The Study Group for Industrial Competitiveness and Designs, a project particularly of the JPO’s Design Division, ended with a “Declaration” published on May 23, 2018, after meetings stretched out over ten months. The JPO recently published a report and interview on this development in the online magazine “Tokkyo,” August-September 2018 issue.
Daisuke Kubota of the JPO’s Design Division pointed out in the published interview the success that western corporations such as Apple and Dyson have had in growing business through management that centered around good designs.
The “‘Design Management’ Declaration” urges, assuming the prerequisite of a capable and active company design overseer and active involvement in design planning from top levels,
1. The overseer of designs should be involved in the management team.
2. Designs should be involved in the business, product, or service planning process from the beginning.
3. A team of Design Management should exist and be able to affect planning throughout the organization.
4. Design management should use its design-focused methods to find and fit designs to the hidden needs of consumers
5. The company should run on an agile business model, repeatedly and rapidly innovating and testing.
6. The company should hire and train design-minded team members (in and outside of the official Design Management team).
7. The company should design rubrics to evaluate the process and outcomes of the designs planning, in order to promote long-term value.
(Keisen paraphrase of Japanese)
Mr. Kubota affirmed the progress that various Japanese companies have made in working on their designs in business and said that the JPO will be backing up the recommendations with conferences and other opportunities for Japanese enterprises to think through and build business through designs.
Japan has a rich legacy of great designs, and as domestic businesses hone their designs, international enterprises to Japan will need to continue to sharpen theirs as well.
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Taro Yaguchi
Sources
Japan Patent Office. “デザイン経営と意匠制度の未来 [Design Management and the Future of the Industrial Designs System],” Tokkyo 38 (August-September 2018), online version.
