Fifteen years ago in the Design issue of Wired, an article appeared outlining Polaroid's five-year strategic plan. Just 8 months later the company filed Chapter 11. The 'new company' formed in its aftermath declared bankruptcy again several years later. For real.
Corporate failure aside, we all have a warm and fuzzy place in our hearts for polaroids.
Polaroids = Vintage personified. Now cherished by teens, the polaroid phenomenon today resembles the recent resurgence of vinyl.
For Polaroid, design was chiefly about breakthrough cameras -- the Model Swinger, SX-70, Spectra -- and those that came before and after. The innovation in the one-step process which allowed you to hold a photo in your hand just one minute after hitting 'click', was simply housed in a different container over the years.
The birth of instant photography is by far one my favourite inventions. You can probably testify to owning that cool-as-hell Polaroid that enabled you to magically freeze a moment and instantly share with friends. That vintage camera has since been replaced by the one currently in your pocket, and now rests on your shelf where house guests nod their head with nostalgic approval.
With over 2 billion photos being uploaded daily, the world is undeniably obsessed with sharing photos. And lest not forget about the trillions more that fail to make the publishing cut.
At the turn of the century, Gary DiCamillo was at the helm of Polaroid. He identified two ways to help innovate the business; Styling and Reinvention. Styling referred to giving the company a makeover. The narrative to convey was that Polaroid was cool and fun. Reinvention was in response to a world that had been digitised and was about to leave the company in its rear view mirror.
With hindsight it is easy to critique. We can see clearly now the reasons for the downfall of Kodak or Hipstamatic. In the case of Polaroid, the guilty culprit may have been DiCammilo and the company's self-sealing logic. They were unable to foresee that the photo album would inevitably be replaced by the digital swipe.
New Operating Models
The Digital Era required a drastic overhaul of the business model -- wholly reliant on instant film -- which in turn would mean taking big risks. Perhaps if they had turned the sails towards something like Instagram, VSCO, EyeEm or even the recently launched Swing -- the history books would need a rewrite.
Cases of bold manoeuvres to redesign and reinvent a businesses in the face of changing times are a plenty: Intel (shifted from storage to processing), Red Bull (became a media company), and Patagonia (evolved into a business that with implements solutions to the environmental crisis).
What do all these companies have in common? They all employ an operating model that allows for their business to evolve in the face of change. They've built internal capabilities that enable speed, agility, and openness together with a healthy appetite for risk. Their systems of organising are adaptive. Instead of getting hung up on the design of pretty things they continually focus in tandem on the Design of Business.
Innovation By Design
The original champions of design in business include luminaries such as Tim Brown, David Kelley and Roger Martin. All have been touting the transformative effects that occur when design is placed at the heart of the organisation. As former Dean of the Rotman School of Management, Martin succinctly sums up design's undeniable influence when he says, "When it comes to innovation, business has much to learn from design. The philosophy in design shops is, 'try it, prototype it, and improve it.'"
In any large company, it takes time, patience and persistence to change a business culture.
Organisational structures and processes are often designed, rather ironically, to keep design out.
The outdated way of operating where designers were kept on the fringes (and often brought in to put lipstick on a pig) is gradually being replaced by more fluid methods. Designers now occupy centre stage. And the effects may be felt across the whole organisation -- for people, product, and processes.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this is how Google has evolved into a design company and manages the gentle push and pull between the company's vision and the living and breathing organisation itself.
Google Venture's has pioneered the process that acts as a "greatest hits" -- fusing together the intersecting fields of behavioural psychology, business strategy, innovation and design thinking. The Sprint has since become ubiquitous; used by the bedroom startup right through to the corporate beast looking for it's next kill.
John Maeda, Global Head, Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic, has feverishly championed the importance of design in technology and in business. The former Design Partner at KPCB is credited with helping foster the first generation of engineers to elegantly design, and designers to fluently code. Maeda explains that;
"In the not too distant future, all technology companies will be design companies."
Some of the most forceful and well-funded startups -- Pinterest, Airbnb, Vice Media and Lynda.com, have designers as co-founders. Indeed, the number continues to grow with 36% of the world's top funded startups now having designers as co-founders. In the year since the first #DesigninTech Report the trend for designers entering the world of Venture Capital continues and a further 24 design firms have been acquired by larger design hungry players.
Shockingly, it has taken nearly 30 years for these contentions to take hold and manifest themselves across every industry. Whether it is computing (IBM hosts the largest design team in the world), finance (Barclays Bank is now the UK's single largest employer of designers), management (McKinsey acquired top design firm, Lunar) or government (GOV.UK has received countless accolades for its user experience design) -- no sector remains untouched.
Something Beautiful
In the technology driven world we have always believed that faster is better. But Moore's Law is no longer cutting it. In fact it's the holistic view, the entire customer experience that truly matters. Design is, and always was, the key.
As the role design plays in business continues to expand, the world stands to benefit. Products won't just look better, they will work better. Services won't just be provided, they will delight. Organisations won't just sustain, they will adapt and evolve to become something truly magnificent.
I think back to those Polaroid moments when the magic happened. While I pointlessly flicked the paper in my hands, the faces of friends would faintly appear. The image that I snapped seconds ago would slowly come to life. Like the smartphone, this type of transformative experience will happen again -- and with greater frequency.
And as we move into an era where Design is king, and Technology queen -- the two partners will forever change how we live.