From the data available in 2008 it was obvious that—with one exception only—no major company in Slovenia has design placed at the strategic level. Research, published as long back as 1989 has shown that to infuse an organisation with design, a design champion is needed. This is the main reason why the design-aware executive is so important.

Because this is the easiest way to infuse an organization with design.

In Slovenia, there are 14 corporations among the top 500 in Central Europe, according to consulting house Deloitte, data from 2008. These corporations are:

• Petrol group on the 41st place;
• Mercator group: 46th place;
• Gorenje group: 134th place;
• Merkur group: 143rd place;
• Revoz: 151st place;
• HSE group: 199th place;
• Lek: 204th place;
• Krka group: 208th place;
• Telekom Slovenije Group: 238th place;
• SIJ: 312th place;
• Engrotuš: 330th place;
• Salbatring: 384th place;
• Impol at 448th place; and
• Eles at 495th place.

There is no serious research needed to know that in these corporations there is no design or design management profile close to boards or CEO-s. In we take for granted the statement from professor Robert Hayes, Harvard Business School, who a few years ago said: “Fifteen years ago, companies competed on price. Today is quality. Tomorrow it’s design.” then we know that tomorrow is today. The design needs to be a continuous process and as such part of any corporate strategy.

How to infuse corporation with the design was in a stylized figure below presented already in 1989 by renowned authors Dumas and Mintzberg. These authors claim that it is much more likely to infuse an organization with design via a design champion than via a function per se, because of its informal nature. And although the reality is much more complex, this is the main reason why the design-aware executive is so important. Design-aware executive is the best design champion who “leaves behind enough feeling for the process, exemplified in the designs that have been executed so that others take up the torch and allow it to permeate all the organization’s activities.” (Dumas&Mintzberg, 1989).

In Slovenia, we had such a case already in 1960s when Davorin Savnik was not only the art director but also an influential consultant of the general manager of Iskra corporation. And Iskra had 35.000 employees in 1970s. My guess is that it was much bigger than all the above-mentioned corporations. Maybe this is the route to be followed?

Sources:
Angela Dumas and Henry Mintzberg. 1989. Managing Design Designing Management. Design Management Journal: 1/1.
Saša Bojc. 2009. Neuvrščeno oblikovanje. Delo: 13.11.2009.
http://www.deloitte.com
more authors in T. Lockwood&T. Walton (ed). 2008. Building Design Strategy: Using Design to Achieve Key Business Objectives.