The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: branded training, wicked problems, design thinking, Six Sigma, Industrial Age

Editorial Reviews

Review

Garr Reynolds on The Designful Company

Branding guru Marty Neumeier understands that we are all very busy, so he crafts his books to make a big impact in less than 200 pages. His previous bestsellers, The Brand Gap and Zag are provocative, informative, and inspirational books that I use every semester in the Marketing class I teach. Like his previous books, The Designful Company is a lesson in simple, clear, and beautiful presentation, and the contents are a powerful complement to his earlier ideas.

Early in this book, Marty makes the case for the power of design and aesthetics and why they matter today more than ever. Innovation and design are key in the transformation of an organization; everyone says "innovation" matters. The term has become a mere platitude, a sort of tag-line for many organizations. In the book Marty explains how to actually build a culture of change that embraces design by focusing on 16 key levers such as weaving a story, bringing design management inside the organization, introducing parallel thinking, recognizing talent and creativity, and more.

One of the levers of change that I found particularly interesting (obviously, given what I do for a living) was the lever #8: "Ban PowerPoint." This is, ban the awful, death-by-PowerPoint approach and replace it with a more engaging and powerful presentation method. If you have an innovative company that truly understands design and creative collaboration, then you have to abandon the dull, lifeless, and typical PowerPoint presentation for compelling stories and conversations that are visual, simple (without being overly simplistic), and memorable.

"If a business is really a decision factory, then the presentations that inform those decisions determine their quality," says Marty. But a change in presentation approach is only a small part of the transformation. This book is about how to kick-ass though a greater understanding of your potential for creative collaboration.

I highly recommend The Designful Company. Even seasoned marketing, branding, and design pros will find the book an inspirational refresher with concrete ideas. And if this is your first Marty Neumeier book, you'll be blown away. Wonderful, fresh content and a little book that is a visual tour de force.

Garr Reynolds is the creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net. Garr’s book, Presentation Zen, features a foreword from Guy Kawasaki and is endorsed by such industry luminaries as Seth Godin. Together his Web site and book have fundamentally changed the way people around the world create and give presentations.

Review

“The first important book of the year. In the tradition of IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE and BUILT TO LAST, THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY changes the way we think about business. During these challenging times, when doors are shutting all around us, Neumeier’s book opens a big window.”
—ALINA WHEELER, AUTHOR OF DESIGNING BRAND IDENTITY

“In another short but very sweet book, Neumeier introduces us the aesthetics of management. The Designful Company makes a great contribution to our understanding of design as a core business competence.”
—ROGER MARTIN, DEAN OF THE ROTMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, AND AUTHOR OF THE OPPOSABLE MIND

“If this is your first Marty Neumeier book, you'll be blown away. Wonderful, fresh content presented as a visual tour de force.”
—GARR REYNOLDS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT AT KANSAI GAIDAI UNIVERSITY, AND AUTHOR OF PRESENTATION ZEN

“Form follows function?  Form is function!  In The Designful Company, Marty Neumeier lays out a powerful case that business innovation is a byproduct of design thinking. Follow these rules and your company can innovate faster, collaboratively and continuously.”
—JOHN GERZEMA, CHIEF INSIGHTS OFFICER AT Y&R, AND AUTHOR OF THE BRAND BUBBLE

“Design thinking has the potential to step-change all aspects of innovation in business. When you need a disruption, when market dynamics are changing, when new sources of growth are needed—companies that focus on design have a competitive edge.”
—CLAUDIA KOTCHKA, VP DESIGN INNOVATION AND STRATEGY, P&G

“At last! A book that clearly articulates how and why design is absolutely fundamental to the success of business today. Chock-full of great insights.”
—THOMAS LOCKWOOD, PhD, PRESIDENT OF DESIGN MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

“No filler. No fluff. Marty Neumeier has distilled his message on innovation and design down to just the good stuff.  Read the whole book on your next flight, and arrive with fresh insights ready to share.”
—TOM KELLEY, GENERAL MANAGER OF IDEO, AND AUTHOR OF THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION

“In the first half of this book Neumeier presents a good argument for the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the designful company and in the second half he gives us a decent prototype for the ‘how’. If you don’t see that calling it a ‘decent prototype’ constitutes high praise, you need this book.”
—FRED COLLOPY, PROFESSOR AT THE WEATHERHEAD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, CASE WESTERN UNIVERSITY, AND CO-AUTHOR OF MANAGING AS DESIGNING

Required reading for addressing “wicked problems”!
—PETER LAWRENCE, CHAIRMAN OF CORPORATE DESIGN FOUNDATION

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (December 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321580060
• ISBN-13: 978-0321580061
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,539 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and thought provoking., January 24, 2009

By	Alfredo Muccino (san jose) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I find that Marty Neumeier's books (and I will refer to him as Marty, from here on) raise more questions than they provide answers...and it is my experience that they stimulate great professional dialogue and a fair share of stimulating thinking. And "The Designful Company" is no exception.

