Knowledge wave: Design aims to fill gap

Rick Wells is charged with implementing the design strategy.

Kiwis are good at coming up with new ideas, but there's been a yawning gap between our innovation and our ability to commercialise it.

That gap is what the $12.5 million strategy for design - one of four sectors singled out by the Government's GIF framework - has set out to reduce. It aims to help more New Zealand companies put their products on the world map.

Specifically, it aims to help at least 50 exporters embrace the type of design strategies that have driven the export success of companies such as Fisher & Paykel, Methven and Icebreaker.

The goal is to see them generate an extra $500 million in export earnings over the next five years. Eighteen months on, how is the strategy tracking against these goals?

Rick Wells, deputy chairman of the seven-member Better by Design Advisory Board, is charged with implementing the board strategy.

He is pleased with the progress and with the level of business interest in the programme.

So far $6.5 million has been spent on a package of initiatives the board devised to help businesses rise to the challenge of being design led.

This included a three-day design conference in Auckland, a website, a design audit and mentoring programme, a directory of local designers and design services, funding for design projects, communications and marketing, and education classes to increase the design capability of businesses.

In many ways the Better by Design conference in March was the official launch of the strategy. About 350 business and design leaders were invited to hear big name speakers, such as international management guru Tom Peters and chief executive of worldwide design firm IDEO Tim Brown, encourage them to put design on the front burner.

By last month, 15 companies had been through the design audit pilot programme which tests the design awareness and capability of a company and is followed up by a mentoring programme to help them with practical ways to use design to expand their business.

The list includes outdoor equipment and clothing company Macpac, hockey apparel company OBO, bedroom furniture maker Design Mobel, Phil and Ted's buggies and kayak manufacturer Current Craft Perception.

In September, a series of design management and strategy programmes will be held around the country to upskill senior managers and design professionals and will run for two years.

Wells, managing director of Lower Hutt furniture manufacturer Formway, said that, on their own, the individual initiatives wouldn't do the job, but should be looked at like parts of a jigsaw.

"The end goal is to generate more foreign exchange earnings," he said.

"These programmes all contribute towards that end."

It was still too early to judge whether the goals were too ambitious.

However, there was still a lot of work ahead.

Initiatives still in the pipeline include a design in business academic forum, funding an international design cluster, and a design accreditation programme.

Project manager for Better by Design at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Stephen Gibbs said one of the challenges was getting businesses to see design not as styling or branding, but as a strategy for global competitiveness.

The programme was now entering phase two and the focus was to boost the number of companies entering the programmes.

The year ahead would also see the programme work more closely with the design community to make sure New Zealand has the design expertise those companies needed.