Denmark is probably the first country that established a design strategy for the whole country. They even realized what went wrong with their first try-out. So, does it make any sense to have a design strategy for the whole country?

This was the concluding part of my presentation competing at the WBPC10.

In corporations, the boards know the least about design. It’s not to blame them. But in the countries where design is taken seriously that could be a problem. That’s why a Danish Design Center offered in-service training to help board members and CEOs become design aware. This training of design management with a high level of personal coaching aimed at executives is part of Denmark‘s national design strategy. And Denmark was one of the first countries to develop and accept a national design policy in 1997 and then redeveloped it in 2003.

Not only because of above mentioned Denmark case it is my strong belief that only by developing and implementing design strategies, but corporations and national economies will also be able to develop:
+ a sustainable competitive advantage.

So, does it has any sense to prepare a design strategy for the whole country? There should be no doubt about it. In Slovenia there was a let’s say post festum proposition that design should be at the core of once a textile giant and today almost bankrupt Mura. The proposition was that Mura would need to have around 500 fashion designers if it would want to be competitive with 3.000 people employed. I guess even today nobody takes that kind of proposition seriously. Not in the corporations and not in the countries as such. There are exceptions, like Denmark. They know why.

Sources:
M. Tajnikar, K. Pušnik. 2009, September, Delo: Mura ni reka, je podjetje. Reševanje tekstilnega giganta.