A Fine Line

Ivan Illich—the Austrian philosopher, educator, priest, and social critic—was quite influential in my own education. He describes this ancient concept of sharing and open collaboration in his book Tools for a Convivial Society, when he notes that the tools of communal collaboration (or conviviality, as he phrased it) “. . .give each person who uses

We have reached a stage in our world’s history at which doing the best thing for the environment is tantamount to doing the best thing for our businesses.

here—fusion products, open-source design, and co-design within social networks—offer

In a flat-world marketplace, one size fits all, but fitting a business to the intricate contours of the real world is a far more challenging prospect.

Today, the business world is engaged in a global battle between individualism and collectivism or “Culture versus Commodity,” as I call it. As companies dive for the lowest costs, they abandon highly qualified local workers and place their bets with low-cost labor overseas—all under the “Flat-World” banner of cost-efficiency.

But the dirty by-product of these stunning technological advances is a world dominated by products that lack any semblance of human or cultural context. These mass-produced, mass-marketed objects don’t provide any type of inspiring consumer experiences.

How can a company add true value or even just visually differentiate its low-cost cell phone from those of its competitors, when all of them are designed and manufactured in just five or six Asian factories?

Strategies based on creativity, insight, and cultural awareness are more environmentally responsible and sustainable than the age-old approach of winning through maximizing your use of resources, money, and people.

A temperamental clutch of self-absorbed artists won’t form a solid foundation for a sustainable business model.

For many creative people, however, the business world has nothing to do with art, and that’s unfortunate—for them. Designers become masters of their own fate when they master the workings of business and learn to appreciate the rational thinking, vision, ethics, and creativity it takes to run a successful organization. Designers become true profess