World-class companies such as Sony, Olivetti, and Braun recognize that in today's global marketplace, where the window of competitive advantage is narrowing rapidly, product design has become the driving force for improving product quality and maintaining a competitive edge. Wisely, they also realize that the design process can take the lead toward achieving these goals only when it is well managed.Looking to these and other corporate giants and detailing his own 30 years of design management experience, Robert Blaich shows how you can elevate the status of product design in your own company and maximize its effectiveness through strong management, enabling design to spearhead innovations, establish new strategic directions, and gain the edge that translates into greater profitability. Using case studies derived from his own outstanding management work at Herman Miller, Inc., a leader in furniture systems, and Philips, the Dutch electronics giant, Blaich demonstrates that design can be the key tool in forging a corporate identity that can make your company's name synonymous with quality the world over.Blaich lays out the steps that can bring your company into the twenty-first century. As a manager, you'll discover how to: establish product design as a proactive, problemsolving force; gain crucial upper-echelon support for a powerful design program; create a holistic design program that interacts on equal terms with engineering, marketing, and other departments; stimulate new ideas through teamwork, the use of consultants, and the creation of a multicultural design department; provide your designers with the necessary tools, including CAD systems; balance the use of in-house staff with outside consultants; and effectively manage your company's often limited human, capital, and financial resources.Taking these steps will demonstrate to often skeptical upper management that designers themselves are best equipped to develop and manage the resources of the design department, establishing it for years to come as a primary force for innovation and quality.America must recognize what Japan and Germany have long understood - product design must become the backbone of any company desiring to make it in the future. With its uniquely personal and practical insight into how to effect that crucial change, Robert Blaich's Product Design and Corporate Strategy can help put your company on the global map, whatever its size.As such, Product Design and Corporate Strategy is an essential tool for current and prospective design managers, and critical reading for all CEOs and senior and middle managers who must come to grips with the centrality of product design in the corporate landscape. Read Less