Edward Ford

Redesigning the Design Process: a Move Towards More Business-oriented Thinking: a Case for an Indian Design Company Edward Ford

The role of design is becoming increasingly important in business and research has shown the positive impact design can have on company performance. Furthermore, as competition intensifies and product life-cycles shorten, there is a greater need for new and innovative products and services. In line with this increase in demand for innovation, there has also been an increase in demand for consulting services that can provide expertise and a fresh perspective. One such company who have noted this trend is Elephant Strategy + Design, one of India's largest design companies. Based on the above, it is the objective of this book to arrive at a design innovation model that will allow companies to help better understand their client and their business environment, to then lead to innovative design solutions, and ultimately business opportunities, through design and design thinking. This book employs an abductive methodology whereby theoretical framework, empirical fieldwork, and case analysis evolve simultaneously as this approach is suitable when developing new models and theories. The empirical fieldwork was conducted over a two month period at Elephant in India.