Using design helps businesses compete on value rather than price - and it helps them set the pace in crowded markets. Using design throughout your business ultimately boosts the bottom line by helping you create better products and services that compete on value rather than price.

Design helps businesses connect strongly with their customers by anticipating their real needs. That in turn gives companies the ability to set themselves apart in increasingly tough national and international markets.

Using design both to generate new ideas and turn them into reality allows businesses to set the pace in their markets and even create new ones rather than simply responding to the competition.

Evidence

There is compelling evidence that businesses which use design perform better. Design Council research found that while 90% of businesses which are growing rapidly say design is integral or significant to them, only 26% of static companies say the same.

As well as increasing market share, using design can help to reduce costs by making manufacturing processes more efficient and cutting materials costs. It can also reduce the time to market new products and services. It is significant that while a third of the UK's fastest growing companies surveyed by the Design Council in 2005 see design as integral to their running, only 11 per cent of shrinking firms say the same. Also, almost 70 per cent of companies which see design as integral have developed new products and services in the last three years, compared to only a third of businesses overall.

Lasting success

Steady investment in, and commitment to design is rewarded by lasting competitiveness rather than isolated successes. Proof of that comes in the results of a Design Council study of the share prices of UK-quoted companies over the last ten years. The research found that a group of companies recognised as effective users of design outperformed key FTSE indices by 200%.

The 63 companies, grouped into a 'Design Portfolio' on the basis of their high level of success in numerous design award schemes, did substantially better than their peers in both the bull and bear markets between 1994 and 2003, the period covered by the study.

Article reproduced from the design council website