Best Practices in Corporate Design

The Heineken keg can, introduced in 2000

The late graphic artist Paul Rand is credited with the expression "good design is good business." Thomas Lockwood* has honored his legacy by cataloging a number of best practices followed by businesses that incorporate design into their corporate culture.

In an article derived from his doctoral thesis, Lockwood promotes the following ideas he has seen in action at these companies:

1. Innovate by separating and differentiating the processes for managing legacy designs from those for managing new, "quick-release" designs (Nike), thereby allowing the former process to maintain the company's heritage while the second becomes the engine for reinvention.
2. Keep the brand fresh but coherent by introducing innovative packaging that echoes iconic elements from the brand's heritage (Heineken).**
3. Use iconography with a common design style to present a consistent visual image across all sub-brands. Microsoft maintains consistent imagery across more than 6000 icons for its Windows and Office platforms.
   
4. Reinforce the information architecture with the design architecture by using identical icons and names for corresponding features and functionality across all product lines (Microsoft).
5. Engage customers in the product design process as requirements are developed and preliminary designs are reviewed (British Airways).
6. Reinforce cultural norms by designing work environments that promote those values. StorageTek promoted collaboration and creativity by remodeling common areas in its buildings with inviting lighting, materials and color pallets and using these spaces to showcase the work of local artists.
7. Formalize design rigorously after developing design concepts creatively. Nike uses "sandbox meetings" with three-person development teams to come up with concepts, then expands the teams with specialists to drive designs to final forms.
8. Treat design as a capital resource that both requires investment and creates on-going, differential value. Starbucks empowers key resources to review store designs and merchandise selections and schemes so that the essential brand experience can be preserved as the enterprise expands and develops.

By following these principles of alignment, empowerment, and process discipline, organizations can develop and maintain distinctive brands that concisely convey their values.

*See Integrating Design Into Corporate Culture, by Thomas Lockwood, Design Management Review, Spring 2004.

**See Shape of beer to come. Beverage packaging gets more emphasis, The New York Times, The Media Business: Advertising, 22-June-1999.

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies

Digital Restaurant Design

Design in process (Autodesk)

Among the important PLM techniques now being applied to restaurant design is rapid visualization of 3D interior spaces and kitchens. The more sophisticated of these tools now incorporate parametric modeling, allowing the designer to build business rules into the design process itself. For example, the designer may require that customer aisles be at least 2 feet wide; that hanging lamps never fall below 7 feet from the floor; and that kitchen equipment never throw off more heat in an area than the HVAC system can handle.

Digital architectural modeling:

• Promotes early review of design and functionality by non-technical users of the design process, such as executives from operations, marketing and procurement
• Avoids expensive building of prototypes while permitting extensive trial and error
  
• Preserves a record of the design history
• Allows designers to reuse components of the design in future models
• Facilitates cooperation among spatially and temporally separated contributors

We consider it an indispensable component of Retail Lifecycle Management (RLM).

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies

The US Export Opportunity

Declining value of the US dollar as calculated by the US Federal Reserve Bank in their Index of Major Currencies, 5-Feb-08, 15-year trend

I recently asked a panel of experts in the food and beverage industries to rank a set of five topics by level of importance in their 2008 strategic plans. Among 6 respondents these were their rankings in order of importance:

1. Supply chain development
2. Product innovation
3. Outsourcing
4. International trade channel development
5. Safety and compliance

Results indicate continuing emphasis on the competitive necessity of reducing input costs by buying abroad (items 1 and 3), but also strong emphasis on innovation.

This analyst sees opportunity in international trade channel development (4) for U.S.-based multi-nationals in light of weakness in the U.S. dollar and the trade imbalances that are sustaining that weakness. U.S. businesses have gained price competitiveness, as the value of the US dollar has fallen more than 10% in the past year against major currencies and 33% since 9/11/01 (see chart above).

U.S. sales channels overseas have not developed nearly as fully as have our supply channels, despite the fact that U.S. made products are generally valued for their quality and safety. In part this results from draconian government policies in China, now our largest trading partner, which prevent Chinese consumers from fully participating in the value they create. This imbalance has become so extreme and prolonged that some analysts are predicting that it will cause substantial unrest within the next couple of years.

Nonetheless, in China, India, Brazil and other rapidly developing countries the fast-growing middle classes represent important potential markets for U.S. goods. Manufacturers are advised to invest in opening trade channels to these consumers and take advantage of excess ocean container capacity flowing into these markets.

See "Midwest Manufacturers Fight to Stay Competitive in Global Marketplace", On Line NewsHour, 29-Nov-07

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies

Kellogg's Reformulation

The sweet heart of the corn, 1900


When a publicly traded company undertakes a strategy in the public interest at the risk of slowing its growth in the short term, we ought to take notice. Kellogg's decision to curtail advertising to children for products that do not meet specific nutritional guidelines is a bold redirection of some of its largest and most profitable portfolios.

In June, 2007 Kellogg announced that by the end of 2008 it would stop advertising to children under twelve those cereals and snacks that do not meet specific nutrient guidelines. Those guidelines require that a single serving not:

1. Exceed 200 calories
2. Contain any trans fats
3. Exceed 2 grams of saturated fat
4. Exceed 230 grams of sodium (except frozen Eggo waffles)
5. Exceed 12 grams of sugar, not counting sugar from fruit, dairy or vegetables

The announcement is specific in its definition of advertising media, encompassing television, radio, internet and print. Kellogg further stipulated that it would not:

• Use licensed characters, (such as Shrek or other Disney characters) on the front panels of products marketed to preteens
• Sponsor product placements in media directed at preteen or use branded toys connected to products that do not meet the guidelines. However, Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle, Pop, Toucan Sam and other characters that are owned by Kellogg Company may continue to be used in identifying Kellogg products.

