I regularly discuss fundamental questions of design, benefits and integration into a company with our customers. Recently, at the German Innovation Award ceremony in Berlin, I was talking to Philipp Steinberger, CEO of Wöhner in Rödental, Upper Franconia. The company, which specialises in power distribution and control technology, had just won Gold for its CrossMT electronic measurement module. I wanted to know about his experience of Corporate Industrial Design (CID) as a managing director: where he saw the crucial issues, risks and opportunities.
When I asked what CID meant to him, Steinberger paused briefly: ‘First there is the brand. It is an important part of our strategy, and Corporate Industrial Design makes a strong contribution. CID creates recognition and enables marketing and sales.’ I nodded, because that is my experience too: recognition across all products creates a strong sense of emotional familiarity for customers. CID allows each product to have its own individual design while clearly pointing to the company behind it.
Philipp Steinberger then raised a second point: ‘The technical and functional aspects are at least as important. Discussing Corporate Industrial Design means taking another focused look at function: what is it for? Are the functions perceived as simple and as self-explanatory as possible? What about safety? How can manufacturing, assembly or logistics be optimised? There is not a single product whose functions we have not further refined through industrial design.’
I thought to myself: ‘This pursuit of perfection, in the sense of following through to the very end, is an important factor in success. It is like football: only a team that gives its best until the final whistle becomes a serial champion. Otherwise, it loses the championship in the last minutes of the last match.’
Aloud, I said: ‘That is exactly why we approach our CID assignments with the ambition not to settle for what is obviously feasible. First, we work with the customer to establish what we jointly believe is right, and then we make it feasible. Your employees have already experienced how demanding the process can be for both sides. But the result does more than look good: a carefully considered concept also improves the product’s benefit for the customer.’
Steinberger continued: ‘To finish answering your opening question: thirdly, Corporate Industrial Design shapes our identity. Our employees are proud of our products, which motivate them to perform at their best. And our customers can identify with the products. We receive a great deal of positive feedback at trade fairs and on customer visits.’ I followed up: ‘So CID pays off for Wöhner?’ ‘Of course, the whole thing initially involves enormous costs,’ he replied, adding with a sideways glance at me: ‘As you know.’
Then he became serious again: ‘Clearly, an attractive design can be obtained for considerably less. But at Wöhner we deliberately chose excellent design — and I would definitely say it is worthwhile. The company benefits from that one-off investment throughout the product’s lifetime. We therefore believe there is a clearly positive relationship between the investment in Corporate Industrial Design on the one hand, and the benefits of recognition, brand building, sales and marketing activities, and the emotional connection with our customers and employees on the other.’
At the end of our conversation I wanted to know one more thing: ‘What should I bear in mind as an entrepreneur starting out with CID?’ ‘First, you should be clear that CID is not something you install once and then it runs automatically. It is a continuous process. Second, it is important to involve every level: your stakeholders, your development engineers and, of course, your customers. Otherwise your undertaking can fail.’
Steinberger added emphatically: ‘But you have to be bold! I would like to encourage other medium-sized companies — and really the whole of industry — to take the step towards CID. A product always looks like something, so why not turn that fact into something profitable? It is worthwhile!’