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Review of Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Mark Blyth explains through a very interesting examination of intellectual and natural history the idea of austerity. A very dangerous idea, indeed, that affects us all. Throughout the book, Blyth shows that there is not a single case of the country that would succeed in reducing its debt or solving

My abstract got accepted to the 9th STS Italia Conference

My abstract, titled Assessment of the geostrategic position and use of the TEN_T and branch railway lines in Slovenia and its border regions, got accepted to the 9th STS Italia Conference. Theme of the conference is Interesting Worlds to come. Science & Technology Studies facing more-than-human chal

Review of James Lovelock, The ages of Gaia: A biography of our living earth

Review by Marko Savić of the James Lovelocks's book The ages of Gaia: A biography of our living earth. Lovelock's second edition of The ages of Gaia is a response to the criticism of his Gaia theory, to the recognition of which he had to wait for 36 years. As a proud independent scientist, Lovelock

Review of Mikael Colville-Andersen, Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism

Review by Marko Savić of the Mikael Colville-Andersen's book Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism. A modern view of urban spaces where significantly more space should be allocated to bicycles (again). It is not a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, in ter

Review of Wiebe E. Bijker, Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change

Bijker was, according to his own statement in the book, drawn to the science-technology-society (STS) movement already back in the 1970s. The book itself was published in 1995 by the MIT Press. While Bikers was drawn to the STS movement because of its goal to “enrich the curricula of both universiti

Review of Gilbert Rist, The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith

The first thing that caught my attention was its title. Why the history of ‘development’, why not a history of ‘sustainable development’, that is such a buzzword these in last decades. After reading this book, I’m actually convinced that my subject at the doctoral program should use the word ‘develo

Review of Kjell Nordstrom, Funky Business Forever: How To Enjoy Capitalism

The mission of this book, for which it is really hard to say that it is only a business book, is to: "make a difference in shaping organizations and leaders who consider broader responsibilities than the balance sheet." According to authors, to achieve a funky organization we must have the gifts an

Review of Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow is the book of the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. My rating of the book is 4 out of 5 stars. Short review presents the psychodrama with the two characters, Sistem 1 and Sistem 2. Book shows us, that it’s easier to recognize other people’s mistake than our own, among ma

Decision making in the software and product design and sustainable innovation: Introduction to the theory of decisions

Background Decisions seems to be the key not only to software and product design but to the prosperity of the whole nations. Why poor nations “get it wrong” was the questions that Robinson and Acemoğlu asked to explain the world inequality. They realised that economics needs “to un

It’s better to kill your current business model by yourself, than waiting to be netfliexed

Be aware of the netlixed threat. Netfliexed means to cause disruption or turmoil to an existing business model. If your leadership isn't doing it, someone else will seize the opportunity.

Luka Madjar’s testimonial from the business models design with Consensus

"At the workshop I felt good. It was a 100 % offset of the daily work routine. After this workshop, I was clearer about the potential application of the business model generation method."

How great leaders inspire action?

Golden circle is a pattern discovered by Simon Sinek why some leaders and organizations they lead consistently outperform others. It consists of three circles where the first is, Why you are doing what you are doing; the second is How you do what you do; and the third is What you do.

Why are the design innovations highly successful? Nintendo example

Design and innovation go hand in hand with the financial performance of organizations. Confirmed in the report from the UK's Design Council that design oriented firms in all kinds of industries have outperformed their more-traditional peers. A short example of this is presented with Nintendo's focus

Why can children be better at building a tower (or business model) as directors?

How is it possible that children, who have just completed kindergarten are able to build a tower higher than students of business schools? In the game, everything is possible. Very popular game "spaghetti challenge" shows the value and importance of prototypes, which are a key components of design t

How to solve the transportation problem in the third world?

What is it that people in the third world really need? How to solve the transportation problem in the third world? Tata has set the right questions and solve the problem of transport with the successful development of the first true low-priced car in the world.

What is the difference between being a designer and thinking like a designer?

What is the difference between being a designer and thinking like a designer?? Is every designer already a design thinker? And how come that everybody could be a design thinker? Where is therefore the role of design as such?

Review of Ken Robinson The Element: A New View of Human Capacity

Ken Robinson in the book The Element: A New View of Human Capacity by Ken Robinson explains that lucky people tend to: + maximize chance opportunities; + listen to their intuition; + expect to be lucky; + have an attitude that allows them to turn bad luck to good; + know how they are intelligent. B

How insurgent organizations capture values? Public presentation at the open stage of DMY International Design Festival in Berlin (in German)

A short 20-minutes version of my lecture on how organizations capture value will be presented at the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin. On Sunday, June 10th at 14: hours.

How to use the Business Model Canvas in a larger firm?

