Personally, I think the biggest challenge is finding the balance between developing this ONE-track expert skills set versus stepping out of our comfort zone and be this “T-Shaped people” that Tim Brown from IDEO talks about frequently. Hard isnt’ it? It’s either we become this all too well-rounded, “unfocused” creatives that a lot of HR can’t seem to pin point our strengths, or we become this too focused and rigid, one trick pony that many innovative companies stay away from.

So where is this balance? Listen to Angela and get her view on this since she places top creatives and talents in Fortune 100 companies globally.

Robert Verganti, Darrel Rhea and John Fly.

TOP 3 REASONS WHY I LOVE THIS CONFERENCE.
1) Phenomenal speakers.
Out of the 8 sessions, I enjoyed Katie Taylor’s talk the best. Katie is the President and COO of Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts. She is simply an amazing leader. Here are some bites from her.
“You have to accept that mistakes happen in business. It’s about treating them as opportunities and not disasters.”
“You cannot have high level of customer satisfaction without high level of employee satisfaction.”

Katie emphasized a lot on team and culture building, and how everyone at Four Seasons hotel is important. A senior manager’s role is equally as important as the dishwasher guy or the maid. Now THAT is rare to hear.

2) International audience
Apparently there were attendees from 16 countries! Design thinkers are global. It was great to hear the charismatic Roberto Verganti talked about Italian and design management. Here are some bites from Roberto Verganti.
“Italian designs are really not Italian designs, since 40%-60% of those great works are by foreign designers for Italian manufacturers.”
“What’s great about Italian design is its management.”
“Don’t just change, but do meaningful change.”

Insights from Kyun-Won Chung of Korea and Marco Steinberg from the Finnish Innovation Fund were great. Just that I think we need a medical professional up on stage whenever we discuss healthcare systems in the U.S.

3) Open discussions/ conversations
The best thing about DMI is the fact that you don’t have to always agree with the panels/speakers on stage. Maybe DMI and its moderators do this on purpose because the off-stage discussions were even more revealing, uncensored and far more “disruptive”. LOVE IT!

International Attendees at DMI. Photo courtesy of DMI.

John Fly's mix-matched shoes. And of course my favorite United Nude by Rem Koolhaas.

I am still debating if I will be attending DMI annual conference in Rhode Island. I am hoping some of these topics and issues will be addressed.

THINGS THAT I’D LIKE TO SEE MORE AT THE UPCOMING CONFERENCE
1) More diverse speakers
I would personally like to hear from design thinkers and leaders from the different generation of Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y (millennial). I feel that there were a lot of boomers in the audience that were more than happy to dis the younger Gen Xers and Yers and there were no representatives on the stage from those two gens. Quite unfair wouldn’t you say? Not all of us young designers are lazy, self-entitled, self-absorbed professionals.

2) More breakout sessions.
70% of the attendees at this conference were corporate peeps, 20% were consultancies and 10% from educators. We need breakout sessions to break up those corporate cliques! Hard to penetrate those guys when they love to hang out in their own group. I would love to have the opportunity to probe their minds more.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. LET’S DISCUSS MORE!
1) Is design process democratic or should it be when one person decides everything? Question is based on Roberto Veganti’s statement on Steve Jobs at Apple.

2) Understanding users may produce great designs, but does it stifle innovation? Based on Roberto Veganti’s remarks on user-centered design is not sustainable and may not always produce innovative products.

3) What is meaningful design?

4) 90% of CEO’s of FORTUNE 500 did not receive their degrees at Ivy League colleges. Is it because local universities offer them a more non-judgmental venue for experimentation and exploration vs. Ivy League students having to constantly prove to their peers that they are “smart” and not “stupid”. This is based on the heavy discussion of business and design education by Jeanne Liedtka, Joel Podolny, Randy Swearer and Roger Martin. I swear, the panels used the words “smart” and “stupid” over 20 times.

5) You often hear this, when a company downsizes, managers flip out because they don’t even know how to do the most basic stuff. Everything is always beneath their Ivy League education. With such emphasis on leadership, producing managers and “thinkers”, have we forgotten about “doers”? Shouldn’t the discussion be on how to produce managers that can think and do? Delegating does not necessarily mean doing.

6) Can this event be more “disruptive”? Isn’t design thinking about challenging the status quo?

7) So many people came up to me asking if I got the answer to my question on, how to use design thinking to “play” office politics and deal with “nasty, unhappy people”. Many were dissatisfied with the politically correct answer given by David Butler, Roger Martin and Charles Jones of Masco.
Well, I have actually received a couple of great book recommendations. One is called Authentic Happiness referred to me by Kieran Duck from 2nd Road and Survival Savvy referred to me by Jeff Muzzerall from Rotman School of Management. And don’t forget this great You Tube video of Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, referred to me by Dan Shedd, the CEO of Taylor Box. It became a viral video that was passed around at this conference. I enjoyed it tremendously. And yes, I am learning to grow some brass balls!

It was a refreshing scene, especially when most of tech/biotech events in SD are attended by Boomers. This time, we get to mingle with the Gen X’s and Y’s. We were glad to make connections with some local startups and entrepreneurs that are ready to conquer the world.

Many of the startups we met, were in the midst of seeking VC funding. Actually, all of them that we met were seeking some sort of funding. Which led me to think, do all startups NEED VC funding? Can startups survive without huge investments?

I understand that there are certain types of business that require outside funding, but I believe that a lot of companies really don’t need this large, expensive infrastructure especially if you are in the “service” business. That’s why Joe and I were trying to dig deeper, by asking these “service” type businesses (consultants, software companies) why they HAVE to get VC funding?

