9.6.2010

FROM CONSUMPTION TO CONTRIBUTION

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”, reminded IDEO’s Co-Creative Officer Paul Bennett in his presentation on design innovation.

“Do we need an interactive milk can that speaks with the refrigerator – or interactive shoe laces? At least companies based on these ‘innovations’ quickly disappeared from the market.”

Bennett said that even though the last few years have been tough for many business leaders and to whole economies except Australia, there is a lesson to be learned from the recession. Gordon Gekko might be around again in the film Wall Street 2 with his famous words “greed is good”, but consumption is changing.

“Some companies have learned that customers want higher purposes from the brands that they consume. That’s why IKEA doesn’t sell furniture in its ads, it sells homes, and Nokia helps customers in Africa with bicycle chargers. We are moving from consumption to contribution. Companies should ask themselves, are we making the pie bigger or are we just after our slice?”

“Before, capitalistic companies made money and third sector organizations gave it back as charity. With for example clean technologies, you can nowadays do both money and good at the same time,” Bennett concluded.

Founded in 1991, IDEO is a global innovation and design firm that uses a human-centred, design-based approach to help organizations grow and innovate. PV