Transcriber: Maggie Scartozzi Reviewer: Denise RQ
Host: Maria Giudice, come on up.
(Applause)
Best intro I've ever got in my entire life.
It is so great to be here.
Recently, I was speaking at a student-run conference
called Better World by Design.
And a student raised his hand and asked:
can design really make a difference in this world?
Will I be able to make a difference in this world?
Will I be able to get a job when I get out of art school?
I hear these questions a lot.
Both at conferences and also where I teach, at CCA,
a class in Business and Design.
And this is what I would like to talk to you about today.
We are going to go back a little bit.
For as long as I could remember, I wanted to be a famous artist.
In my early teens, I was a budding entrepreneur.
I made a decent living painting dog portrait paintings.
(Laughter)
The frame cost extra.
As I moved up into my teen years, I would get a hundred dollars
for painting rock bands on the back of jean jackets.
At the same time, baby sitting, essentially doubling my hourly rate.
(Laughter)
I did not realize it then but, I am a very smart business woman.
(Laughter)
Here I am, championing my Wendy from Prince and the Revolution look.
(Laughter)
My art school years.
And even though I managed
to get into the prestigious, tuition-free school Cooper Union,
my father still worried that I wasn't going to have any marketable skills
once I got out of art school.
But there was no stopping me.
I was destined to never making a good living.
(Laughter)
But, I managed to get a job right out of art school as a designer.
The label designer has had huge problems for me,
or any other designer in the audience.
I'm sure many of you are nodding right now.
When somebody asks what a designer does,
the answer never really easily rolls off your tongue.
I'd say something like this:
we bring great ideas to life.
Then somebody would say, "Do you design logos and posters?"
And I'd be like, "No! I don't design logos and posters, all the time!"
(Laughter)
Then I'd say something like,
"We create new ways for people and companies to interact."
And they'd go, "Websites, right?"
I'd say, "Yes, we design websites, and applications,
and a whole bunch of other things,"
knowing that I've just done the design world a disservice,
because I did not fully explain what a designer does.
And the Random House Dictionary term for designer
who doesn't do us any favors either.
(Laughter)
Designers are defined as makers of artifacts.
or more often than not I hear,
designers like to make things pretty.
A term which I like to refer to as aesthetic masturbation,
or even worse, schemers or evil plotters.
So no wonder designers don't get any respect in this world.
So for the past 14 years,
I've been CEO of a large experience design company called Hot Studio.
And a better term for me really is designer CEO
or DEO, the Design Executive Officer,
the creative leader who holds the highest office in the organization.
There are probably a few DEOs out in the audience today,
and there are many famous ones,
like Tim Brown or Jonathan Ive.
But more importantly, I believe that creative leaders possess
certain super powers over traditional business leaders,
that are both unique in nature and powerful in practice.
Creative leaders are the catalyst for transformation
and the agents of cultural change.
They think outside the box versus fear of ever-leaving the box.
They create things that are relevant and meaningful for people,
instead of selling the customer or closing the deal.
They're systems thinkers,
and they have the intense desire and ability to solve complex problems
versus, solving problems incrementally at a time.
Probably the biggest differentiator is that creative leaders embrace risk
versus fear or mitigating risk all together.
Great news!
Designers have arrived!
CEOs have identified creativity as the most important leadership competency
for the successful enterprise of the future.
Author Dan Pink says the MFA is the new MBA.
This is great news, right?
Yes?
(Laughter)
Not such great news.
(Laughter)
A recent study shows perceptions of perspective leaders as creative
made them less likely to be thought of as strong leaders.
We have a long way to go my friends.
But something terrible and unexpected has happened.
The entire world has broken down.
We are less certain about tomorrow than any time in our lives.
These horrible complex problems, however, have given rise to innovation.
Disruption abounds.
And in some respects,
our old systems have had to die in order for them to get reborn.
Who are you going to call?
Designers, your time is now to reinvent the future
and help us make an impact at a global scale.
It's no longer business as usual; CEOs are signaling a new direction.
We need you, as creative leaders, to design the way forward,
to create a better path for our children.
How do we do that?
Do we just click our heels or wiggle our nose
and suddenly posses the superpowers of creative leaders, of DEOs?
Well, changing processes are easy. Changing culture and behavior takes time.
But it is possible, and it is worth it.
The very first thing we have to do is change our mindset;
from design being thought of as an expense on a balance sheet
to an investment in the future.
Design is not a noun. Design is an active verb.
It means all these things;
co-create, participate, facilitate, observe, negotiate, instigate.
Design equals radical change.
From producers of artifacts to champions of a connected society.
People, not machines.
We tend to run our businesses like machines
and forget that its a community of people,
who share the same goals, beliefs, dreams, and hopes.
As a DEO, you need to have intense empathy for others.
You need to feel a responsibility
to do well on behalf of people and for the environment.
By living in peoples shoes: your employees, customers, and community,
you can look for innovation in the white spaces that don't exist
in focus groups or in conference rooms with two-way mirrors.
In 2007, for example, we designed an online system
called the Open Architecture Network.
It connects architects and designers around the world to collaborate
on humanitarian-based projects.
We did a lot of research all over the world, primarily by phone.
But it wasn't until we slept on the floor of a church,
in 100 degree weather, in Biloxi, Mississippi,
when we really understood what it felt like to lose your home and livelihood.
But also the incredible hope from the hundreds of volunteers
who have come together to rebuild the community.
That's what I mean when I'm talking about living in peoples' shoes.
We, not me.
Gone are those days where the rock stars are in the corner,
the lone person that you reward for individual accomplishment.
We live in the we.
And we need to build a culture of collaboration, cooperation, and teamwork.
The best solutions will be solved by multi-disciplinary teams,
who feel like they have contributed to the design process.
Create a culture of creativity in your environment.
Tear down those cubicle walls.
And finally, find a way to make it fun to come to work everyday.
Go wide and fail early.
I see this sign on a lot of corporate conference room walls.
And that's great. It's one thing to put up a sign.
It's another thing to walk the talk,
to encourage a company wide appetite for radical solutions to complex problems.
It takes courage and vulnerability to throw out wild ideas.
Embrace it. Celebrate it.
Go Wide. Take some risks. Fail early.
It's the only way you can test out new ideas, learn from them,
evolve them to become great solutions to problems.
Finally, iterate and evolve.
Be open to change.
An innovative company is one that constantly reinvents itself.
In order to solve the world's problems, you need to think like designers,
feel like designers, and work like designers.
And here is the great news:
there is a designer in every one of you.
Open your eyes wide, be courageous, and touch peoples' hearts and minds.
Help us work together as a team, a party of equals,
to help solve the world's most wicked problems.
Help us create a better future for our children.
We can do this as designers, as creative leaders, and as DEOs.
Recently, a friend of mine asked me,
"Maria, how do you define yourself these days?"
I said, "I'm a designer."
He said, "Maria you are not a designer. You are a business leader."
Wow.
This has all come full circle.
The artist and the entrepreneur have collided,
25 years later, I'm the CEO of Hot Studio.
My father is very proud of me.
He is amazed that his designer daughter is such a smart business woman.
I guess all those Saturday painting lessons
and dog portrait paintings really paid off for me.
My kids are amazed and perplexed
that their artist mom is the boss of all these people.
My son asked me the other day,
"Mom, when you die, can I have your business?"
(Laughter)
I told him he had to go to art school and also learn how to code.
Finally, bring out your inner DEO.
If you can't think like a designer, fee like a designer, or work like a designer,
hire one to be the leader of your organization.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)