I almost feel that often times, these founders want VC money not for the sake of growing their companies, but rather to pay themselves huge salaries!! At the recent TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, panelists, advisors and investors from VC’s and angels, were giving startups blunt advice about seeking seed money. And the overall theme was, we simply wouldn’t just give you money for salary. You have to show us that you are committed to your business 200%, for the long haul and your business is not just another exit strategy.

Make sense right? Which means, you are not just sitting around for 4 years, waiting around for shit to happen, and then hoping to sell your company for millions, when you have merely just begun. Ideas are cheap. It’s about how well we execute them. So stop talking and start working!

So…what has our generation become? Are we proving to Boomers that our generation is nothing but self-absorbed, self-entitled peeps that have no sense of “work” value?

I started my business with only $2500. I am humbled everyday to be able to do what I love and work with other small business owners out there who are working their ass off making their business work for them.

Pick up a copy of Jason Fried’s of 37 Signals REWORK today. Trust me. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself. In there you will find 6 great reasons on why outside money is Plan Z.

And the best take away of the book for me is:
“Don’t be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small should be proud” – Jason Fried, author of Rework.

Hosted by the founder and CEO of Blue Mine Group, Michael Lurie presented a 3-hour segment on strategy and business model design. In the first half of the session, Michael discussed why we need a new approach to business models and having an agile strategy and why there was a spike in patent applications from 1990 – 2010. 2 main reasons contributed to the spike.

#1 is technology development mainly digital technology reaching critical mass. Of course, we are talking about the internet/ dot.com.
#2 is available markets more than doubled. Free markets opened up in countries like China, Russia and India.

Being the only creative person in the room and watching the interactions between older VP types was very interesting to me. Most of the events I’ve attended, whether in Vegas or San Fran, were mostly filled with 25 to 35 year olds in jeans with their latte and MacBook Pro, discussing the latest ideas and their startup gigs. Here in San Diego, the scene is quite different. I have only just started attending CONNECT events. Actually I have only been to 2 CONNECT events. Both were filled with VP’s (typically white), in their late 40′s to 50′s.

I can’t help it. I am an designer and an observer. Noticing little details like this is what i do. Watching human interaction: how they feel, who they hang out with, what intrigues them…Anyway, I could write a whole new blog piece based on my observations.

So back to the workshop. A couple of interesting things that Michael talked about:

Agile Strategy – To us creatives, this is what we do DAILY. We may not be aware of this term, but seems like there are thousands of business books written about it for business people. Software peeps often implement the Agile Software Development strategy. The word agile as we know, means organic, having flexibility. Well, that’s what it is. It’s basically building a framework that is flexible and not so rigid, where ideas/ strategies, interchange, taken apart, plugged back into the framework, at any phase. And because it’s a “legit” formal strategy, workers and managers won’t freak out as much when strategies get moved around. I know…it’s fascinating, having a strategy to make us a bit less stringent about strategies!

So according to Michael, there are 2 types of business.

Traits of Zone A type businesses:
They view markets as: Closed, few, large and evolving
Their strategy: PLANNING
* Command and Control
* Market share is key
* Focus on execution
* Disciplined commitment
* Company = Business

Their business types:
* Few, large, slow
* “Good Enough” products
* Established value chains

And there’s the Zone B types:
They view markets as: OPEN, many, small, fluid
Their strategy: AGILE
* Innovation and collaboration
* Market discovery is key
* Focus on design
* Flexible and adaptable
* Company is NOT business

Business types:
* Many, small, fast
* Complete solutions
* Low cost value networks

Obviously, we are the Zone B types working a lot with the peeps in Zone A. And that has always been our biggest challenge!! Michael stressed that companies need to be in Zone B to compete and survive in the 21st century. But of course, many of us know that the Zone A type business have been following this recipe for success for 30-40 years!! Can we train old dogs new tricks?

Yes we can! Look at P&G, with Claudia Kotchka innovating the company by implementing design thinking. Look at Apple, Virgin, Starbucks. Of course it can be done. But I think it has to come from the top! CEO’s, VP’s and their management team have to embrace the new Zone B type strategies. You can’t have ONE team member in the entire organization, fighting this uphill battle. The change has to come from every member of the organization, starting from the top.

So which type are you? Zone A or Zone B?

So among my long to-do new year resolutions, was for me to brush up on my AutoCAD skills and learn Revit Architecture before I miss out on another cool tool. (So I signed up at CadTeacher, a local continuing education cad school, whom the principal, Al Whitley is the most patient teacher and architect I’ve ever met in my life!)

While reading my monthly Fortune January 09 issue, I stumbled upon the article, “Saving Easter Island” by Jeffrey M. O’Brien. I didn’t think much about it at first, but since I am a big fan of Jared Diamond’s work, I thought this may add to my current read on evolutionary biology.

Autodesk along with the officials of Easter Island, Leica Geosystems and Metco Services are working together on The Easter Island Mapping Project. Easter Island is facing challenges with tourism and development while preserving it’s historical artifacts and natural resources. Now the cool part is when Pete Kelsey from AutoCAD brought his team along with members from Leica and Metco to the island, and laser scanned super high res 3-D model and imported the assemblage into AutoCAD Civil 3D and with that they are able to use those data for mapping, analysis, construction and preservation.

I am not going to give away the content of the article, as it’s a wonderful read and I encourage you to get this copy of Fortune. You can also check out the diaries of the Autodesk Expedition Team here. This was truly an inspiring discovery to me, as it shows me how technology can bring forth partnerships, change, and modernization while preserving culture and history.