Joining Forces | University of Art and Design Helsinki | September 22-24, 2005 INDUSTRY, COMPETITIVENESS AND DESIGN. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF FINNISH IN-HOUSE DESIGN FUNCTIONS Anna Valtonen, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland Abstract: Industrial designers have been hired within Finnish companies since the sixties. The importance of design for the competitiveness is now a well understood matter, but developing a competitive design organisation takes time and effort. The development path of in-house design organisations has not been researched very extensively, nor has the changing role of the designer and the design function during this development. The empiria for this paper was collected through interviews with designers representing most of the larger Finnish in-house design organisations. In-house design organisations in three companies, Nokia, Metso and Suunto, are studied in more detail. There are similarities in the development pattern of the in-house design functions in these companies. First an individual designer has been hired for a specific project, later the designer aims to co-ordinate several design projects at once, and eventually design is identified as its own function. Finally design becomes a vital area of competence for the company. The paper also shows how this research correlates to three previous studies; British Design Council (2004): The Impact of Design on Stock Market Performance. An Analysis of UK Quoted Companies 1994-2003, SVID (2004): Swedish companies on design: Attitudes, profitability and design maturity in Swedish companies. and Eljas Perheentupa (1989): Teollinen muotoilu liikkeenjohtamisessa. UIAH B16, Helsinki. Introduction and method The first industrial designers in Finland graduated in 1965 [1-2]. As a professionally defined practice industrial design is fairly new. In this paper, the historical development of in-house design organisations in three companies; the mobile phone company Nokia, Metso Paper, a global supplier of process industry machinery and systems and Suunto, producing sports instruments and compasses, is studied in more detail [3]. The three companies differ in the length of their design history, their organisational setup, and their products. Still, these organisations have many things in common. All have acknowledged the significance of the design function, and the in-house design group has become reasonably large. Most importantly these companies use design as a part of the innovation process. The empiria for this paper was collected through in- depth interviews with the individual Finnish designers [4]. In order to validate this material, several sources of the company histories were also used. [5-14] Nokia – a large in-house design organisation The first educated industrial designers in Nokia were hired in the early seventies for Salora, then part of the Nokia group. At this point most of the design work was for televisions; the design department also did the design for several other brands as a sub-contractor, such as Blaupunkt, Granada TV, and Thorn. Between the years 1973 to 1981 the design department transferred from the mechanics department to report to the research and development management , and finally reporting directly to the C.E.O. Gradually these designers left the company to form their own design agencies. Between 1981 and 1983 there were no designers employed directly at Mobira, as the company mobile phone unit was then called, as all design was subcontracted. The two companies that were