Kellogg fully understands the importance of preteen advertising; this announcement is about its intent to be a leader in providing nutritious products. Implicitly Kellogg is committing its resources to invest in reformulating some of its best-selling and most profitable products. For, while most cereals fall within the calorie and fat guidelines, many exceed the sodium and sugar limits.

Many may not realize that Kellogg's commitment to nutrition is as old as the Kellogg Company itself. W.K. Kellogg founded the modern company in 1906 to market a product that had its roots in a formulation developed by his brother, John Harvey Kellogg, the director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. In 1930 W.K. Kellogg's trust established the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, an $8 billion charitable organization that has made major contributions in support of nutrition and healthy living worldwide. The Foundation is the single largest stockholder of Kellogg Company, holding 24% of the company's stock.

In announcing its intention to curtail advertising of certain products to children, Kellogg Company is resolving a longstanding internal conflict between its goals to promote health and shareholder value.

See the announcement of the expansion of the W.K. Kellogg Institute for Food and Nutrition Research made 12-December-2007 (click here)

For a humorous, fictionalized account of the early days of "Cereal City", when Battle Creek, Michigan was the center of a grain-based health food craze, see The Road to Wellville, by T.C. Boyle (Viking, 1993) and the movie by the same title, directed by Alan Parker, 1994.

See: "A case study of sodium reduction in breakfast cereals and the impact of the Pick the Tick food information program in Australia," by Peter Williams, Anne McMahon and Rebecca Boustead in Health Promotion International (2003) click here

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies

Using Parametric Modeling to Design Retail Space

This video from YouTube illustrates the power of parametric design modeling for both consumer products and stores. The architect set out to design desktop accessories, then modeled their entire display environment for the flagship Alessi store in New York City.

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies

See The design behind the NYC flagship Alessi store

The Service-Oriented Enterprise: A Parable

Mona Shaw found just the tool to register her complaint about service, or lack thereof, at Comcast's Manassas office. (By Richard A. Lipski -- The Washington Post)


When customer service is critical to an organization's mission and sustainability, it ought to be managed as a commercial function, reporting to sales, marketing or the CEO. If organized as a cost center reporting to operations it is likely to starve and fail.

The case of Mona Shaw, as detailed in the Washington Post (Taking a Whack against Comcast) illustrates how a seemingly law-abiding citizen turned to vigilante justice at her local Comcast office to get the attention of a company whose practices echo Lily Tomlin's Ernestine: "We're the phone company. We don't care. We don't have to."

Ms. Shaw, 75, had put her trust in the local cable utility to provide her household with television, telephone and internet services. Her experience--missed appointments, unresponsive bureaucracy, incomplete installation, inaccurate and incomplete documentation and general inattentiveness--appears not to be unusual if one can believe the posts to website ComcastMustDie.com. After a series of attempts to get her service installed, Mrs. Shaw made a special trip to her local Comcast office to talk to a supervisor. Following a two-hour wait she was told that the supervisor had gone for the day. When she returned with a hammer a few days later and started smashing office equipment, she got the attention of Comcast, the local police and the national media.

Our own experience with Comcast revealed a number of structural issues, systems inadequacies, unfortunate policies and inappropriate behaviors that ought to trouble the company's stockholders. In brief, somehow the cable line to our home had been cut. Over a two-week period Comcast sent three technicians out to the house to examine our television sets before they sent anyone out who could reconnect the outside line. Oddly, none of the technicians seemed to have any of the details of the previous visits. In fact, neither of the first two techs turned in paperwork, and by Comcasts rules, which apparently are more hard-wired than the network, a lineman can not be dispatched until a home service tech notes that one is required. Customer service reps and their supervisors were empowered to do nothing more than offer apologies and a few free channels for a few months. Not surprisingly, getting a credit to the bill for the two weeks without service required another call to the accounting department.

However one feels about Mrs. Shaw's approach, my own experience with the company's record-keeping leads me to question Comcast's comment on the Shaw incident:

"Truly a unique and inappropriate situation," says Beth Bacha, a vice president for Comcast. She says company policy forbids disclosure of clients' records, but did say their files note that the service record wasn't exactly what Shaw has indicated. Besides, "nothing justifies this sort of dangerous behavior."

Comcast stockholders (stock ticker CMCSA) must be concerned that the company's local monopolies over wired television service are being threatened by AT&T's new IPTV offerings, which will provide digital television service to subscribers over the DSL network. It will be interesting to see how well AT&T can integrate its expanded offerings and service performance at the household level.

National Public Radio's Madeleine Brand interviewed Ms. Shaw. (Click hear to listen.) "Woman Hammers Comcast -- Over and Over"

See also Comcast's more detailed comments on their service in a letter by Comcast Senior Vice President of Customer Service, Rick Germano to Ad Age on December 17, 2007 (requires reqistration). That letter is reprinted by Bob Garfield in his December 12, 2007 post, Mea Culpa.

See The Essential Guide to Telecommunications by Annabelle Z. Dodd (Prentice Hall, 2005) for an overview of emerging and competing technologies in telecommunications

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies