FOREWORD
There are several reasons why I decided to write this book.
The main one was to satisfy my curiosity about the true meaning of business design. To look beyond the obvious and not just accept things the way they are, to investigate what’s out there and why. Over the years I have collected meaningful thoughts and best practices about design, branding and business. There is a ton of knowledge available at our fingertips, but it is surprising how little of it we actually grasp.
Business Beyond Design was born from the desire to share a different point of view, to illustrate a road map and trigger the thinking process towards the creation of valuable, sustainable and innovative design businesses.
Why Beyond? One of my life undertakings is the reflection and fascination in creating designs that can be defined as “Timeless,” products and objects that become better with use, or those that possess an essential, effortless elegance. Experiences that remain remarkable, no matter our age or status. Likewise trying to challenge how our world moves and behaves nowadays, in a constant rush, with almost everything being made disposable, and with very little thought about the future impact of our actions. This requires to think and act beyond the norm.
This book will guide you through my journey in creating an unconventional framework to asses and develop valuable, sustainable and innovative brands, designs and businesses. This very framework has been my guiding principle throughout the last few years of design practice, and I hope we can begin to build a different perspective towards design and business.
Early in my career, one of the dynamics that fascinated me the most was the volatility of status of certain products, services and institutions, going from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.
We live in a complicated world. It is hyper-dynamic, hyper-connected and hyper-competitive. A simple explanation of such dynamics was not plausible. So I began researching patterns and theories that would help me decode such behaviours.
Throughout my research I discovered five main attributes that most successful design businesses share. Surprisingly enough, they go beyond simple form or function.
Why five? Well, the number five seems to be a constant in my life, from my date of birth to my last name “Cinquepalmi”, which contains the Italian word for five: “Cinque”. Aside from this, fivefold conceptual schemes have been used for millennia to aid understanding and memorisation of complex phenomena: alchemy, interaction of the natural elements, geomancy, Feng Shui, astrology, music, military strategy and martial arts are just some examples (plus we also have five fingers, making it easy to keep count). So why not learn from the past to improve the future?
I often encounter companies and institutions that have a very cynical approach towards design and business, using design only as a means of generating profit rather than innovation. To me, design is never cynical or arbitrary, and seeing it as such, denies an essential aspect of business; its social and cultural value. We should never forget that companies are social institutions just as much as financial ones.
I believe we (entrepreneurs, design professionals, creative minds) should strive to infuse deep cultural and social value into our work. When crafting something, we must inspire people who interact with our work to know and feel that they are not just buying another piece of merchandise. Instead, they should perceive the acquisition of new knowledge, a fragment of culture. At the end of the day, we are not just creating beautiful and useful objects, but also the culture around them.
CONTENTS
THE JOURNEY
THE SIMPLE, THE COMPLICATED AND THE COMPLEX
A NEW OLD MODEL
THE SYSTEM AT WORK
I — CHARACTER —
IT’S ALL ABOUT VALUES
DIFFERENT BY NATURE
A SPARE SET OF BALLS
EXCELLENCE IS A MATTER OF DETAILS
THE ART OF STRATEGY
THE ESSENCE OF CHARACTER
II — DESIRE —
GOOD DESIGN CHANGES BEHAVIOUR
THE DARK SIDE OF DESIGN
C.A.R.E.
GOOD ENOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH
MAKE IT 20% BETTER
THE ESSENCE OF DESIRE
III — EMPATHY —
THE SUPREME QUEST OF ALCHEMY
DON’T SELL – INSPIRE.
FOLLOW TO LEAD, LEAD TO FOLLOW
WE ARE ALL NATURAL-BORNE STORYTELLERS
A SYMBOL, A MANTRA, A CAUSE
THE ESSENCE OF EMPATHY
IV — TRUST —
THE TRUST SPIRAL
TIME IS MONEY, BUT MONEY IS NOT TIME
THE POWER OF PLAY
SOCIALLY VISIBLE, CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT
WHAT ABOUT WHAT WE ARE LOSING?
THE ESSENCE OF TRUST
V — CONSISTENCY —
EMBRACE THE SOCIAL SHIFT
THE HOW IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE WHAT
THE BEAUTY OF SUSTAINABLE FAILURE
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN IMAGE & IDENTITY
DESIGN THINKING X DESIGNERS
THE ESSENCE OF CONSISTENCY
FINAL THOUGHTS
THE BEAUTY OF COMPLEXITY
OBLIGATION TO SIMPLICITY
A LOOK AT THE FUTURE, A THOUGHT TO THE PAST
APPLYING THE MODEL
A SIMPLE YET COMPLEX CASE STUDY
A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
CHARACTER WORK SHEET
NOTES ON CHARACTER
DESIRE WORK SHEET
NOTES ON DESIRE
EMPATHY WORK SHEET
NOTES ON EMPATHY
TRUST WORK SHEET
NOTES ON EMPATHY
CONSISTENCY WORK SHEET
NOTES ON CONSISTENCY
THREE BUSINESS DESIGN STRATEGIES
CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEP
RECOMMENDED READINGS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & CREDITS
to Betta
DEDICATED TO
CULTURE LOVERS
We believe in the beauty of creation, the intellectual achievements of humanity and the empowering pursuit of proactively conserving pieces of great cultural, social and financial value.
