Page 219 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

5. Discussion 207
challenged existing practices and perspectives at Fjord. Interestingly, during my fieldwork I also reached out to other design organizations (such as LiveWork in the Netherlands), who integrated ‘business design’ as an organization-wide capability rather than a separate role. Future research could further explore what are the implications of these two different approaches to business design, with respect to how it helps designers bring together the world of design and business.
While the previous emphasized how the roles and skills of creatives are changing, this does not mean that creatives are completely drifting away from what they formerly did. In fact, in Chapter 2 of this dissertation research it is for example suggested that attempt to hold onto former prac- tices and protect their identity as a professional designer. Through desig- ning artifacts they become better craftsmen and maintain a sense of stabi- lity in their work. Similarly, in Chapter 4, it is suggested that even though Waag Society’s creatives organize liminality for their clients, they do not stop themselves from developing new technologies and creative solutions. In fact, Waag Society is internationally appreciated as a frontrunner in developing social innovations, such as the FairPhone. Taken together, it is suggested that as the work of creatives is changing, for creatives it might be beneficial to adopt diverse roles and enhance their skills of connecting and translating, without letting go of their identity and practices as craftsmen.
Implications for Design Schools. While in recent years there has been more attention for the benefits of integrating design into the business curriculum (Dunne & Martin 2006; Glen, Suciu & Baughn 2014), there is also something to say for integrating business and management into the design curriculum. Commonly, designers see business as the ‘Other’ with which they define themselves in opposite terms. For example, in my fieldwork, the designers went at length to emphasize that they were diffe- rent from their ‘business counterparts’ even though they were working in similar domains (see Chapter 3). For example, they emphasized that busi- ness tend to think from a rational, cost-saving and product perspective while designers first think from a more intuitive, user friendly and enga- gement perspective. As a consequence, while designers are comfortable in ‘doing design’, they often have little knowledge about the ‘business’ of design. Hence, it can be beneficial to teach designers ‘business know-how’ in Design Schools.
Design without business, as some critics propose, is likely to fail. Without business know-how, there might be a lack of market overview (competition and positioning), unprofitable or unrealizable business model, arbitrary pricing, over-optimistic marketing and disregard of the company’s assets and strategy. Integrating business and management in