In this book, Marty proposes big ideas in simple words that leave you wanting for more (in a good way). As a branding expert with a career that spans over 25 years in this profession, I have read few books that are more inspiring or thought provoking.

The premise of The Designful Company is that in order to gain control of a company's future we need to embrace the practice of design. Of course, in Marty's language "design" is a very powerful transformational tool that does a lot more than just "styling". Instead, Marty's design is about process and people and ideas driven by a desire to improve "performance" not aesthetics. He completely re-designs the idea of design.

Within our business, I've always insisted that "design" has little or nothing to do with "art". I believe that design is about creating purposeful change for the better...and I think that for design to be effective one must have a clear set of goals. In his book, Marty argues that the ultimate goal of a sustainable business is long term profit....and design is the starting point for a chain reaction that goes something like this: Design drives innovation; innovation powers brand development; brand builds loyalty; and loyalty results in profits.

Of course, I don't agree with everything that Marty proposes...but there's plenty in the book that I found to be intriguing and inspiring. For example, I loved the way that Marty re-invents the idea of aesthetics, and catapults it to an entirely new level that goes well beyond making things pretty. Marty's chart titled the "Aesthetics of Management" completely redefines the meaning of aesthetic principles in terms of business issues...and I will definitely be using this in future meetings and presentations (and, obsequiously credit the author). In this chart "Contrast" deals with "How do we differentiate ourselves?". "Depth" defines "How can we succeed at many levels". And, "Focus" refers to "What should we NOT do?".

Halfway through the book, Marty suggests that there are 16 "levers for change"...and that these "levers" hold the key to designing a new future for business. Apparently, you don't have to use all of them...and they need not be applied in any particular order. I found that some are more helpful than others...but I guess that this is exactly the point: Marty is inviting us to pick and choose which to use and which not to use...and therefore become the designers he invites us all to be.

In summary I really recommend this book to anyone interested in "designing" a better company, however, I found Marty Neumeier to be a little misleading when he described his book as a "quick read". That may very well be, but The Designful Company is far from light reading. It is a thought provoking, idea changing, extremely powerful book that will greatly influence the way I think about how design can change my company, the companies of my clients, and the world as a whole.

Read it and be ready to change your mind about a lot of things.

Alfredo Muccino
Chief Creative Officer
Liquid Agency | Brand Marketing
www.liquidagency.com

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just another hand-wavy design-for-designers book!, April 23, 2009

By	Rob S. (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

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One of the most important, understated jobs of a designer is to promote design. In many organizations, design is the spit-polishing that happens when all the important work is done, and focuses solely on the product itself and not the organization as a whole. While this is a good start (a "designful" company with crap products won't be around long enough to improve ;) in order to become a case-study, you'll need the information found in this book to transform your company, or decide to look elsewhere!

The author refers to these as "levers" and explains what they are, how and why to "pull" them. This information is also repeated in summary form within a problem:solution framework in the appendix.

The tricky part with books like this (also, "Do You Matter?") is that designers tend to be the ones reading them, and we're already convinced about the value of design.

What separates this book from the rest is that it's executive-digestible. I.e. rather than hand-wavy case studies and clever anecdotes, the author provides actionable information (the lack thereof my biggest criticism of most "design is great!" books).

Summary: if you're a designer, this will give you more ammo to spread the virtues of design. If you're in leadership, this will tell you why what's coming out of your designers is important!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating a culture of innovation, August 3, 2009

By	Jeffrey A. Melton (fort wayne, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Another terrific little tome by Marty Neumeier. I wish more authors of design and business books would take his 'whiteboard overview' approach and condense the topic into a clear, concise read. Rather than a light read, though, this book is full of concentrated insight and techniques on operating a 'designful' company and creating a culture of innovation. The illustrations alone helped me visualize the relationship between business structure, design strategy and branding. Highly recommended.