Lord Sainsbury of Turville

Design Council Reception

We are also here tonight to thank Sir Christopher Frayling for helping to champion the Design Council as its Chairman over the last five years. He has stepped down to take over as Chairman of the Arts Council - their gain is our loss.

The UK is facing huge competition in business and intense pressure to deliver quality public services that meet people’s needs and expectations in the 21st Century. Our national performance and prosperity will increasingly depend on the creativity and inventiveness of our people to deliver on these. Design is a catalyst that will enable the UK to deliver.

Take the Apple IPOD. The technology for its development largely already existed. What made it such an iconic example of successful innovation was its design by the British designer, Jonathan Ives. Through understanding and meeting people’s needs and expectations, Jonathan delivered a highly desirable product, which was also a system – iTunes - and a service - iTunes Music Store. The result is transforming the global music jukebox market and looks like being a great commercial success story.

Only organisations that think about their customers in this way can expect to succeed in the future. This view is reinforced by a recent study which revealed that the share price of companies that used design well outperformed the FTSE 100 by 200% over the last ten years.

Design also has a powerful role to play in transforming the public sector. The libraries in the London borough of Tower Hamlets were transformed when they were redesigned as a new service, called Idea Store. As with the IPOD, the designers, Bisset Adams, went way beyond aesthetics. They used design to help revolutionise the service and reconnect it to the public. The result is the creation of a series of bright, new buildings in local shopping areas, combining lifelong learning and cultural attractions with all the services normally associated with libraries. The Idea Store service has resulted in a three-fold increase in visitors compared to the two libraries it replaced.

However, although the best are using design well, they are in the minority.

Not enough businesses use design to connect new ideas with market opportunities and a lack of design ingenuity usually indicates static or poor overall business performance. Research indicates that 90% of rapidly growing companies think design is integral or significant, compared to just 26% of static businesses.

Design can facilitate the transfer and commercialisation of new technologies. But it is rarely used as a transfer tool by universities or used effectively or at all by early-stage technology ventures. In addition, engineering, science and MBA graduates – tomorrow’s managers - have little understanding of the business relevance of design.

As we have all no doubt experienced firsthand, there is also considerable room for improvement in the use of design within public services.

So our challenge is to exploit fully the design excellence that exists on our doorstep through policies that bring about changes in the behaviours of UK management in both the private and public sectors.

Nationally, the Design Council is the catalyst for the delivery of this understanding of the value of design and how to use design in practice. Under the Stewardship of Sir Christopher Frayling, the Design Council has delivered significant successes.

As a leading figure from world of design education, Sir Christopher Frayling brought deep knowledge of design and popular culture - and the ability to communicate and inspire others about the potential of design.

The emphasis throughout his chairmanship was on communicating the benefits of design through programmes such as the Great Expectations international exhibitions, Design in Business Week, Designers into Schools week and so on. During this period, he has also overseen the transformation of the Design Council into one that has a clear campaigning role, matched by an ambitious new corporate strategy.

The new Corporate Strategy builds on successful projects to deliver a series of national design campaigns to help transform several sectors of the economy.

The results from the Design Council’s pilot projects, mentoring a small number of UK companies to use design more effectively, demonstrates the potential. For every pound invested by the Design Council, company sales have increased by £14. The challenge now is to further develop this support so that it can be delivered through regional and sectoral partners, such as the Manufacturing Advisory Service.

Design in education is also a priority. For most UK businesses, deciding when and how to use design is a decision that is rarely taken by a designer. This decision is usually made by managers, engineers and scientists, very few of whom will have had any formal training around design or managing the design process. So I support the Design Skills campaign, which this year will be working with 10 university Science and Enterprise Centres and will be running a post-graduate design placement scheme in manufacturing and technology companies. Again the challenge here is to find ways of ensuring that such provision, where needed, is available nation-wide.

Where as the two previous Chairmen of the Design Council, John Sorrell and Sir Christopher, were leading figures from the world of design, George Cox brings a different perspective as a leading figure from world of business. George started his professional life as an aeronautical engineer and spent two years as a factory manager in his late twenties. He then went on to become an entrepreneur who formed the highly-regarded IT consulting and research company, Butler Cox and was also formerly Managing Director and Chairman of Unisys. Most of you will also know him as the Director General of the Institute of Directors, a position he held until earlier this year.

George – I’m delighted to formally welcome you as Chair of the Design Council. From my perspective, your job is to build on what has been achieved and take forward the new corporate strategy.

The Design Council is ready to take its campaign themes beyond the pilot phase – now you have to help them drive their delivery nationwide. In the DTI we look forward to working with you to achieve our joint goals.

Christopher, thank-you for all you have done and for passing on to George such a great organisation. In the DTI we now see innovation as a key part of our mission, and the Design Council as playing a major role in our plans. You have handed over to your successor an organisation which is well positioned to deliver what we want, and I think you can be extremely proud of what you have achieved.