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Case Application

Unconventional Design

Danish company Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is known globally for its high-end audio and video equipment. Many of its incredibly beautiful and artistic products – most of which are made in Denmark – are part of the collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Needless to say, product design is critically important to B&O. What’s even more unique than its futuristic products, however, is the company’s approach to the design process, which is critical strategic capability of the organization. CEO Kalle Hvidt Nielsen says, “Our mission is to make complex technology very simple to use.”

Unlike the conventional design approach used by most organizations in which marketing employees conduct consumer market research and then decide design direction, B&O uses contract designers, not organizational design employees, to create the company’s products. And these designers have been empowered to veto any product they don’t like. The company’s lead designer, David Lewis, has freelanced for the company since the early 1960s. He spends just two or three days per month at the company’s headquarters in Struer and says that, “It’s a great, concentrated way of working..I see things in different way because I am not at all part of the system here.” Lewis and his team of six designers, who all are external freelancers, don’t ever meet.

The design process isn’t really a process. Lewin says that, “Every time we design a new product, it’s like starting all over. Time frames, technology, and demands are different each time.” However, he and his team do have an approach. They don’t use sketches; they model the new product out of cardboard, pieces of paper, little bits of plastic, or whatever’s on hand. Working like a sculptor, the team builds the model. They stand around it, talk about it, and modify as needed. Once the model is complete, Lewis takes it to headquarters where company executives can see what the design is all about. And being able to...