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Roger L. Martin

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage Hardcover – October 13, 2009

by Roger L. Martin (Author)

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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.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date

October 13, 2009
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

9781422177808
ISBN-13

978-1422177808
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Editorial Reviews

Review

… among the most fundamental and comprehensive books ever written about the subject of business design and design thinking. — Business Design Association, November 2nd, 2009

…for readers interested in the processes of design…there are some interesting bits of detail and discussions on how exactly this is done. - The Financial Times, October 15, 2009

Insightful analysis of a hot management trend, useful for executives of all levels. —BusinessWeek, October 26, 2009

…a tough-minded elegant survey of why design thinking shouldn’t be considered some soft thing that’s nice for business at the edges but not necessary at the core. —MIT Sloan Management Review, Improvisations blog, October 2009

...offers thoughtful and valuable insight for all managers, and concludes with important instructions for individuals who want to become design thinkers. An excellent book. -Booklist, October 15, 2009

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

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1422177807
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; Third Edition (October 13, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781422177808
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1422177808
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #288,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #177 in Business Structural Adjustment
- #206 in Organizational Change (Books)
- #3,561 in Business Management (Books)

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139 ratings

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A. C. Ekin

Book of Thousand Veils

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2010

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I was interested in learning more about "design thinking" and how it applied to businesses and purchased the book. After all, Martin had a strong reputation in the field and I wanted to read what the best in the field had to say about the subject.

The first chapter whetted my appetite; I was able to get a glimpse of what design thinking could offer. In the subsequent chapters I learned about a few more pieces of the puzzle as the author seemed to remove some veils. But the more veils removed the more it looked the same: cloudy with some allure of the beauty hiding behind the veils. Most salient attributes, repeated over and over again, are "reliability vs validity," "traditional vs. design thinking," "backward looking vs. forward looking," "inductive and deductive reasoning vs. abductive reasoning."

The fundamental argument set forth is this: Reliability oriented managers of the traditional organizations try to find comfort in reliability based on historical data. Future does not necessarily a repeat of the past; ergo, reliability based thinking is old fashioned and traditional. Contrary to this, validity based thinking seeks validity in the unfolding future. Now, all this is very attractive thoughts to me. But ...

The writing has far too many examples of how successful design thinking worked for P&G, Herman Miller, RIM, and others. The amount of explanation of what design thinking is, how abductive reasoning works, or how design thinking can be learned or taught is generally missing. Ironically, despite the forward looking strength of design thinking, most of the narrative is the backward looking evidence seeking in nature, and thus, one could argue that it leans towards the antithesis of design thinking: reliability orientation.
You will leave this book somewhat frustrated and not really understanding what design thinking is. The author spends much more time making a case against reliability oriented, traditional thinking than for forward looking design thinking.

Now, some will likely say that if I don't get it design thinking is not for me. Who knows, maybe they are right. But I would have expected a book with a stronger presence in the domain of design thinking rather than in the backward looking traditional thinking, and make the core idea clearly presented rather than talking around it by way of examples. Read chapter 7 (the last chapter) first, that may help alleviate the above problems to a small extent.

The book succeeds, however, in getting you read more about design thinking and abductive logic, and is entertaining.

16 people found this helpful

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Mark P. McDonald

Deep thoughts, descriptions but not enough prescription

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2009

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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.

71 people found this helpful

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C Y

Clueless

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2019

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This book reads like a programmer trying to explain the qualities of poetry. It reads like a person with autism trying to explain what "charm" is.

The author values repeatability and uniformity. He loves "algorithms". Design is a problem that "leaders" (constantly referenced) have to confront before they can get on with their lovely uniform repeatable processes.

Imagine reading an introduction Art that viewed it as problematic and disorderly. It's that bad.

Olly Buxton

A wishful prayer from a pragmatist

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2010

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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 done with it. This is partly because the idea is self-explanatory, and it's either something you'll instinctively take to (if you're disposed to "design thinking"), or won't.

The thesis, broadly stated, is this: there are three main "phases" any business proposition:

* "mystery" : when an intuition nags at an inventor: the germ of a problem (and more to the point its solution) suggests itself and there is no orthodox means for solving it - here is the maximum opportunity for those who can (think of a young Ray Kroc (later of MacDonald's) thinking "how do I build scale in my hamburger joint?");

* "heuristic": when you've figured out a potential solution that does the job, but you don't necessarily understand the full implications and possibilities and boundaries of the solution; and

* "algorithm": where both the problem/opportunity and the solution are fully understood, and the solution has been - or can be - maximally commoditised and automated: the only question is efficiency.

Roger Martin's presentation is a convincing as far as it goes: I dare say the boundaries between the three phases are porous, and Martin is convincing that there is a reflexive quality to the propositions: the more they are solved, and the more the richness of an offering is stripped to its essential superstructure, the lower the barriers to competition, the slimmer the margins, and the more compelling the need to look for other mysteries.

