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

Roger L. Martin (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 9, 2009
Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a game-changing innovation like Apple's iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovative-they spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results.


Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.

To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to another-from mystery (something we can't explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer) to code (when the formula becomes so predictable it can be fully automated). As knowledge advances across the stages, productivity grows and costs drop-creating massive value for companies.

Martin shows how leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cirque du Soleil, RIM, and others use design thinking to push knowledge through the stages in ways that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantage.

Filled with deep insights and fresh perspectives, The Design of Business reveals the true foundation of successful, profitable innovation.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roger Martin is dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a professor of strategic management at the school. He authored The Responsibility Virus, The Opposable Mind, and many articles in leading business publications including Harvard Business Review, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, and Barron's.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (November 9, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1422177807
  • ISBN-13: 978-1422177808
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a recovering strategy consultant turned business school Dean. My passion these days (other than tennis and wine) is exploring mysteries related to the ways we think about or model our world. I've looked, for example, for common patterns in the way successful leaders tackle difficult 'either/or' dilemmas. I've explored how it is that corporations drive out innovation - even as they desperately seek it. And most recently, I've examined the way in which theories that are meant to help corporations achieve financial goals and make shareholders rich actually produce the opposite. In each of my books, I attempt to understand a particular way in which our thinking can get in our own way, and provide specific advice for addressing that challenge.

Check out my books to the left and visit my website (www.rogerlmartin.com) if you want to see more of my writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Solving Wicked Problems October 21, 2009
Format:Hardcover
It's unfair that some individuals can write so well about topics that can be a bit esoteric. Roger Martin, who is dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, has produced yet another good book about thinking differently. His first book, The Opposable Mind, captured how good business leaders can see past the traditional "either-or" alternatives to create "both-and" options.

In The Design of Business, Martin offers a view that suggests that design should be the centerpiece or the starting point for much of the work we do in business, and why design is so important. He's not the first to suggest the importance of design, and a number of firms, such as IDEO, have been in the vanguard of the design-led forces. What Martin does well is to describe why design led thinking is important, and give examples of how to do it well.

Martin argues that all knowledge moves through three stages - a mystery, a heuristic and an algorithm. Mysteries are about discovery of new opportunities or research into solving intractable problems. Heuristics are rules of thumb that narrow the size and scope of mysteries and make them more manageable. Algorithms reduce the heuristics into repeatable processes.

This leads to two schools of thought in most businesses: exploration and exploitation, according to Martin. Most businesses are structured to exploit the algorithms, refining the way they do business and becoming highly effective and efficient, while neglecting the exploration of mysteries. Martin calls this the reliability-validity tradeoff. The vast majority of businesses want "reliability" - clearly defined processes that are easily repeatable and produce the same results. What he argues they need is more "validity" - creating the right and best outcomes through more exploration and less reliance on reliability. Three powerful forces emphasize reliability over validity: the demand for proof of the correctness of a new idea, an aversion to bias and time/resource constraints. These factors reinforce the bias toward reliability and repeatability over exploration and validity.

Once Martin has described his ideas, he then proceeds to use a few good examples to demonstrate the transition from a reliability driven organization to a validity and design driven organization. One chapter is devoted to the transition Lafley and Kotchka made at P&G, well documented in other places. Another chapter is devoted to Herman-Miller and the development of the Aeron chair. One of my favorite quotes from that chapter came from the Chairman of Herman Miller. He quizzed the design team about who they interviewed and received feedback from about the Aeron chair. When told they had not asked the sales force for feedback, the chairman said "That is right. You never ask the sales force what they think of a design. Their job is to sell it." Note that the designers spent hundreds of hours with actual customers, watching them work at their desks and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of existing seating options.

The book offers up a few more examples, ones that unfortunately have been used by others to demonstrate innovation and design, including Apple, RIM, Target and Cirque de Soleil. The weakness of many books about innovation and design is that they either have too few examples and must return to the same well, or that design thinking simply isn't widespread, so the same examples are used over and over. What's not clear is whether or not these firms are bellwethers or just happy accidents.

On the whole, this is a well-conceived and well-written book. In what could be a very esoteric topic, Martin keeps the concepts moving and introduces a lot of examples. He puts his finger on many of the challenges that those of us in the innovation and design space constantly face: too much short term thinking, too much demand for proof of an idea based on historical norms, too little time and too few resources for innovation and design.

This is a great book, and an easy read. It belongs on the desk of any executive or manager who is tasked with introducing more design thinking into an organization.

