Haven’t seen our documentary yet? Scroll down, you will find the movie with English, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

For information about the workshops please visit this page.

DOWNLOAD WORKSHOP MATERIAL 

The workshop, which can be facilitated by Zilver, has been designed with themes and tools for stimulating an interactive discussion around key topics. This approach will help your team gain greater insight into how design and business thinking can be used together to improve your organization’s creativity, efficiency and competitive advantage.

Feel free to email Zilver for more information, visit the workshop section of the site, or download the workshop material here to get started on your own. We welcome the opportunity discuss ways Zilver can be involved to facilitate your session or to tailor the kit to your specific areas of interest.

We would love to hear about your experiences with the workshop, so please do not hesitate to send us your stories. Till then, go ahead and enjoy!

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Please note that the workshop materials were created for the benefit of the Design the New Business platform and are licensed under the Creative Commons to maintain coherence. We request that you respect the integrity and identity of this platform and utilize it in a responsible manner. Please do not distort it or violate the guidelines. Please contact us if it is necessary to change the formats or guidelines.

As mentioned previously, this is the beginning of the workshop phase of our project. For information please visit this page.

Here you can find the movie with English, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles:

By Erik Roscam Abbing

Let’s be honest, there’s more than shiny happy people: criticism on the movie has been fierce, but also truthful and constructive. Here are some of the comments we received from people around the globe, that we learned the most from:

• “You’ve only looked at large businesses, where are the SME’s?” True, we were especially interested in large companies and their change agents, because the issues they’re facing are so complex. A future project may focus on smaller businesses and the specific issues they are facing.
• “Why haven’t you portrayed the fear and the misunderstanding a lot of these people encounter in their work?”. Fair point, but we didn’t want to make a movie with ‘moaning people’ (quoting Ralf Beuker in 20:44 of the movie). On the other hand, it shouldn’t be a ‘success stories only’ movie. We may not have struck exactly the right balance.
• “It’s just a lot of talk, where are the examples?”. Again, fair point. It was hard to make a short movie with sufficient depth AND show a lot of case studies, within the time and budget constraints we had (Zilver financed this movie out of our own pocket). Although we have attempted to put in some case material, I think that overall the movie has turned out to be too abstract for some viewers. This is a great challenge for a next movie project: how to show the process and the outcomes in a visually-engaging and concrete way (where typically between the two lies at least a year, and some content is confidential).
• “It is unclear to me who you are trying to target with this movie”. We are targeting anyone who might be interested in how new design approaches are helping large organizations deal with complex issues, and how new agencies and schools are operating in this field. This includes a somewhat eclectic bunch of students, educators, consultants, managers, designers and so forth. I think the ‘complaint’ behind this question is: “I don’t feel you’re addressing me”. This question usually comes from people who are not seeing anything new in the movie, or who don’t connect to the topic at all. Fair enough, we have created a bit of a niche product haven’t we?
• “I hoped to find out what design thinking is, you haven’t given me the answer”. True. We specifically did not want to make a movie on what design thinking is but on what it does. Google ‘design thinking’ and you’ll get plenty of definitions (some better than others). Google “what does design thinking do for my company”and you get none. Ask a designer what design thinking is and he’ll more or less know the answer. Ask a business manager what design thinking is and he’ll say ‘who cares, just solve the problem’. To be honest, to us the debate on what design thinking is is rather like the plumber endlessly discussing his new wrench with you while all you want from him is to fix your faucet.
• “The sound of the movie sucks”. It sure does. As movie-making novices we didn’t estimate the audio impact of so many diverse environments, and we made the huge mistake of not investing in the right type of microphone! Sorry.

But, all in all, I learned a great deal from this project and the people we interviewed. Here are my key insights per interview:

Océ

The days of push marketing are over, companies have to learn to identify their space in value networks. Transitions are not disruptions of your core business; they are your core business.

Volkswagen

If you want to innovate, it’s vital that you find the right stage in the organization to play on. Designers build bridges between abstract and concrete, internal and external, idea and execution, research and development, etc. It’s not business and design, that are opposing entities, it’s more ‘are you in the business of creating new things or optimizing existing things?’

Alexander Osterwalder

People are building new businesses based on business models from the past. But if you want to innovate, you have to include new business models, and you have to involve designers. Designers have the right mindset to fail and learn, so you don’t fail big. And they have the tools and methods to help businesses create growth.

Frido Smulders

The debate on design thinking focuses very much on the creativity part. But design brings much more to the table than just creativity. It’s not about ‘thinking out of the box’ in a workshop or two. Design thinking is more complex and more interesting than that.

Jan Buijs

Designers have the ability to analyze and synthesize. This is a very valuable skill. But it’s not about taking the design route OR the business route; design is part of business, it supports business objectives. What designers contribute is both thinking and doing.

Ralf Beuker

Designers have to stop moaning about being misunderstood and instead add value to business. Everyone understands value. Where business thinking has the ability to make sense of the past through measurements, designers have the ability to make sense of the future through empathy and insight.

