McKinsey's sweet spot: discussing what leaders are just about missing or what they should be paying attention to. Is design too ephemeral for the big M? Not if it's approached properly. Here's how:
In a recent McKinsey article on digitization and disruption we see a tiny mention of the association between market disruption and design services in the last lines of the discussion followed by further by in a McKinsey discussion on the re-making the manufacturing industry by the use of cycles of disassembly and quite well investigating the consumeable and durable factors in product design. Service design aside, a factor that has very few "re-useable" componenets, the recreation of the manufacturing industry to embody the acceptance of re-design and the "use the purest materials possible helps maintain their residual value and supports recycling and reuse" adds credibility to the circular economy.
Coming a little closer is the idea of Designing Products for Value another McKinsey closeup in the power of design but still leaving off the factors of emotional design and that of functionality closer to the hearts and ties of users. After all everyone remembers the look and the feeling of the chair their grandmother or grandfather sat in but certainly not if it was the most cost effective. Digitization may provide the tracking that is now part of all our lives but it is no different than design in it's impact in the ROI of successful firms.
