Design thinking: the new, new thing in consulting?

By Fiona Czerniawska

Two people are a coincidence; three suggests a trend.

That’s certainly how it felt in Paris a week or so ago when we got onto the subject of innovation.  I was talking to various major buyers of consulting services and their comments were remarkably consistent.  With the French economy still sluggish, there’s little appetite for large-scale investment unless it’s forced on them via regulation.  Work traditionally done by consultants (change and programme management, some aspects of corporate strategy and process redesign) is increasingly being carried out by internal teams – something that promises to squeeze the consulting market into 2014 and beyond.  But before French consultants give up on a market that seems set against them, they should take heart from the growing interest in innovation.

Clients, of course, have always sent out confused messages where innovation is concerned.  They welcome consultants who bring a well-honed methodology to bear, but they’re impressed when the latter demonstrate an ability to think on their feet, to take a prescribed process and adapt it. Knowledge of best practice in other sectors or geographies hardly fits the text book definition of innovation, but it’s as valuable to clients as genuinely blue-sky thinking.  In keeping with its intellectual heritage, French clients have always had the cutting edge, even in the gloomiest of economic times – so when three companies talked about design thinking, my ears pricked up.

Like many ‘innovations’ design thinking may not be new, but it’s striking a particularly loud chord with organisations.  Design thinking can sound like any other process design process (“a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results,” was how Fast Company magazine put it back in 2006).  But the crucial difference is that changes are driven by an understanding, through direct observation, of what people need and/or want.  Whether you’re a utility company seeking to differentiate on more than price or an automotive manufacturer wanting to connect with your consumers, designing processes from a customer point of view has become big business (Stanford has its well established d.school; software giant SAP included a stand on design thinking at this year’s user conference).

Although established consulting firms are starting to make more of the idea (this was Accenture’s take last year), the fastest growing firms in this space are the specialists, firms such IDEO and Fahrenheit 212.  Consulting firms looking for rapid growth, whether in France or elsewhere, should take note.