The Difference Between Vision and Management

Does your business have vision? Do you have a goal for your career beyond stepping up a pre-determined corporate ladder?

By Dan Blank at We Grow Media
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See also The Gap Logo Debacle: A Half-Brained Mistake by Umair Haque

Most companies don't take design seriously but they should. Here are five questions to gauge whether you're taking design seriously enough.

* Do designers have a seat in the boardroom — or just in the basement? How often does your CEO ever talk to a designer?
* Are designers empowered to overrule beancounters — or vice versa?
* Is the input of designers considered to be peripheral to "real" business decisions — or does it play a vital role in shaping them? Is design treated as a function or a competence?
* Are designers seen just as mechanics of mere stuff — or as vital contributors to the art of igniting new industries, markets, and catgeories, sparking more enduring demand, building trust, providing empathy, and seeding tomorrow's big ideas?
* How much weight does senior management give to right-brained ideas, like delight, amazement, intuition, and joy? Just a little, a lot — or, as for most companies, almost none?

Here's the point of my little scorecard: to demonstrate that management by lobotomy just won't cut it anymore. In the 21st century, creating enduring advantage is going to require organizations that have a whole brain — not just half of one. And if you're flunking, prepare, dear left-brained beancounter, for the discount rack.