DESIGNERS
We believe that our creations contribute to the fascinating development of our kind and we want to leave behind a significant footprint. We want to create value, while preventing the demise of something good.
ENTREPRENEURS
We believe in adventure, and take risks that pay off. We believe in the sustainable growth that comes from creating and maintaining greater values.
THE JOURNEY
Over the past 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of working both directly and indirectly with some of the most successful brands in the world, and I’ve learnt something new each time. As I worked on each company’s unique selling point and signature style, a few key questions continued to provoke my curiosity:
Is there a common denominator that defines the success or failure of a business?
What are the key elements that define and distinguish a world-class business from a mundane one?
Why do some products or services seem to vastly outperform their competition, although both have exactly the same access to talent and technology?
Why, why, why - I’m obsessed with the why. Why can some designers, businesses, products, services, brands achieve it all and others can’t? Why are some companies way up there and then suddenly come crashing down? Why is that? These puzzling questions were well worth investigating.
My investigation started with trying to understand how our economy, or the ‘market’, has changed. Today, the lines between product design, graphic design, branding, marketing, advertising and business in general are blurring. In our modern society it’s inarguable that the general public ackno
wledges the symbolic value of a product or service more than its functional value. We do not buy another pair of jeans because we need them, but because we want them.
Over the past several decades, we have shifted from an economy focused on industrial production, to one focused around people. Such economy, (postmodern society) is not based on rationality. It is based on personal desire, and desire means brand and status.
Most companies now recognise that experiences connected to a product or service are immensely more important than just the look or performance alone.
By analysing my own achievements and my many, many failures while working with a wide range of companies, I decoded five common, fundamental principles:
Being an absolute innovator does not always pay off, but neither does being a compromised version of someone else. Rather, the most effective way to succeed is to be the best version of ourselves.
Aesthetics are only one component of the equation. Simply creating beautiful objects or images is no longer enough. Subjectivity, availability and context must always be taken into consideration.
Brands and businesses need to engage consumers on a deep, intimate level. Talking about bits and bytes, features and benefits is informative and even essential, but it is not sufficient.
Consumers are increasingly superficial. They now live in a world with too many choices and too little time, so a rational, investigative process is out of the question. They refer to price, position and buzz to make their buying decisions in the shortest amount of time possible.
Finally, any brand must master the fundamental skill of creating and maintaining relationships based on trust, constantly expressing and reinforcing its core values, surprising its consumers and ultimately exceeding their expectations.
— • —
THE SIMPLE, THE COMPLICATED AND THE COMPLEX
At this stage, what I thought was a quest to find the “secret recipe” for success (or even better, the equation for success) started becoming more complicated than anticipated.
Early on, I encountered two key topics that proved enlightening. The first was an interesting distinction between science and art, which Prof. Avinash K. Dixit states in his book, The Art of Strategy.
“Science and art, by their very nature, differ in that science can be learned in a systematic and logical way, whereas expertise in art has to be acquired by example, experience and practice.”
This sentence struck a chord. Maybe the quest was not to find a secret recipe, but rather to analyse and decode my own work and experiences; to learn from mistakes and successes. I always thought that anyone could learn to duplicate a technique, apply the rules and use the latest fashion to create a neat little design. But is that really a true creative expression? This led me to question whether we are really creating an impact or whether we are just being incremental (i.e. making small, irrelevant changes).
When we are there, at the edge of uncertainty, pushing the boundaries of our own personal knowledge, only then will we find authentic development and true creative expression.
In order to create a true design culture, deep understanding and mastery of techniques is imperative! This is a long process and oftentimes an uncomfortable one. Example, experience and practice are the tools we must use to create real value.
Most designers and entrepreneurs don’t believe undergoing this process is their job. They believe that form and function, and making a profit, are sufficient. That’s not very constructive. Instead it’s just—as previously mentioned—incremental.
The second topic, from the subject of the science of complexity, is a revealing classification of problems. In Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed, Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Patton propose that there are three types of problems in the world:
Simple problems, such as baking a cake
Complicated problems, such as sending a rocket to the moon
Complex ones, like raising a child
This is a fascinating theory and, astonishingly, it closely matches my design philosophy. The science of complexity, just like design, embraces life as it is: unpredictable, emergent, evolving and adaptable.