[...]
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Design of Business by Roger Martin is a thought-provoking book that seeks to probe the reasons behind the current state of business and the new ways of thinking needed to change that state for the better. The book in my opinion is miss-titled as it is more about thinking than design. This does not make it a bad book, but one that will disappoint readers looking for design techniques based on the title.

Martin's thesis centers around a few key concepts including:

The knowledge funnel where ideas and innovations move from exploring mysteries of business and customers, to defining heuristics and finally developing algorithms. While the funnel looks like a traditional innovation process, Martin applies it to aspects of organizational design, behavior and innovation to good effect.

Martin points to the difference between managing businesses for reliability and seeking validity. Reliability concentrates on managing predictable performance, financials, reducing process variance and establishing control. Validity concentrates on learning what is right based more on heuristics and qualitative than quantitative methods. Martin's conjecture is that we need both, but probably need more validity to generate the creativity and innovation needed to survive in a dynamic market.

Design thinking, here Martin borrows Tim Brown of IDEO's definition and makes the connection between design thinking and abductive reasoning which centers around observing data that does not fit with existing models or patterns. Abductive reasoning is in sharp contrast to deductive and inductive thinking that dominant business management.

The case studies on P&G, RIM, Cirque du Soldier are predictable and read more like narrative stories of executive actions rather than an analysis of what these companies did to redesign and innovate in their company. Frankly I have read other authors case studies of these companies and found them more valuable.

The combination of all of this gives me the impression that the book is a set of ideas in search of an application. Now that may sound harsh, but I kept looking for support on how I can apply these ideas by learning from others.

Martin does include a discussion about a personal knowledge system that consists of the way you view the world, the tools you use to organize your thinking and understanding and finally the experience that you need to build your sensitivity skills. The Personal Knowledge system is an example of what I am talking about, good ideas, presented in a clear fashion but without a particular set of next steps or examples of how mere mortals have transformed themselves.

Using Martin's terminology I get his ideas and see them as valid, but I was looking for a little reliability based tools and approaches to turn valid ideas into action and results.

The book presents its ideas in a fairly academic context, discussed more as ideas than recipes or a framework for designing a business. That is a disappointment as the book was recommended to me as a design book.

I recommend the book for people who want to explore the way of thinking and deep systems behind design thinking. I cannot recommend the book for people who are looking to learn about how to apply design thinking. If you are looking for a good design thinking book go to the source Tim Brown's new book Change by Design which has a greater focus on understanding design thinking at an actionable level.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Do you enjoy books that repeat their title (or some variation thereof) at least once per paragraph? Do you love it when complex business processes are reduced to two extremes that are given euphemistic names? Are you okay with the two words that were chosen to describe the extremes being used without variation EVERYWHERE? Do you want yet another business book that presents Southwest Airlines as a case study? Do you want the book to pretend that its a big surprise when it reveals the name of this upstart airline?

If so, you will LOVE this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This book does not contain any unique ideas
The author believes that there are two camps; one analytical and one intuitive/creative when it comes to strategic management and innovation. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jackal
A Big Part Of Why Things Are The Way They Are
The underlying messages of the book are clearest in the first few chapters. And they are really valuable messages for people like me. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jeff Bennett
A must read for every manager, entrepreneur, or consultant
I like this book very much! This is an excellent guide for managers, consultants, entrepreneurs for how to consider using the design thinking in growing their businesses. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Horia
My favorite design thinking book
There might be business and design books I agree with more (Marty Neumeier, for instance) but I can't think of any this fascinating, rich and useful. Read more
Published 7 months ago by anomalogue
A Must Read
Leadership in today's global economy and incredible pace of change requires transparency, engagement and the end of old school management thinking. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jon R. Wallace
Our Author Events with Roger Martin
Our Rotman School of Management has organized public author events for Prof. Roger Martin's new book, "Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashes and What Capitalism Can Learn From the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Rotman School Events
Excellent and inspirational
Roger Martin presents the most compelling and complete overview of what it takes to design a system of success. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Leecz
"Design" is more about difference between creatives vs analytics
While I appreciate the author's attempts at showing the value of including design principles in the business world, he takes too many leaps in trying to show its value. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mike S
A wishful prayer from a pragmatist
This is a short book with some big, and very good, ideas. The problem is, it could have still been shorter - the concept I felt I'd got from the first chapter, and very little is... Read more
Published 17 months ago by O. Buxton
Better written than `The Opposable Mind by the same author
'The Design of Business' will give you a good basic overview on why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Caufrier Frederic
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