Business Week “Innovations” Design Blog Posts Comments from Design Force President!

Marlton, NJ—Design Force announces that comments written by its president, Ted Mininni, have been posted in the Innovations “Design Blog” section of Business Week online, in response to editor Bruce Nussbaum’s June 28th column titled: “CEOs Must Be Designers, Not Just Hire Them. Think Steve Jobs And iPhone”.

In his comments, Mr. Nussbaum states, “I now believe that CEOs and managers must know Design Thinking to do their jobs. CEOs must be designers and use their methodologies to actually run companies. Let me be even more precise. Design Thinking is the new Management Methodology..”

Anticipating this trend in business circles, Design Force president Ted Mininni has written extensively on this topic and published articles about the integration of design into corporate management and marketing strategy, beginning in 2005. An article entitled: “Design: The New Corporate Marketing Strategy” appeared in the widely read Marketing Profs newsletter in November 2005 and another article in the same vein, “Left Brain—Right Brain: Creating a New Business Model”, in July 2006. Brandchannel likewise published a white paper Mr. Mininni authored titled: “The Newest Corporate Marketing Strategy: Leveraging the Power of Design”, which has likewise been widely disseminated and discussed in business circles.

In Mr. Mininni’s comments that were posted after Mr. Nussbaum’s insightful article, he points out that: “As president/owner of my own design consultancy for the past 17 years, I applaud your continued efforts to raise the visibility of this issue. While I do not expect C Suite executives to become designers anytime soon, if ever, I do think there is a profound need for business management from CEOs down who are trained to develop their analytical, left brain capabilities, to become imbued in the creative problem-solving right brain capabilities of designers…and vice versa. Thankfully, more B-schools and design schools are making a real effort to cross-pollinate these very different disciplines in their students.

By doing this, business executives and designers will develop more of an understanding of each other and more respect for the talents each side brings to the table. More importantly: business faces a number of thorny issues that will be best met by taking a "whole brained approach" to them. I have written a newsletter article for Marketing Profs on this issue that may be of interest to you and to your readers, as well as blog posts: “Left Brain—Right Brain: Creating a New Business Model”. Sign up is easy if some of your readers aren't already accessing MP articles.
http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/mininni4.asp

This topic is a very important one; I'm hoping continued dialogue will spur the business and design communities on to more action. Thanks, Bruce, for your ongoing discourse on the integration of business and design.”

To read the thought-provoking exchange of ideas on this blog, please go to www.businessweek.com and click on the Innovation section and then, “Design Blog” on the drop-down box.

To contact Design Force, or Mr. Mininni, please call 856-810-2277, or go online at www.designforceinc.com