Often, design is approached as a simple task, as if it is simply a matter of cutting and pasting several elements from other successful designs. It is approached as if there is a formula: use this type, that image, grid or shape, follow the recipe, sprinkle some fairy dust on client’s ideas and the trick is done. Success guaranteed! Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Sometimes, design is approached as a complicated task. It is recognised that a higher level of expertise is needed, with good old fashioned background checks and references completed, an appropriate and accurate plan of action created (a brief), sound preliminary research performed, and all the goals and outcomes meticulously executed. With this process, there is a very high chance of success. After all, we have successfully delivered hundreds of designs, right? Yet even in this scenario, things can go terribly wrong.
Seldom, design is approached as a complex task, although this is how it should be. The crushing reality is that there are no secret formulas or hyper-effective plans guaranteeing the success of our design. Some years of work and study under our belt will provide us with knowledge, expertise and practice but there is NO assurance at all that our future design will be a success.
Design should be approached as a complex task. We must take into consideration countless variables that we might not directly control, from subjectivity of the design itself, to pricing, positioning and accessibility. The success or failure of a design and the related business is determined by the appreciation and consideration by the greater public.
Complex systems, such as human beings, stock markets, global organisations, design, branding and businesses, all share behaviours that cannot be explained by their single components. Citing Kurt Koffka:
The whole is other than the sum of the parts.
In complex systems, relationships are fundamental. It is the connections and relationships between all these parts that define how complex systems work.
— • —
A NEW-OLD MODEL
By now I had gained sufficient insight to begin forming my own business design model. I knew that there are at least five key principles and a delicate balance to be maintained in building a successful design or business.
I also knew there is no secret formula, and that rather than focusing on single elements of the design process, it is essential to look at the system as a whole. The goal was not only to provide a practical understanding of a subject, but to make the subject accessible, digestible and usable, without making it simplistic.
Therefore, it was time to sift through my five common, fundamental principles (see pg. 11), and synthesise them into distinctive and memorable key words and their meanings.
Character: To infuse values;
Desire: To consider subjectivity and availability;
Empathy: To engage consumers on a deep, intimate level;
Trust: To prove and demonstrate values;
Consistency: To constantly reinforce the core values.
Things started falling into place. This fivefold conceptual scheme perfectly represented my business design model. In good designer spirit, why not learn from the past to improve the future?
I began researching historic models and conceptual themes that have been used to express complicated interactions between elements. I started with the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato. In his dialogue titled “Timaeus”, Plato theorised that classical elements were made of regular solids (Platonic Solids). Earth was associated with the hexahedron, air with the octahedron, water with the icosahedron, fire with the tetrahedron, and finally, the universe with the dodecahedron. This led to a further milestone in my reasoning.
According to Plato, the elements are not limited by their form or function, but by their abstract characterisation and properties: earth (solidity, inertia); water (fluidity, cohesion); fire (temperature, energy co
ntent) air (mobility, expansion,). Wonderful!
Fig 1. Temaus
Yet, using this newly gained knowledge, I soon realized a simple listing of five elements was not sufficient to represent the complexity of business design; I needed an interrelated, interconnected reference system.
Having lived in Asia for several years, ancient Chinese philosophies were an inevitable and inexhaustible source of inspiration. Many traditional Chinese disciplines use a fivefold conceptual scheme to explain a wide array of phenomena: the concept of Wŭ Xíng ( 五行). Wŭ Xíng, known as the ‘five elements’ or ‘five phases’ has been used for thousands of years as the defining framework for many fields, from traditional Chinese medicine to Feng Shui.
Fascinated by this millenary concept, I pondered whether the same dynamics could apply to Business-Design as well as they applied to so many other fields. While limited by my inability to study directly through the Chinese language, I began researching and comparing similarities between the model I was trying to create and the ancient conceptual scheme of Wŭ Xíng.
This model turned out to be particularly appropriate since the Chinese Wŭ Xíng is primarily concerned with explaining process and change. Rather than the single elements, what captured my attention were the interrelated dynamics between them: the so-called four interweaving cycles.
According to the theory of Wŭ Xíng, the elements/phases are not static entities but rather fluid and dynamic ones. This dynamism is expressed through the four cycles. The Generating (生, shēng) and Controlling (克/剋, kè) cycles represent balance and harmony in the system. The other two, the Overacting (cheng) and the Insulting (侮, wŭ), represent imbalance and disharmony.
These cycles and their interaction allow the five elements to function harmoniously. When the five elements are balanced, they represent health, prosperity and success. When they’re out of balance—overacting, counteracting, or failing to properly support one another—they represent illness, hardship and failure.
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