We are in a situation where innovations that promote competitiveness and productivity have to be generated both to strengthen the profitability of companies and to support the society as a whole.
Strong competence is characterised by a sort of an imperceptibleness that is difficult to mimic. Ideas and inventions without the ability or skills for their commercialisation are not worth much. It is easy to understand that continuous improvement of competence and staying at the top of technological development need to be transformed into products with a high value for further development or services that boost effectiveness. There’s an immense pressure on the price of labour, and it is of paramount importance to keep the price tolerable and competitive. Finnish competence has strong roots, but in order to be able to benefit from a national brand, we need a strong societal basis to bring the creativity of individuals and entrepreneurship together to form a vision that inspires people and guides our operations as a whole.
People quite naturally operate in familiar ways that have already been proven to work. Radical changes are often met with strong opposition. The concepts of products and services turn into expected norms little by little through minor improvements. Even the efficiency-oriented economy supports excessive use of existing solutions that we are already used to – we shy away from all risks in the short term. The goal of seeing every penny saved on the balance sheet can be interpreted in many ways. In order to assess future development paths, a great number of scenarios are presented. These scenarios often seem to aim to create unanimous conclusions. Do we leave essential alternative solutions without the attention they should get? It’s not too easy to swim against the tide.
The role of design in business development is often taken for granted, but it is left without further consideration – as something worth experimenting with and something separated from business culture. Why? Designers’ customers often have trouble understanding the professional jargon, and they also feel uncertain because they often consider excessive focus on design as self-sufficient. On the other hand, understanding the language of business might be a challenge for designers; competitive edge, better cash flow, cost-effectiveness, price stability, producibility, or brand identity recognition.
The best spokesman for design is a satisfied customer. For a product or service to gain users’ trust, an enormous amount of daring, vision, and contesting existing solutions are needed – not even to mention the need to control the often quite fragmented design processes.
We tend to recognise and identify future products and services through signals that are weak – perhaps only dreams. At the same time the reality of the consumers of products and services is turning increasingly virtual due to the constant digitalisation we experience. On top of that, our field of operation includes learning and appreciating the habits and values of other cultures.
Too modest goals do not support advancements. The goal of saving five percent of expenses may be reached by optimizing production details, but in order to save 50 percent, a whole restructuring is required. To quote the R&D executive of a technology company, ”The cheapest component is one that isn’t needed at all.”
Today, product development requires networking, which, in turn, is based on communication; the ability to listen and to discuss.
Kari Mäkinen, Editor In Chief