It won't do, therefore, to settle on your mystery, drive it down the "design funnel" as hard and fast as you can, and relentlessly and mindlessly tweak the algorithm to make it run faster. Your own behaviour, if successful enough, itself will present opportunities for others: witness MacDonald's versus, say, Subway or Starbucks. MacDonald's algorithm stripped away "extraneous" considerations like healthiness, "coolness", freshness and so on. So Subway was able to differentiate itself on food quality, and Starbucks on the delightful hipness of actually visiting the store (it seems extraordinary in hindsight, doesn't it!). MacDonald's was forced by its competitors back up the funnel to consider other offerings.

The idea is intuitive and makes a lot of sense. Particularly in a large organisations there is a tendency towards "backward looking" data, regression analyses and the tried and true: "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" was a truism when I was a youngster. But the passage of time illustrates the corollary of that truism as well: no-one revolutionised their business by buying IBM either. And that, says Roger Martin, is what design thinking makes possible.

It is certainly my experience that large organisations tend to "reliability" rather than "validity" thinking, and are so keen on moving to algorithm stage that they are inclined to skip the "heuristic".

So some gripes: Firstly for a short book with an attractive big idea, it was rather hard to keep focussed on it. Something about Roger's writing style is pretty disengaging. I'm not entirely sure what it is: partly I think he takes a simple idea and fairly harshly beats it to death with self-serving examples: there are extended case studies of Proctor & Gamble, Target, and Research In Motion, all of which he was closely involved with. RIM in particular seems a fairly poor example: yes, they had a big idea and commoditised it (isn't that what all successful businesses do?) but their subsequent performance has been underwhelming, as they've been unable to withstand the march of the smart phones, and while they're still the dominant player in the business market, they seem to be slowly but surely withering on the vine in the consumer space. (This week they've launched a post-emptive strike against the apple iPad: you sense too little too late).

On the other hand, Roger's take on the underlying philosophy of design and business development is polymath enough to take in pragmatists like Dewey and Charles Sanders Pierce. Being a fan of Richard Rorty and the post-modern philosophers this went down well with me and struck me as a solid basis for the common sense contained in the book: in a contingent, ironic and pragmatic universe, where priorities, economic conditions, consumer preferences and political orthodoxies change like the wind, big, fast, dumb, inflexible machinery seems like a poor suit to be long in. The relentless preference for algorithms (mechanical, reliable) over heuristics (logical, but requiring interpretation and judgment) seems so blindingly obvious that it's a wonder so much of corporate enterprise is so blind to it. Being a design thinker is not easy - certainly, translating your unorthodox point of view to an anally retentive business analyst requires powers of persuasion not all of us have ("use lots of analogies!" Roger cheerfully advises) and you wonder whether design thinking - utopian an idea though it might be - is one that will generally get nowhere near the beating heart of your average multi-national.

Pity.

Olly Buxton

12 people found this helpful

Caufrier Frederic

Better written than `The Opposable Mind by the same author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2010

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'The Design of Business' will give you a good basic overview on why design thinking is the next competitive advantage. It covers the fine balancing act between validity and reliability, or combining intuitive thinking with analytical thinking to get design thinking.

The concept 'design thinking' is not a new concept actually but it is here nicely introduced with all its benefits together with powerful business cases to illustrate the importance: P&G's "Connect + Develop", Herman Miller, Target, IDEO, RIM, Cirque du Soleil, and many others.

For the moment analytical thinking still runs the corporations so there is indeed some window for improvement on the level of business thinking, innovation, decision making and strategy. In this respect the author is convincing towards the reader to stimulate his/her thinking skills towards design thinking.

There is a little bit of focus on recruiting Masters of Fine Arts graduates into the business, although it has been overlooked by the author that there are already many design thinkers out there in business.

'The Design of Business' is a great and easy read with an important message towards all industries and a very important message for innovative approaches.

The Design of Business
Contents
1 The Knowledge Funnel - How discovery takes shape
2 The Reliability Bias - Why advancing knowledge is so hard
3 Design Thinking - How thinking like a designer can create sustainable advantage
4 Transforming the corporation - The design of Procter & Gamble
5 The Balancing Act - How design-thinking organizations embrace reliability and validity
6 World-Class Explorers - Leading the design-thinking organization
7 Getting personal - Developing yourself as a design thinker

One person found this helpful

P. Janeiro

Failed attempt to explain Design Thinking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2012

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Design Thinking in a business context is something really hard to explain to someone who did not experience it. I would expect the Dean of Toronto's Rotman School to achieve it, but that was not the case. Martin's text is difficult to read - the book lacks a solid structure, and it misses the essential - to explain Design Thinking. I had to read a couple of chapters twice, because the ideas are just so confusingly presented that I was left wandering about what the chapter was all about..

The case study on Procter was good reading (I would recommend a web search on Claudia Kotschka videos to get some more depth about it) but it does not save the book.

2 people found this helpful

Ioana Negulescu

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2015

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Brilliant read, brilliant book, full of inspiring insights.

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