Tag Archive for 'Design'

Rethinking Business?

Imagine a crazy wonderland where most of what you learned in business school is either upside down or backward. A land where customers control the company, jobs are avenues of self-expression, the barriers to competition are out of your control, strangers design your products, fewer features are better, advertising drives customers away, demographics are beside the point, whatever you sell you take back, and best practices are obsolete at birth. Meaning talks, money walks, and stability is fantasy. Talent trumps obedience, imagination beats knowledge, and empathy trounces logic.

If you’ve been paying close attention, you don’t have to imagine this scenario. You see it forming all around you. The only question is whether you can change your business, your brand, and your thinking fast enough to take full advantage of it. Read more.

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Coke’s Restyling Efforts

Five years ago, Coca-Cola’s design chief was told: “We need to do more with design. Go figure it out.” Now his labors are bearing fruit. Read more.

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Business & “Architectural Wonders”

Beijing Aiport


BusinessWeek’s section “Innovation” features a report on architectural wonders around the world. You now may wonder what Design has to do with business? Well, increasingly “design thinking” (user-centred approach) is becoming the centre of stage to evolve the customer experience. Even during the last World Economic Forum designers were invited to emphasise on the connection between business and design.

Here a short overview of the architectural wonders as highlighted by BusinessWeek:

The prospect of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games have created an explosion of new buildings and dynamic renovations in The City of London.

From times immemorial, Italy is know from its innovative structures, built during ancient times, whose design still inspires plenty of architects. Currently, many high-profile architects are turning their sight on Italy which results in new contemporary architectures across Italy.

As oil reserves are shrinking, Dubai is shifting its focus from an Oil power to a hot spot for tourism. To become a highly attractive tourist destination Dubai is building new breathtakingly architectural tour the forces. Including many world’s first seen architecture as well, such as an underwater luxury resort.

As China climbs up the economic ladder and the Being 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Expo are in foresight it is steadily working on its appearance before the global audience tunes in during these two events.

More information on business in relation to design is written in the article “The Power of Design” by the FastCompany and “The Creative Corporation” by BusinessWeek. A podcast on this topic can be found here. For now, keep in mind that “design” goes far beyond letterhead.

Hydropolis

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What’s Next for Apple? - The Next Apple gear?

Apple Logo
Apple’s lead in digital music is growing even as an army of corporate powerhouses - Dell, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony among them - spends hundreds of millions of dollars to grab a slice of the business. And the financial transformation driven by Apple’s storming of the music stage has been profound: On its knees when Steve Jobs (chairman) retook control in 1997, Apple is coming off a year in which revenue rose 33 percent and profits quadrupled. Its stock, not surprisingly, has been on a tear, up more than sixfold in the past two years and now hovering around $42 a share.

It has become a parlor game in some quarters to try to divine where Apple is going and how it intends to get there - and not just at the dozens of blogs that traffic in Apple rumors. Recently, Microsoft quietly hired a former Apple design executive whose mission is to help Bill Gates’s baby behave more like Steve Jobs’s. Business 2.0 has lay-down some interesting future designs of Apple products which are listed below, to make sure this are not offical announced future Apple products.

PODWATCH
A wrist-worn iPod would keep time and play music, using Bluetooth to wirelessly beam tunes to earbuds or headphones.
PodWatch

WIRELESS iPOD
A portable player would utilize Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and enable users to remotely connect to the iTunes store or the music kept on their computers. The dark color distinguishes it from today’s iPods, which require wired connections to download or listen to songs.
Wireless iPod

vPOD
A digital image/iPod combo would feature a camera for still photos and video and would wirelessly sync with iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes. A low-power color screen would serve as a viewfinder when the vPod is closed and as a larger display when it’s open.
vPod

iHOME
This Wi-Fi-based home network and media server would be the ultimate digital appliance, managing everything from music and photos to TV recording and office tasks. Shown here are the system’s hub, an IP handset for Web-based calls, an iSight device for videoconferencing, and a single iRemote to control it all.
iHome

iPHONE
A simplified wireless phone married to an iPod would feature Apple’s signature scroll wheel for navigation and a slide-out keypad.
iPhone

In many ways, for the first time in more than a decade, Apple has a chance to become a commercially powerful company - not just a very cool place with a superstar CEO and brilliant designers, but a leader in new markets that are exponentially bigger than the very computer industry it pioneered.

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