Design-driven development in business strategy

Abstract

With rapidly changing markets and ultrafast technology development – a business model can be outdated before the ink is dry. The ability to shift and adapt as a business has become more crucial than ever. We see huge, international and well-established companies succumb when failing to keep pace and only a small fraction of new start-ups live to see their 5th birthday. To avoid “future shock” in an organisation, developing a business model that accounts for these dynamics is important not only to succeed, but to survive.

Through a Design Science framework and the Grounded Theory, performing semi-structured interviews with design experts, I have developed a comprehensive analysis and understanding of the research problem. In-depth interviews with open-ended questions provided the expert data that defined the overall concepts, their subordinate attributes and advocated the importance of using design-driven approaches to developing business strategies.

This resulted in the D.I.S.C. (Design, Innovation, Success and Company Culture) artifact, in form of a low-fidelity model and illuminating guidelines which are simple, clear and actionable as put forward by here presented research and literature. It recommends a design-driven approach to developing a business strategy, that equips an organisation for the dynamic, unpredictable future.