Sunday, January 29, 2012

Book Review: a fine line

Author:
Hartmut Esslinger
Rating:
***** (3)
Date read:
January, 2010

The first part of the book deals with a description of the author’s (and his firm’s) approach to strategy and design, along with some case histories of clients that the author and his company, frog design, have worked with over the past years. There are success stories and failure stories, all of which are fascinating from a business and design point of view. The idea of design as strategy makes a lot of sense, as is borne out in the examples. The principal expertise and interest of frog design, and the author, is the design and manufacturing of high tech electronic products.

The second part of the book is an attempt to look at design, business strategy, manufacturing, and outsourcing in a new light based on the so-called “green” revolution. This was a noble attempt to promote strategic design and well-thought-out local manufacturing and/or outsourcing relationships as a profitable move toward a more sustainable model, including consideration of the entire product lifecycle from manufacture through recycling/landfill. It’s obvious that Mr. Esslinger is very intelligent, and that he has given some thought to these issues.

I believe, however, that he suffers from a common frailty of many devotees of technology, in believing that modern capitalism and technology can solve the massive problems which they have created and perpetuated. It is, admittedly, a hopeful thought that consumer pressure on corporations to produce more “green” products would lead to significant changes in the way businesses operate, resulting in a sustainable economic and production model. And certainly there is some possibility that some marginal progress could be achieved through this mechanism. However, other than a suggestion that electronic gadgets such as cell phones and music players could be manufactured with replaceable components, so they would not have to be thrown away every 1 – 2 years, there are no practical ideas about how these changes would come about, or what they might be.

Also, in discussing the wonderful fruits of intelligent “smart-sourcing” and working with companies in Taiwan who know how to design and manufacture electronics very well, he does not mention the issue that manufacturing was moved to places like Taiwan because of the absence of environmental controls and other worker protection laws prevalent in the US and western Europe. I had a friend who lived in Taiwan a few years ago. She said the soot in the air was so think it would turn the screens black and clog them, and it had to be swept up off the floors in the house at least daily. So it’s the same old story of exporting destruction of the environment and importing cheap labor, aka globalization (which used to be called Imperialism). There’s nothing “green” or “sustainable” in this model.

To the author’s credit, he does admit that often times outsourcing of manufacturing ends up destroying the local economies of the poor countries where the factories are built and then a few years later shut down. But what is the solution? He does discuss the advantages of keeping the manufacturing in the home country, but in a framework that includes at least some of the manufacturing being outsourced.
The bottom line is that it all depends on the bottom line, and as long as corporations and profit rule supreme, all other considerations will be secondary. I simply do not believe that following the current model of profit at all costs will lead to anything different than more of what we already have, getting worse and worse. That being said, it is admirable that the author is attempting to push for designers and business people to get together and work on profitable solutions that lead to a more sustainable world. Maybe a few people will listen, and do some good things they would otherwise not have done. That’s the best I can hope for, and maybe that’s what the author is hoping for as well.
Key quote (in the section subtitled “Adapt to Win”) on page 43:
“My wife and partner Patricia and I call this strategy “Outside-In” — the idea that we succeed by creating what our clients really need most, rather than by simply trying to replicate our own past successes.”

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