Claro Partners and Maria Bezaitis from Intel

A lot of services revolve around the understanding that there’s a shift from ownership to access to an experience. It’s important to combine business understanding and business model innovation with social insights and understanding. Clients are not buying design thinking from you, or research as such. They are buying outcomes and solutions. You can only get there through creativity and interpretation of data.

Damian Kernhan and Amanda O’Donell from Virgin Mobile

Making the complex simple is Damian’s core business. Differentiation requires a service design approach, leading to experience innovation that does impact the bottom line. Emotion is crucial to getting people on board to design the new business. The business approach and the design approach go hand in hand to deliver magic.

In10

There’s a shift from return of investment in a financial way to return on investment in terms of loyalty.

Arne van Oosterom and Ton Borsboom from Philips

Design thinking is not a method; it’s about finding the right method for the purpose and asking the right questions. Here’s more info on designers DNA which we co-founded: www.designersDNA.com. Product-focused companies are starting to embrace service design because products are becoming interconnected and become surrounded by a service ecosystem. But it’s an emerging competence that needs to be learned. Designers serve as connectors between businesses and departments.

Engine

Design is a very human activity that helps organizations become more people-centered. You can’t solve new problems with old solutions. Design is about finding new solutions. Design thinkers are comfortable with postponing the moment of pinning down the problem, to explore different ways of framing the problem to find newer and better solutions. It’s about balancing analytical approaches to problem solving with more design-led approaches.

I’m very excited about this project and all that’s to come. Keep discussing, keep reflecting, and keep doing! And please don’t spare us your criticism! Or your thumbs up

We are very proud to announce that on March 6^th, our documentary Design the New Business will be released online for everyone to enjoy. After screening our movie for a few months, and making the official selection for esteemed festivals such as the Design Indaba Filmfest, it is now time to let it go and to open up!

In the spring of 2011, the idea for the movie was born. Through my teaching, writing and consultancy practices, I got more and more interested in how new design approaches are helping large organizations deal with complex issues. I saw product-driven companies work to make the transition to a more service-dominant logic. I saw technology-centered companies aspiring to become more human-centered, with technology as enabler. And I saw large companies struggle with the agility and entrepreneurial spirit that is required for relevant innovation.

So Zilver Innovation and 6 students from Strategic Product Design at TU Delft – Erik van Bergen, Esra Gokgoz, Gunjan Singh, Juan David Martin, Marta Ferreira de Sá and Miguel Melgarejo – made a movie on the topic. It’s time to look back and reflect, and to look forward and anticipate!

First of all, it is interesting to note how the movie itself, the actual 38 minutes of edited footage, seems to be just a little speck in the entire process. This process consists of two halves that are mirrored around the movie itself:

1. The process of the Design the New Business team working together in conceptualizing, shooting, editing and discussing the movie. (see this ‘making of’ clip for an impression.)

2. The process of viewers around the globe screening, watching, discussing and commenting on the movie.

The first half of the process was great: exhilarating, hard, complex, more work than we ever anticipated, but very, very inspiring and a great experiment.

But it’s this second half of the process that is especially nice: people from Sydney to Helsinki, from Cape Town to Singapore, from Barcelona to Philadelphia, have taken the time to gather around a screen and watch and discuss the movie together. And most of them have been so kind to share their findings with us. What we’ve learned is that the topic really jives with people (to quote Maria Bezaitis from Intel at 20:42 in the movie), and fortunately not only designers.

The movie triggers good discussions around the theme of new ways of doing business, and the role of design approaches therein. In that sense the movie is a huge success: as a boundary object to open up the debate, something to group around with various people and exchange learning and opinions.

At the Hogeschool Utrecht last week, students, teachers, entrepreneurs, business people and designers gathered to watch the movie and try out the workshop format we’ve developed. The discussions were extremely fruitful, applicable and inspiring!

And this is actually the part of the whole setup that we want to expand. We want to facilitate the learning process (of ourselves and anyone interested in the topic) and enable the capturing of this learning. Therefore we’ve developed a workshop program and facilitators toolkit that you will find on a new dedicated section of our website. The core of the program will be the movie and the more in-depth interviews we are currently editing. From there, the program offers various topics to explore in more detail, in the form of training, a facilitated round-table discussion or a workshop. We’ve prototyped and tested parts of this new venture and we are very excited by the first reactions!

I’m very excited about this project and all that is still to come. Keep discussing, keep reflecting, and keep doing. And please don’t spare us your criticism, or your compliments!

The screening took place at the woodcraft workshop of ITESM in Puebla, Mexico. We thought that making this event in the workshop would have a closer impact than in a conventional auditorium. There was a big expectation for the documentary, many of the assistants had been watching the trailer for weeks and were enthusiastic for our mini premier.

The only requirement for the assistance was to bring popcorn and a coach, chair, carpet, or anything they found comfortable to sit on. They took this instruction seriously and there were all kinds of sits, even mattresses. This all made a casual and comfortable place to meet and watch the documentary.

The attendance was mostly students of industrial design and engineering, teachers, arquitects and design professionals. During the film we were curious of how it took the attention of everyone in the shop and we were anxious to know their opinions.

