19th DMI: Academic Design Management Conference
Design Management in an Era of Disruption
London, 2–4 September 2014
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Innovating Innovation – deliver meaningful
experiences in ecosystems
Paul GARDIEN, Eva DECKERS
*
and Geert CHRISTIAANSEN
Philips Design
The world is growing ever more complex and is facing huge problems like aging
societies, energy scarcity and increasing demand for healthcare. To meet these
challenges we require new types of systemic solutions, based on a holistic,
integrative and multi-dimensional approach. The good news is that the world is
moving towards a knowledge economy, which is a suitable basis for developing
the solutions for these challenges (Brand & Rocchi, 2011). Yet this in itself
presents a new issue; we have to learn to design in a different way, creating
ecosystems of interconnected products, services and solutions that can be
accessed wherever and whenever users desire. These ecosystems need to offer
a meaningful, relevant and coherent experience for the end-user. However, it is
no longer possible for a company (or one part of it) to understand all facets of
these ecosystems, let alone create meaningful experiences for end-users. In
addition, it is evident that these experiences will be delivered by different
players, such as businesses, governmental organizations and NGOs. No single
entity has all the answers. We therefore need to work towards co-creation. At
Philips Design we are in the process of changing our way of working to support
this process. We believe that innovation is inherently driven by true
collaboration from the onset, and that design thinking is a suitable
methodology for facilitating this process. You could say we are innovating
innovation, by not only focusing on new ideas, which is the focus of a lot of
current innovation literature, but also by developing new ways of working as
well as new competences at the same time. With this publication we aim to
share the progress we have made so far, stimulate the debate on developing
new ways of working and inspire third parties to join us on this journey.
Keywords: Innovating Innovation; Designing for Ecosystems; Co-creation
*
Corresponding author: Eva Deckers | e-mail: eva.deckers@philips.com