Global events and developments challenge both private and public organisations to rethink the ways they are going about their ‘business’ to achieve their objectives, fulfil their mandates and succeed in a dramatically changing environment. Design researches and design practitioners argue that successful organisations are those that develop and foster internal design capabilities.
But what does this mean? What counts as design capability? Where within an organisation do design capabilities ‘live’, where should they be developed and located? What is needed and who is needed to develop advanced design capabilities that serve organisations in the pursuit of their vision and in the fulfilment of their purpose? What examples can we look to and learn from in Switzerland and internationally?
How can managers in organisations and design professionals benefit from state-of-the-art design research and new design methods? What roles can design research assume and what tasks can design research address as part of a future-oriented organisation?
This symposium connects researchers, private entrepreneurs, designers and managers in public organisations to generate answers to these questions but also to shed light on the intersection of design research, design theory and design practice in the organisational context.