range of solutions for the "wicked problems" now facing their company, their industry, and their world. Neumeier is president of Neutron, a San... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 10 of 13 people found the following review helpful Inspiring and thought provoking., January 24, 2009 By  Alfredo Muccino (san jose) - See all my reviews    This review is from: The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation (Paperback) I find that Marty Neumeier's books (and I will refer to him as Marty, from here on) raise more questions than they provide answers...and it is my experience that they stimulate great professional dialogue and a fair share of stimulating thinking. And "The Designful Company" is no exception. In this book, Marty proposes big ideas in simple words that leave you wanting for more (in a good way). As a branding expert with a career that spans over 25 years in this profession, I have read few books that are more inspiring or thought provoking. The premise of The Designful Company is that in order to gain control of a company's future we need to embrace the practice of design. Of course, in Marty's language "design" is a very powerful transformational tool that does a lot more than just "styling". Instead, Marty's design is about process and people and ideas driven by a desire to improve "performance" not aesthetics. He completely re-designs the idea of design... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 10 of 13 people found the following review helpful A tough sell, but worth a crack . . ., January 11, 2009 By  Robert Holland "quiltchannel.com" (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews       This review is from: The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation (Paperback) Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) Marty Neumeier calls his books "whiteboard overviews" and indeed in format they attempt to avoid long stretches of gray and make their points without elaborate argument or proof. In this book, Neumeier attempts to come at contemporary corporate cultures as they face our breakneck markets, and convince us all that we need to be more creative and innovative. You might say, "Duh." The problem, though, is not that we lack creativity, but that the corporate cultures we build up around innovative products and services soon stifle that creativity in the name of control, power, and ego. Thus the GMs of this world, where new ideas have not been seen since your father's Oldsmobile, are dying under the weight of what they have built. Neumeier's theory sets out the proposition that if we put design (in a broadened definition) at the forefront of our priorities and our processes, we can build companies that can respond to the innovative demands of the culture. This means... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment

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Praise For Designful Company, The: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation

“The first important book of the year. In the tradition of In Search of Excellence and Built to Last, The Designful Company changes the way we think about business. During these challenging times, when doors are shutting all around us, Neumeier’s book opens a big window.”
– Alina Wheeler, author of Designing Brand Identity

"In another short but very sweet book, Neumeier introduces us to the aesthetics of management. The Designful Company makes a great contribution to our understanding of design as a core business competence."
– Roger Martin, Dean of Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and author of The Opposable Mind

"Required reading for addressing 'wicked problems'!"
– Peter Lawrence, Chairman, Corporate Design Foundation

"Design thinking has the potential to stepchange all aspects of innovation in business. When you need a disruption, when market dynamics are changing, when new sources of growth are needed—companies that focus on design have a competitive edge."
– Claudia Kotchka, VP Design Innovation and Strategy for The Procter & Gamble Company

"No filler. No fluff. Marty Neumeier has distilled his message on innovation and design down to just the good stuff. Read the whole book on your next flight, and arrive with fresh insights ready to share."
– Tom Kelley, General Manager of IDEO and author of The Ten Faces of Innovation

"If this is your first Marty Neumeier book, you'll be blown away. Wonderful, fresh content presented as a visual tour de force."
– Garr Reynolds, Management Professor at Kansai Gaidai University, and author of Presentation Zen

"At last! A book that clearly articulates how and why design is absolutely fundamental to the success of business today. Chock-full of great insights."
– Thomas Lockwood, PhD, President of Design Management Institute

"Form follows function? Form is function! In The Designful Company, Marty Neumeier lays out a powerful case that business innovation is a by-product of design thinking. Follow these rules and innovate faster, collaboratively, and continuously."
– John Gerzema, Chief Insights Officer, Y&R, and author of The Brand Bubble

"Neumeier is the only design and brand expert who writes big-idea books filled with practical how-to advice designed to be read on a brief plane ride."
– Jessie Scanlon, Senior Writer for Innovation and Design, BusinessWeek

"In the first half of this book Neumeier presents a good argument for the 'what' and the 'why' of the designful company, and in the second half he gives us a decent prototype for the 'how.' If you don't see that calling it a 'decent prototype' constitutes high praise, you NEED this book."
– Fred Collopy, Professor at Weatherhead School of Management, case Western Reserve University, co-editor of Managing as Designing

Online Sample Chapter

Levers for Change in the Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
PART 1: THE POWER OF DESIGN
_{A NEW DEFINITION OF DESIGN
SIMON SAYS BE A DESIGNER
HOW IS CREATIVE THINKING DIFFERENT?
DESIGNING THE WAY FORWARD
KNOWING, MAKING, AND DOING
THE ORGANIC DRIVETRAIN
THE LADDER OF DESIGN LEVERAGE}
PART 2: THE REBIRTH OF AESTHETICS
_{A LANGUAGE FOR THE SENSES
BEAUTY IN NATURE IS NEVER ARBITRARY
WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN?
DESIGNING IN DEPTH}
PART 3: LEVERS FOR CHANGE
<sub>A FLYWHEEL OF INNOVATION
1. TAKE ON WICKED PROBLEMS
2. WEAVE A RICH STORY
3. BUILD AN INNOVATION CENTER
4. BRING DESIGN MANAGEMENT INSIDE
5. ASSEMBLE A METATEAM
6. COLLABORATE CONCERTINA-STYLE
7. INTRODUCE PARALLEL THINKING
8. BAN POWERPOINT
9. SANCTION SPITBALLING
10. THINK BIG, SPEND SMALL
11. DESIGN NEW METRICS
12. INSTITUTE BRANDED TRAINING
13. LEARN THROUGH ACQUISITION
14. ADD A SEAT TO THE TABLE
15. RECOGNIZE TALENT
16. REWARD WITH WICKED PROBLEMS
A SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED CULTURE
TAKE-HOME LESSONS
WICKED SOLUTIONS
RECOMMENDED READING
 ABOUT NEUTRON
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR</sub>