At the end of the film we asked them: What was their impression of the documentary? Or what would they take from it? There were many interesting and illustrative comments, especially from the students, some of them were amazed and others not that much.

-        “I’m confused. Is design about business or innovation?”

-        “Now I get what they have been explaining me for the last month.”

-        “What can be created by design thinking is more holistic and strategic than I thought it was”

-        “The vision of a designer is an integrative tool in the process of creating”

-        “I feel different as a designer and I like this new perspective of the work I’m doing”

We are very pleased with the impact that this documentary has created and we feel that it has left an interesting momentum of creating from a more holistic and integrative point of view.

Here are some photos and reactions from the screening that CEDIM kindly hosted in their facilities in Monterrey, México. 

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Having a background in Business and International Relations, and working in International Logistics, but a passionate for Design, as a current student of the CEDIM’s Master in Business Innovation, this movie reflects the current business environment where the old way of doing things in a cold manner is not longer the best way to run a Company, nowadays every company no matter if it is small or big should apply and follow the rules of Design Thinking and Innovation to Business, and every business person or every designer should become an hybrid thinker, part business, part designer, part human, and apply a high design to every business area, this is how I want to change the way international transportation is working today, and this movie really helps changing the paradigms that mostpeople have about design and business.

Alejandro Castillo Maldonado
CEO
Casmal Cargo & Projects Mexico
www.casmal.com

Our press kit is also now available for download. 

 On January 5^th, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) kicked-off the year with the long-anticipated US premiere of “Design the New Business” at Philadelphia University. Here to present and discuss the making of the documentary was Erik van Bergen, one of the six designers who helped create the film. Overall, the event was a tremendous success and we had a great turnout. Close to 50 designers, engineers, small business owners and students were in attendance and eager to see the film.

At every IDSA Philly event, it’s important to provide our members with the sense they learned something new from the experience. I had an opportunity to interview many who attended and everyone felt the basis of documentary, merging both business practices with design thinking, had a positive influence on them. Many felt that listening to the different points of views, from so many established professionals all focusing on the need for design thinking in an increasingly changing and competitive marketplace, was extremely relevant to their own situations. As for myself, I was excited and inspired to learn more on the subject of design thinking and to consider how I can put it into practice.

I’d like to thank Erik van Bergen for taking the time to present this documentary to IDSA Philly. I’d also like to thank Philadelphia University who hosted the event. In keeping with some of the insights from the documentary, the school’s College of Design, Engineering and Commerce features an integrated curriculum among the different disciplines to help prepare students for real-world innovation in multidisciplinary teams. Soon Philadelphia University will also launch a new graduate program called a “Strategic Design Executive MBA.” This program aims to prepare a new generation of innovative professionals and leaders who integrate both business and design thinking in practice.

Therefore we’ve developed a workshop format that allows viewers to watch and discuss the movie in a focused manner, geared to their specific interest or issue. We have developed 8 initial themes, each with their own workshop toolkit. The toolkit stimulates the conversation, and consists of an introductory presentation, a set of questions, a set of quotes from the movie, posters for communicating, and a set of online resources to explore during the workshop. Depending on the workshop setting we can expand the toolkit with case studies pertaining to the specific theme.

Here are the 8 themes:
Theme 1: Business in transition

What new challenges are modern businesses facing compared to 10 years ago? Are companies employing new ways of coping with these challenges? Which methods work, which don’t, and why?

Theme 2: Design in transition

Compared to 10 years ago, what are the new challenges that designers are facing? Are designers employing new ways to cope with these challenges? Which new tools are they applying and how effective are they?

Theme 3: Educating design and business

How are business and design schools integrating each others’ expertise in their programs and should they? Can you teach design thinking to business students and business thinking to design students? What sort of educational techniques does this require?

Theme 4: The customer centered paradigm

Why is it so hard for many companies to be truly customer centered and how can they change their paradigm? What does customer centricity imply in practice and how does it affect branding and innovation?

Theme 5: Building understanding for new approaches

How can new approaches to dealing with complex issues (like design thinking, customer centricity, open innovation, co-creation and service dominant logic) be introduced to organizations? How can you overcome the initial tendency to stick with the old and discard the new?

Theme 6: The meaning and value of design thinking

What does design thinking mean for organisations, and how can it help to bring actual value to business and customers alike? How is it different from other ways of working, and in which cases is it effective? How do you build a culture in which design thinking can flourish.

Theme 7: Working together across silos

How can you enhance cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental collaboration within organisations? What is required in terms of soft skills (empathy, openness, understanding, enthusiasm), and hard skills (project management, planning, stakeholder management, task division) to get the job done?

Theme 8: Combining metrics with emotions

How can you combine hard quantitative data with deep emotional customer insights? How do you perform research that provides you with both reliable and valid data? How do quantitative and qualitative researchers work in harmony to create the big picture? And where do you go from there: how do you go from data to insights to solutions?

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In addition to these 8 themes we can provide your group with insights and cases regarding brand-driven innovation, service design, strategic design and innovation, and customer insight research. If you’re interested in a workshop around one of these themes, or would prefer a custom workshop tailored to your specific needs, please contact us.

Let’s talk!