An alum recently sent me the link to this post on ICSID about Design Education and the Corporate Partner. In it, Dr. Mark Brietenberg states:

Many international companies, such as General Electric, Nike, Hewlett Packard, Intel Corporation, and others, are devoting a larger share of their research and development budget to shared projects with design schools. Again, this is important evidence that corporate thinking about design is changing: these are partnerships involving innovation strategy and advanced research, not work for hire.

The article suggests that corporations get the benefit of the great ideas and “blue sky” thinking of young talent, willing to takes risks, and the students benefit from the opportunity to do real-life problem-solving and make presentations. The piece makes some excellent points about the importance of collaboration between the business world and designers, and it reminds me of the value of such partnerships for our students and why we create them as often as possible at Portfolio Center. This post is especially interesting in light of this August Business Week article, Designing the Future of Business, by Marty Neumeier, which illustrates the growing relationship between business and design and includes these statistics:

A 2007 survey by Kelton Research for Autodesk (ADSK) found that when seven in 10 Americans recalled the last time they saw a product they just had to have, it was because of design. The survey found that among younger people (18 to 29 years old), the influence of design was even more pronounced. In Britain, a recent survey by the Design Council found that 16% of British businesses say design tops their list of key success factors. Among “rapidly growing” businesses, no fewer than 47% rank it first.

Trackback.