Efficient design can generate a bright future for SMEs

Jan 15 2008 By The Journal

FOLLOWING the successful delivery of workshops across the region, Designing Demand, the national Design Council initiative to help SMEs make more effective use of design, is now well underway across the North East. However, SMEs who are new to the programme can still become involved as it enters the exciting second phase – Generate.

Following a successful series of workshops which are currently being delivered throughout the region, Generate will provide businesses with the opportunity to undertake strategic projects with support from the Design Council, receiving up to five days’ free, expert one-to-one support from a Design Associate, who will help the business to identify and run the right project to move forward.

The programme, which is being delivered regionally by the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) and Entrust, and funded by One NorthEast and The European Regional Development Fund, is already underway in several regions throughout the UK. It aims to help and support businesses in using design to improve performance, with plans to reach 6,500 businesses nationwide by 2010, creating 4,120 jobs.

The inception of the programme was underlined by a review of Creativity in Business, commissioned by the Treasury in 2005. It concluded that businesses in the UK face increasingly tough competition from fast-growing economies such as India and China, as they look to move beyond low-cost manufacturing and up the value chain.

Designing Demand aims to address these matters, by singling out design as a key tool in exploiting new ideas, and getting them to market in the form of better products and services.

For more information on Designing Demand, contact Willie Herdman on 0191 516 6140, email willie.herdman@ne-bic.co.uk or visit www.designingdemand.org.uk

Design in business: facts from the Design Council

• Share prices of design-led companies out-performed the FTSE by 200% over ten years.

• Rapidly growing businesses are six times likelier than static ones to see design as integral to their operation.

• 83% of businesses which see design as integral have launched new products or services in the last three years, compared to just 40% of businesses overall.

• Every £100 design-led businesses invest in design repays £225 in increased sales.