A product’s language is its material, texture, smell, name, and, of course, form (style is only one aspect of a product’s language).

These companies instead search for new possibilities that are consistent with the evolution of sociocultural phenomena but that are not there until a company transforms them into products and proposes them to people. They look for the seeds that they can cultivate into blossoms.

A company looking for radical innovation of meaning does not get too close to users, because the meaning users give to things is bounded by the existing sociocultural regime. Instead, when investing in radical innovation of meaning, companies such as Artemide and Alessi take a step back and investigate the evolution of society, economy, culture,

“Things embody goals, make skills manifest, and shape the identity of their users. His self is to a large extent a reflection of things with which he interacts. Thus objects also make and use their makers and users.”

“Working within the meta-project transcends the creation of an object purely to satisfy a function and necessity. Each object represents… a proposal.”

When Picasso painted, he never thought about a target audience. He didn’t have a target segment of users in mind. But eventually he was not only a great artist. Those who discovered him made also a great business. There is an enormous (and unexploited) business potential also in this type of innovation.”

It also reveals why design is important to creating competitive advantage: design innovates meanings, and meanings make a difference in the market.

Technologies are therefore closely related to meanings, and indeed technological breakthroughs often trigger radical innovations in meanings

Where are these relational assets located? First, they reside in your entire organization. Often firms, especially large corporations, already have numerous interactions with potential key interpreters. However, they do not have a picture of this multitude of personal relationships, do not nurture them, and have no process for converting them into