DESIGN THINKING AND SERVICES: WHY THIS IS NEW AND NEEDED
I just finished the inspirational book ‘Change By Design’ from Tim Brown. You can feel the passion as Tim describes the difference between being a designer and thinking like a designer. That passion, like most other passions, is contagious. For me it was revealing, because it explains why service innovation or service design are still relatively new topics in the business world. I have been working in that area for more than 20 years, but service innovation was always part of marketing or business development. And it was never called that way. And there was no R&D department for services, even though most of the revenue and the profit were provided by services. That is still the case in many companies. In Western economies services accounts for more than 80% of GDP, but there are not many service companies who have their own ‘innovation labs’. This is a huge opportunity AND a must as well. A must, because services (and experiences) are the only sustainable way of growing and c