The Design Council have put together a report called Leading Business by Design, containing a group of case studies to see how various world-class companies like O2, Barclays and Virgin Atlantic used design and the impact it had on them.

The report highlights our three key findings on how businesses can benefit from design:

• 1. Design is customer-centred – Benefit is greatest when design is intimately related to solving problems, especially customers’ problems.
• 2. Design is most powerful when culturally embedded – It works best when it has strong support in the organisation, especially from senior management.
• 3. Design can add value to any organisation – Design can benefit manufacturing and service-based organisations, small, medium or large.

Leading business by design also offers our eight recommendations for how companies can maximise the impact of design:

1. Don’t limit the context in which design can operate
2. Use design to differentiate
3. Integrate design and branding
4. Introduce a design process
5. Trust and support your design talent
6. Embed design in your organisational culture
7. Design your work environment
8. Don’t let the designer’s role be a straitjacket