Designing better businesses a focus for CEOs on US study tour

The chief executives of more than 20 companies engaged in NZTE’s Better by Design programme will be visiting a range of innovative companies based in the San Francisco area of the United States during the five-day study tour.

Other businesses can follow some of the insights each day on a new NZTE blog where NZTE Director West Americas Claire Eeles will be accompanying the chief executives on the tour and feeding back insights from its structured learning sessions.

You can check out the blog here.

Some of the other companies sharing their insights with the New Zealand attendees include:

• Intuitive Surgical, a global leader in advanced minimally invasive surgery
• Mozilla, a non-profit organisation founded as an open source community to create an internet suite for Netscape
• Joie de Vivre Hospitality, a collection of lifestyle businesses and boutique hotels
• method, a healthy home products company
• Klutz, a company producing games, crafts, science projects and books for children
• Tesla Motors, designer and manufacture of premium electric vehicles.

Sessions will cover topics such as how to understand people’s needs, ways to use research and development to gain customers, commercialising entrepreneurial ideas, and developing global communities.

NZTE Better by Design Director Judith Thompson said the companies being visited were considered 'exemplars' of how integrating good design throughout a business leads to greater market share and better margins.

"Good design is so much more than how things look. Companies that successfully integrate design into their business strategy create unique and appealing products and services which in turn inspire loyal and passionate customers willing to pay a premium. Ultimately design is all about the bottom line."

Some of the New Zealand participants will also share what they have learned at the 2010 Better by Design CEO Summit, which is being held in Auckland on 3-4 November.

International speakers for the summit include business and innovation experts Marty Neumeier and Peter Senge, as well as Adam Lowry, CEO of healthy home products company method.

The study tour and the summit both aim to 'inspire New Zealand’s best companies to success by design' by building a network of New Zealand executives who can motivate and teach others about the benefits of design integration.