Design to Compete

Deepa Prahalad and Ravi Sawhney

Today, firms in all industries find themselves competing on design. The concept of design has broadened beyond the purely aesthetic and now includes every aspect of the consumer’s interaction and experience with the brand.

Companies invest vast resources into innovation and strategy. They hire market researchers, consultants, and armies of internal staff to identify new opportunities and develop new concepts. Yet the results are less than encouraging: Some studies suggest that 70 percent of strategies never get executed and more than 80 percent of new product introductions fail or underperform. Of course, there are visible exceptions in the most crowded and competitive industries such as Apple ...