What is worth remembering from the post Business Model Analysis & the Link to Strategy on using Business Model Canvas in large organizations. And lessons learned from why not pick a little bit from different business models to the use of multiple business models and strategic decisions.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,400 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out perfo

Review of Alexander Osterwalder, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

The Business model generation book is based on the Business model canvas. It's a method easy to use and available for free.

Review of Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More is the book of the former Wired Editor in Chief, Chris_Anderson. This book had the major influence on the Google's business model. My rating of the book is 4 out of 5 stars.

Review of Peter Merholz, Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World

Most reports and presentations aren’t effective ways to help others develop empathy. This is one of the many interesting insights from this book. Merholz even developed the Wilkens’ law.

Brand Perfect Tour in Hamburg

I will take at the event that is going on under the slogan: Think Thank&Design Master Classes. Get INVOLVED!, in Hamburg on June 14th, 2011. It is a gathering for brand managers, designers, and developers. There will be an exchange of strategies and technologies, joint by brand consistency in di

Review of Kristina Halvorson, Content Strategy for the Web

Well, Halvorson said that if you or your organisation has a website, then you are a publisher but I guess my claim could also hold in this web 2.0 times (or are we already 3.0?). One other thing to keep in mind is that this is not a book about web writing. It’s about content strategy – for the web.

Global Service Jam 2011 Rotterdam

They say that at this event we are going to design, develop and present a brand new service in just 48 hours. My master plan or my big idea is: automatic production of designed business, academic and financial reports. So I’m quite curious what will be the ideas from other members of the GSJ11

Why is this blog into design innovations now?

“Studies have shown that design-oriented firms in all kinds of industries have outperformed their more-traditional peers—that design and innovation go hand-in-hand with financial success.” —Design Council At highly driven design companies they have a differentiation strategy where design

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever. Crunchy numbers   A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 8,

And the winner is?

Yes, I was participating in the World’s Best Presentation Contest by Slide Share. I was going for a victory but that didn’t happen. :) Not even a victory in the category where I was competing in – business. I’m still very proud of the presentation I made completely by myself.

Does it have any sense to prepare a design strategy for the whole country?

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?

How to connect design management with your corporate culture?

Design Ladder is a model where companies are classified into four categories, depending on their use of design.

Why is it important to bring design closer to business?

Design itself will has to become a strategic partner of business because vice versa is not going to happen.

What is design strategy?

A design strategy follows a little different path than the technology adoption curve that follows a normal distribution. We differentiate between six different design strategies: : + Endorse; + Curate; + Integrate; + Economize; + Play; and + Refresh. Following these design strategies organisations b

What is the corporate identity audit? Why is it important?

This post was part of my presentation competing at the WBPC10. What is the corporate identity audit? Why is it important? Corporate design is the most visible part of corporate identity. And the corporate design is by definition an instrument for transformation and, at the same time, a guarantee of

Can we compare a football team positions with the development of a brand architecture?

A brand architecture is a system of putting the players in the right positions. Similarly as goes for the football team.

Similarities and differences between a corporate identity, a corporate image, and a corporate reputation?

Corporate identity is as a whole presented in a circle consisting of: + corporate design, + corporate communications, and + corporate behaviour.

Short case of design standards in Slovenia and Germany

In Slovenia there is a special situation where design as business is put together with arranging and decorating and the English translation of it is: “special design activities”.

Presentation of this blog’s thesis is competing at the World’s best presentation contest

From the October 07, 2010, 11:59 Pacific Time to the November 08, 2010, 09:59 Pacific time the presentation that was made from this blog’s masters thesis is competing at the World’s best World’s best presentation contest ’10 by SlideShare. Here is the link to the presentation

Master of Science in Business Administration

So, this blog is heading in new directions. I have been awarded a certificate (until the issue of the original degree is handed over) that says my new title (because I’ve already finished one MA) is: Master of Science in Business Administration. I completed the master’s degree program on

Masters thesis presentation

The masters thesis of this blog—titled Corporate Design Strategy and Branding: the role of Design Management in developing the Corporate Identity—was presented at the Faculty of Economics on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 11:00 CET in the small conference room P-201.

Defending the thesis – date

The thesis of this blog - Corporate Design Strategy and Branding: The Role of Design Management in Developing the Corporate Identity - will be defended on Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 at the Economic Faculty in Ljubljana, eleven o'clock CET.

Why is design thinking important for every business?

