It’s not even a word. It’s a phrase. And no, Design Orientation is not a buzz phrase either.

For the past 50 or so years, business has embraced finance orientation for the purpose of shareholder value maximization. The complete and utter failure of this orientation cannot be ignored. Business and capitalism as we know it are in crisis (though we wouldn’t know it since we, collectively, are keeping these failed institutions alive with our future tax dollars). The very notion that the largest banks and corporations are too big to fail yet do so liberally (or are literally saved at taxpayer expense) should bring every big business and finance strategist of the last 50 years to shame. The fact of the matter is that finance orientation and shareholder value maximization have literally gutted not only the corporate coffers, but also the socioeconomic fabric of capitalism — threatening the very root of our social order — for the sake of a few greedy shareholders at the very top.

Indeed, this soul-searching by business — for literally a better soul — has lead to design, but robbing the soul of design (by asserting an assumed control of Design Thinking) will only lead to sugarcoating a fundamentally flawed system that is in serious need of criticism and modification.

I do believe that the new model for business orientation is — in fact — Design Orientation on the road to customer value maximization, leading to repairing the damage done to our socioeconomic fabric and ultimately saving the soul of business.

Design Orientation is the proper language to use when honestly admitting that business needs to orient itself toward a different direction of doing business.

Design Orientation acknowledges the role of design in business and promotes collaboration between management and designers at the highest rungs of the decision making ladder, emoting a shift toward a new social and hierarchical order.

Design Orientation is a paradigm shift ripe for adoption by the business community (ample references to yours truly notwithstanding).

Old Paradigm: Finance Orientation

The focus, motivation, driving force — hence orientation of business was the following (in order of importance), leading to the global financial crisis and systematic failure of Capitalism as we know it:

1. Shareholders.
2. Vendors.
3. The product or service.
4. Customers.
5. Labor and unaffiliated stakeholders.

New Paradigm: Design Orientation

The focus, motivation, driving force — hence orientation of business is the following (in order of importance), leading to customer value maximization:

1. The product or service.
2. Customers.
3. Labor.
4. Vendors and unaffiliated stakeholders.
5. Shareholders.

Together, let us design a more balanced, sustainable and mutually prosperous future.

Design Orientation is Not a Buzzword by Raymond Pirouz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at raymondpirouz.tumblr.com.
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Further Reading:

Design Defined