Book Review - Design of Business

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage

By Roger L. Martin

ISBN-13: 978-1422177808

Retail: $26.95

By Tony Deblauwe

The great divide between the practical operational demands of business and the more “loose” work of creativity and innovation comes together in the well structured, and logical flow of thought in Design of Business. The book builds it’s premise on the idea of thought stages that businesses go through – a knowledge funnel – that seeks to move the questions of what a business is trying to do down to an algorithm that has repeatable results. The challenge surrounds how individuals move back and forth in the funnel and keeping pace with a predictable structure, but always leaving room for the what could be.

The “camps” of thought are well defined by those who cling to the comfort zones of proven algorithms and process (reliability) and those who focus on visualizing what could be and are less worried about the trifles it takes to get there (validity). Martin outlines the cultural norms within organizations and the constraints they apply to bridge the Yin and Yang of design thinking whether its financial structures (what do we track and why), reward systems (can failure be the intent and therefore the reward?) and other day-to-day key operations that focus purely on rational elements and squeeze out any variance.

The overlap between analytical and intuitive thinking is where design thinking lives. Martin proves the existence of such a “happy medium” with Proctor and Gamble’s R&D approach which was an initiative that did things differently by using outside innovators to integrate in with existing design teams. It helped to shake things up, build a network of knowledge, and catapult earnings and new product designs.

Martin offers several methods to bring design thinking into organizations. Practically speaking, the techniques focus heavily on negotiation and clarifying potential outcomes that satisfy some of the reliability needs without crushing the validity orientation. As a guide to help cultures in organizations, Martin’s guidance emphasizes the need for proof in endeavors – both from the perspective of taking a risk on something uncomfortable, but also the room to make calculated failures that don’t completely disrupt the business. It’s the classic tolerance scheme for trial and error and Martin’s proposal helps this conversation.

While the battle of thinking and approach in the Design of Business may not be a new one, Martin weaves a well crafted narrative to how companies need to rethink their thinking and jumpstart legacies of the past so that organizations can ultimately leapfrog the competition. He backs his assertions with well researched interviews where the change has taken place. It’s worth distributing this book to a mix of analytics and visionaries and having a dialogue – it will be worth the debate that ensues.