Design thinking is knowing without reasoning and as such is the most disruptive and unsystematic form of thinking. By definition, design thinking is the productive combination of analytical thinking and intuitive thinking. But design thinking will be effective in your company only if strategic p

Master’s Thesis in Short

The thesis The Corporate Design Strategy and Branding: The Role of Design Management in developing the Corporate Identity has: + 76 pages, + 26 figures, and + 6 tables. It was successfully defend in September 2010. It consist of four main chapters on: four chapters on: + corporate identity, + brandi

Review of Connie Dieken, Talk Less, Say More: Three Habits to Influence Others and Make Things Happen

I bought this book because I was many times in situations where I start talking and then there are some problems in stopping me. So the title seemed perfect for me. And although I thought this is going to be one of those motivational books, where you think, yeah right but this is not for me. In this

(Design) Strategy of a Non-Profit Organization

The Project H Design is based on 6 guiding principles, or we could call it also a design strategy. #1 We design through action. #2 We design systems not stuff. #3 We design with, not for. #4 We start locally and scale globally. #5 We document, share, and measure. #6 We build. Such a progressive desi

Literature (updated)

Aaker, D. A. & Joachimsthaler, E. 2000a. The Brand Relationship Spectrum: The Key to the Brand Architecture Challenge. California Management Review: 42/4, p. 8-23. Aaker, D. A. & Joachimsthaler, E. 2000b. Brand Leadership. 2000. The Free Press. 350 p. Abdullah, R. 2007. Marken für internatio

Puma’s new packaging

What are our claims in Corporate Identity and Branding development?

 We are able to support the thesis that there is clear connection between the corporate identity and brand architecture. In our opinion the brand architecture is a precondition for a process of the development of the corporate identity to start.    We are able to confirm that design management is no

Future Design Professionals

There was a prediction of future design professionals, back in 2004, who will be: intelligent “makers”, active learners and communicators, active citizens, and sustainable entrepreneurs.   These design professionals were to work in sustainable economies and corporate environments that are concerned

In House vs. Out of House Design? What to use in Corporate Identity and Branding Development?

For design as such, we know that there are some advantages of outsourcing design, such as: the breadth of experience, objective opinion, bringing challenging perspectives for problem solving, and producing focused solutions. An in-house design team advantages are: that they are active stakeholders i

A Short Introduction to the Steps of the Corporate Identity Audit

Corporate design is an instrument for transformation and, at the same time, a guarantee of continuing corporate recognition (Van Cauwenberge, 2008). And that could be developed only if the proper corporate identity audit has been made. A corporate identity audit has been developed in 9 steps. These

What are the Laws of Corporate Design in developing Corporate Identity? How to approach to Corporate Design?

There are some proposals from different authors. It seems that the proposals depend on the point of view of the authors. If authors write from the perspective of corporate consultants, then they develop a rough process that uses the business language and it should appeal to the boards of the corpora

How to convince your Corporation that Design is of Strategic Importance?

The first thing that design should be able to do is to clearly articulate the value it is offering. And if the intention for design is to become strategic, then it is important to be able to articulate the strategic value of design. How to achieve the strategic level of design? Important is to know

Design Profiles

In design we are able to name almost 40 career profiles. Human resource expert and author, Roz Goldfarb, explains that not necessarily all of these profiles are from design schools, but they definitely have an important role to play in the design process.

Design Ladder

Design ladder is a concept or better to say a method that Danish Design Center (DDC) developed to measure the level of design activity adopted by a company. It has four stages:+ no use of design;+ design as styling;+ design as a process, and+ design as strategy. Out of that DDC developed two special

Review of Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability is a must read book of Steve Krug for all who are in any way connected to web usability of web pages, sites, blogs... My rating of the book is 5 out of 5 stars.

Design Strategy’s and Economy

Presentation on design strategies and economy. In Slovene. To be presented to the Marketing Society Slovenia.

The Designer Career Path

Various studies have shown that designer usually only parts of their professional work really do as designers. That fact alone gives a lot of possibilities to develop a career for designers and design managers alike.

How will Design become a Way of Life in your Organization?

“Champions may push from above, policies may sit off to one side, programs tend to be temporary and functions isolated, whether leading or lagging. In contrast, design as infusion works alongside, and especially within other functions. Managers whose responsibilities touch design do not merely accep

Why is Design-Aware Executive extremely important for any Organization?

From the data available in 2008 it was obvious that no major company in Slovenia has design placed at the strategic level.

How to present the importance of Design Strategy to your CEO?

By using a simple model it's possible to visualize strategic design thinking in order to establish effective communication to a leadership of a mayor company.

