Business

As founder(s) you cannot be scared of making tough decisions for the good of your business; the longer you let things lie, the tougher (and more expensive) it can be to resolve them.

You have to empower your board to make their own decisions, follow their instinct, and execute. Think of your board in many ways as a team of entrepreneurs that you're investing in, rather than as employees that you manage.

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of hiring a table of yes-men. This is great for ego, bad for business. You need to hire people who are smarter or more experienced than you in those specific roles. They may often challenge you and re-structure your thoughts, but this is important for good governance.

Understanding truly why a failure occurred and making peace with it is the first step to being able to move-forward- it allows you to identify where the gaps where in you and your enterprise, and hopefully will give you insights into where you need more support, education and attention.

Management that is forced into near time results and paybacks is not tuned for the sort of messages that design has to offer––those of long term customer relationships, of innovative approaches to creating desirable uniqueness.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

What is the value of asking the right question to prompt the right answer? It would be difficult to find a sector that design and/or design thinking cannot impact.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

Other enterprises understand design for what it is, the backbone of their corporate culture as well as the summation of all experiences their clients will have with their services and products––and as such well worth the investment of time and resources.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

I hesitate to respond bluntly but 'design' to many businesses is an invisible element somehow present without effort…like 'free wifi'. And, as my son says, to his generation, 'wifi is like air'––taken for granted and only notable when the quality is bad or (god forbid!) it is not there at all.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

Design is the great 're-configurer' of problems for business… for example design takes an engineering solution for transmitting signals called a phone and reconfigures it into a hyper complex problem of glass and metal shapes, etc.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

They took a relative view of risk... They had an understanding of the risks of something going wrong, but balanced that against missing an opportunity. When that opportunity exceeded the risk of going wrong? That's when they jumped.

It was not wealth or fame that these people wanted... These individuals had, in their own minds, observed a particular customer need that wasn't being met. They were wired in such a way, that this need seemed obvious to them.

Look at something like Uber... on balance- it's still a taxi service! In the end, what they designed was a different way to connect customers and a service provider using technology, leading to a better experience for both.

80% of self-made billionaires we studied made their mark in mature, competitive markets. They weren't all 'exactly' new products that came out – they were maybe a variation of a business model or existing product that pleased the customer in a different way.

At Dyson our philosophy has always been to invest in the long term. To power our 25 year pipeline of technology we have just announced a further £1.5 billion investment into new research and development on top of our current spending of £3 million a week. You cannot create disruptive technology without investing heavily in the long term.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

We often project our 'superhero' aspirations onto our leaders and vulnerability, and other more human traits, are not always encouraged. Organisational leaders often experience loneliness, and the 'truth' within their company is often illusive to them because subordinates will often tell them what they want to hear.

I've met many entrepreneurs who feel it's almost cheating themselves to have time-off, relax, or indulge things which are not directly profit-generating- but then the overwhelming majority of those I meet who have really made it are also the ones who do actively make time to feed their interests, have periods of mental space, and allow their brains to work creatively.