Skip to content

Why?

Design drives successful innovation

When people talk about innovation in this decade, they really mean design.

Last October the Centre for Design Innovation commissioned a survey of 405 SMEs from a range of different sectors located in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. The brief of our survey was to examine the relationship between design and innovation and how it correlates to business performance. The primary finding of our survey was that Irish companies that use design experience more success that those that do not. The research also found that companies using design are less risk averse and more likely to be developing new products and services. They are also less likely to be competing on the basis of price. The findings suggest that companies are growing and succeeding because they are innovating and moving. They are not waiting on the challenges of the global economy, they are using design to meet them head on.

Download the full report (PDF, 426KB)

Design, innovation and growth are linked

78% of SMEs that use design brought new products and services to market in the past three years. This compares with just 51% of SMEs not using design. How is this linked to growth? 72% of businesses developing new products and services experienced growth, this is significantly higher than the 56% of businesses that developed no new products or services.

Some use of design is better than others

There is an important distinction to be made between the different levels at which companies use design. The higher the step on the ladder, the more strategic the design implementation within a company. The research tells us that the more strategic the implementation is, the more likely a company is to experience growth in demand for their products and services.

The Design Staircase is a registered trademark of the Danish Design Centre.

As with most research, it raises more questions than it answers. Why when the benefits of design are evident, do Irish SMEs not use design more effectively? We don't know the complete answer to this question. The research suggests a combination of factors, aversion to risk, inadequate support mechanisms and limited design and innovation capability both within companies and nationally. This we do know - in the global context, the Irish economy is becoming less competitive: our ability to differentiate our products and services is declining. How much longer can we ignore the 'design difference' and the value and benefits that it offers?

Innovation requires a particular mindset that involves curiosity, creativity and problem-solving, the ability to continually question established ways of doing things and the ability to apply (the user's) knowledge, insights and intuition to change them.