Design Thinking as an Approach. Design is getting Big Again. via Tim Brown

Trends that recognised Design as a Core Competency in Creating a Sustainable Corporate Advantage

Trends, according to the Joziasse, that caused the design to go beyond mere aesthetics and/or decoration in becoming a source for gaining sustainable competitive advantage was supposed to be: design as a core competency; integration of design into the business world; design management and planning a

Methodologies that enable Strategy Development

There are decades of investments in helping corporations throughout the world to develop a sustainable corporate and/or business strategy. In modern times many authors, among them Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad, and Gary Johnson and Kevan Scholes suggest that defining core compe

Reviews of Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

Really interesting to find out that this book has only 60 small pages. I don’t know what I actually expected but this was a nice surprise. In the book, there is some really good advice. To remember from this book, in my opinion, is: successful careers are not planned. … But naturally one has to be

Design Management Staircase

How to connect the strategy, design strategy and design management? Simply focusing on design and trying to connect it with the strategy is not supposed to create good results. There was a model developed to show that companies are to focus on design management rather than simply on the use of desig

Design Strategy and the BCG Product Portfolio

Borja de Mozota has developed a classical method of Boston Consulting Group—product portfolio—for the use in design. The matrix could be the basis for a company to develop a design strategy.

Schools kill creativity, says sir Ken Robinson

If interested here’s the same speech in an animated form:

Skills necessary for the design manager and the design leader

The design manager should be able to manage: design people, design budgets, design timetables, design work, design organizations.   It is obvious that it is a wide range of complex skills, especially if we consider that design managers are often supposed to be the design leaders too. A design leader

The scope of design management

Design management practitioners’ are, among others also: design department managers, brand managers, creative directors, design directors, heads of design, design strategists, and design researchers, as well as managers and executives responsible for making decisions about how design is used in the

Designers and managers working together

There is a general opinion—not only in the design community—that non designers make design decisions every day. Designers do tend to see this as an attack to their profession. And while the mutual suspicions between managers and creative teams exists, there is a possibility to find a suitable mana

Portfolio management

The process of portfolio management has developed from Boston Consulting Group matrix of “Stars, Cows, Children and Dogs” and is a continuous activity (Davidson, 2002, p. 29). Branding authors have developed their own system of Strategic Brand, Linchpin brand, Silver Bullet, and Cash Cow Brands (Aak

Brand portfolio and architecture on the case of football

In the process of designing the brand architecture sometimes only identifying the brands and subbrands could be a nontrivial task (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000, p. 134). There is a famous picture that presents the brand architecture as a football team, presented in Figures 1 and 2. The football pi

Review of Marty Neumeier, The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation

The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation is a book by Marty Neumeier. My rating of the book is 4 out of 5 stars. Part manifesto, part handbook, it's a lively overview of a growing trend in management design thinking as a business competence.

Historical development of design management in short

What is brand architecture?

Brand architecture should have five dimensions: brand portfolio, portfolio roles product-market context roles, the portfolio structure, and portfolio graphics.   While we know five dimensions there are six objectives to be followed if the designed brand architecture is to achieve an effective and po

Design management definition

What is the difference between design leader, design manager and designer. The first one is supposed to set the design vision, the design manager is responsible for the design process, procedures in internal functions, while the latter is to design the content.

Corporate vs. Line Branding

I presented What the brand architecture is in one of the posts. Similar models of brand relationships spectrum have been presented by others too. In one simple model, in the figure below, we have the spectrum of strong and weak corporate endorsement positions. Source: Devlin, James. 2003. Brand Arch

The brand architecture audit

What is brand architecture audit?

Why is the brand architecture needed?

Every brand manager should be familiar with four basic strategies and nine sub-strategies of brand architecture. With brand architecture companies specify the brands roles and the nature of relationships between brands. The brand relationship spectrum is a tool that offers companies to design a new

Methods to reveal the corporate identity

Van Riel and Balmer have presented three methods to reveal the actual corporate identity. Affinity audit that is using the principles of ethnography. Laddering technique which relies on means and interviews resulting in Hierarchial Values Maps. There is also the Rotterdam Organizational Identificati

Why corporate design should be viewed as a investment?

It would be an honour if I would be the author of that answer but I’m not. Rennat Van Cauwenberge, General Manager/Managing Partner from Gramma in the article Corporate design instrument for change, wrote: “Above all, corporate design is an instrument for transformations and, at the same time, a gua

Every design cost should include the cost for the rights of use

Letters of agreement/offers/contracts/invoices in design business should always be separated in two parts. First part of the offer should be the cost of layout/design development of the agreed solution. The second part of the offer are the costs of the rights of use.

Design proposals, client and design brief, profitable pricing in design

What is design proposal, the difference between client and project brief, and design brief. Lastly how to set the price of a single design team member.

Design definitions

"Design is an activity involving a wide spectrum of professions in which products, services, graphics, interiors, and architecture all take part." (ICSID)

The Stratchclyde Statement

Strathclyde statement was developed by academics from the Strathclyde, Erasmus, and Harvard Business Schools and leading consultants and tries to define the corporate identity.

Literature

Literature of the master thesis by Marko Savić, Corporate Design Strategy and Branding: the Role of Design Management in Developing the Corporate Identity.

The structure of the thesis

Structure of the thesis by Marko Savić, Corporate Design Strategy and Branding: the Role of Design Management in Developing the Corporate Identity.