A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business

Released June 2009
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9780470451021

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Book description

praise for a fine line

"A breath of turbo-charged fresh air that doesn't regurgitate the ego-maniac CEO's selective memory or an outside expert's misinterpretations. Hartmut explains innovation through the lens of design, and it's about time we gained his valuable perspective." —Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist, Apple and co-founder of Alltop.com

"At Flextronics, we fell in love with Hartmut and frog, and their passion for bringing crazy great designs and design processes into the forefront of great product companies. We used their expertise to help our customers, many of the greatest product companies in the world, including Apple, HP, Cisco, Microsoft and others. It is a credit to Hartmut that in the midst of a shocking global recession, frog still sets quarterly revenue records. Theirs is a unique and fascinating story." —Michael Marks, partner, Riverwood Capital LLC and former CEO, Flextronics

"Hartmut's new approach to design is felt in every room in every house in every country and in every business around the world. He proved that thoughtful design is not only good for people but is good for business—and that both are interlinked. I have been fortunate to have observed first hand his impact at Sony, Apple, and HP?and have learned so much from him. He is an unsung hero of our times! A Fine Line is a must-read for designers and business people alike." —Satjiv Chahil, senior vice president, Hewlett-Packard

"A fascinating, breathtaking, and exemplary insight into a success story that never had so much topicality, and so much informative potential as just now. Esslinger offers an honest and encouraging portrait of the incredible power of the business and design alliance. A Fine Line is a handbook of design expertise and the art of business at its best, showing a variety of radical solutions and fresh new ideas." —Professor Dr Peter Zec, president, ICSID and founder, red dot awards

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Foreword
  5. Introduction
  6. Chapter 1 - design-driven strategy staking a claim in the creative economy
    1. ° the business of design
    2. ° strategic creativity and sustainable success
  7. Chapter 2 - true lies the role of leadership in innovation
    1. ° seeing the future and supporting bold initiatives
    2. ° building a culture of innovation
    3. ° maintaining strategic focus and creative capital
    4. ° promoting ethical innovation
    5. ° sustaining success
  8. Chapter 3 - designing to win the creative business strategy
    1. ° the strategic plan
    2. ° the tactics of creative business strategy
    3. ° the evolution of successful strategy
    4. ° designing the ultimate strategy—with the right creative partner
  9. Chapter 4 - minds beat money the innovation process, step by step
    1. ° step 1: groundwork
    2. ° step 2: showtime! the creative collaboration
    3. ° step 3: marketing (where minds need money)
  10. Chapter 5 - a business design revolution the greening of planet, inc.
    1. °designing early-stage solutions
    2. ° developing green business strategies
    3. °monitoring the ecological load factor of new products and technologies
    4. ° overcoming the challenges of going green
    5. ° triggering a holistic “reboot”
  11. Chapter 6 - design-driven strategies for better business—and a better world
    1. ° fusion products: simple, flexible, sustainable
    2. ° open-source design: professional collaboration on a global scale
    3. ° co-design through social networks: giving customers a say—and a stake
    4. ° designing the new industrial revolution
  12. Chapter 7 - the factories
    1. ° welcome to the machine
    2. ° the high costs of “cheap” production
    3. ° smart-sourcing: making the most of outside resources
    4. ° home-sourcing: local keys to global rewards
    5. ° personal-fab: building our own brands
    6. ° the rise of sustainable manufacturing
  13. epilogue already here—and tomorrow
  14. Acknowledgements
  15. Praise

Product information

  • Title: A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2009
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9780470451021