Lenovo Group: Make Design the "Right Brain" of Enterprises

How important is design to a business?

In the view of Yao Yingjia, vice president of Lenovo Group, design is a core competitiveness of an enterprise, rather than a "fancy" to decorate its facade.

Chinese companies are also gradually realizing that design is an important source of competitiveness. In recent years, many domestic companies have begun to hire overseas designers out of consideration for enhancing the competitiveness of their products. In such enterprises, they do realize the importance of design, but whether design can be defined as the core competitiveness of enterprises in such enterprises depends on the situation.

Before seeking overseas designers, companies must first understand their own problems, including the management mechanism and the challenges they face in products and services. "The core purpose of hiring overseas designers is to make companies more competitive. It is a process of seriously examining and thinking about the core competitiveness of an enterprise." Yao Yingjia said to "CEConline".

Design is The process of creative problem solving

Yao Yingjia joined Lenovo Group after graduating in 1996 and became the first industrial designer of Lenovo Group. The group has designed many classic products, including all the important design awards in the world. The torch design of the Beijing Olympics he led has also greatly enhanced the brand influence of Lenovo Group in the world.

In his opinion, the ideas and perspectives of hiring overseas designers to solve problems are fine, but it is lazy to invite overseas designers only for publicity or superficial results. Behavior.

Lenovo's global awareness of design is ahead of many domestic companies. Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business in 2004 began to internationalize, ushering in the Think design team, and Lenovo's international market. The demand has further promoted the international construction, talent integration and application of the design team, resulting in a diverse team form like the "United Nations": the designers come from more than 10 countries such as Italy, France, the United States, Japan, and Spain. The designer's ideas and cultural background have a positive collision, forming a multi-dimensional influence on product innovation.

For Lenovo Group, managing such a multicultural and cross-regional design team is obviously not an easy task. Yao Yingjia believes that companies must know what they need, otherwise it will be difficult to find suitable overseas designers. Designers under cultural backgrounds have different differences. How to make good use of these talents also tests the ability and ability of the company. The key is how to find someone's talent among a group of designers and integrate it into the operation mechanism of the company. go inside.

Don't turn the enterprise itself into a test field for overseas designers, and should introduce different overseas design resources around the core user group and market value of the enterprise's operation. Yao Yingjia told "CEConline", "Hiring an overseas designer is not as simple as a fancy design solution, but a process of continuous creative problem solving and bringing new competitive value to the enterprise."

Enterprises need to return to self-awareness, face the problems they face bravely and objectively, and then think about what kind of design talents can support the future growth of the enterprise. This process often requires a lot of energy. "Sometimes companies will want to find a shortcut, find a big-name designer outside, and jointly launch a launch event. This is still far from being a long-term strategy for a company's sustainable growth." Yao Yingjia said.

Enterprises are constantly changing and growing, and new problems and challenges will continue to emerge. How to solve these problems and better guide consumption trends requires long-term and in-depth thinking, not It can be solved simply by hiring one or two overseas designers. In Yao Yingjia's view, in an enterprise, design is not only a profession, but a system. Design is a systematic and continuous problem-solving process. Entrepreneurs should build design as an important core capability, so that it can exert its value and make the competitiveness of enterprises more three-dimensional and comprehensive, so that it is possible to make good use of overseas designer. In this way, it can comprehensively shape its own brand, meet the needs of users, and even guide users' future consumption trends. It is also very important to invite foreign designers, that is, the enterprise itself must accommodate a diverse team culture in order to release more creativity of talents.

Management must keep up with the times and the needs of the competitive market, as well as the needs of users. Enterprises must ensure that through processes and mechanisms, including project team composition, design process execution, and other aspects of the system consider.

There must be a clear cultural compass. One is for the team itself. Yao Yingjia introduced that the starting point for Lenovo's design team to participate in the Olympic torch design was a link similar to cultural activities. They were honored to receive an invitation from the Olympic Organizing Committee to participate, so they also had a brainstorm of all members in a team activity. I remember that there was a design plan that considered the use of dragon elements. However, a German designer pointed out that the dragon is very important to the Orientals. It is mainly a symbol of might and power, but the dragon in the eyes of Westerners represents the problem maker, which is somewhat negative in nature.

"Feedback like this is very valuable. The Olympic torch is a symbol of spiritual carrying on a global scale. You have to look for the commonalities of emotional needs of different national cultures, and the Olympic spirit is a kind of shared by all human beings. In terms of sports spirit, design communication still needs to have a global recognition and common recognition symbol, and finally we gave up this plan.” Yao Yingjia said that an internal creative problem-solving culture shaping can allow designers from different backgrounds and different countries. Move forward and unlock value around a common general direction. The other is aimed at external users. Enterprises all hope to solve problems for users and bring value to users. No matter what background you are as a designer, you must face the problem of who the users of the products you design serve. This is also a very important compass for everyone.

We also need to consider how to let designers of different cultures play a role in a comprehensive corporate environment. Lenovo Group found this to be very complicated when it established the process more than ten years ago. Lenovo Group used the London subway as a reference at that time. In the diagram, the different processes of each section are expressed in different colors and sites. People choose different subway routes, and the ultimate goal is to reach the destination they want to go, so Lenovo Group modularized their design process, instead of following the same fixed process, different project teams follow their own goals. You can choose a process according to your needs and then cooperate with each team. Lenovo Group has built a very dynamic design management in the process, and also built a face-to-face communication capability and platform for designers.

Let design be your right brain

“I would like to objectively evaluate Chinese design talents. In the era of global open educational resources and high information symmetry, after several generations , After decades of hard work, many design talents in China are really excellent now. Chinese designers and overseas designers are not 'gap', but 'difference'. Make good use of the difference between Chinese and foreign design talents, It is not to fill the gap. Therefore, recruiting overseas designers is not about recruiting better designers, but more suitable design talents who can promote the development and growth of enterprises.” Yao Yingjia emphasized this point of view many times in interviews.

Acknowledging and acknowledging differences, and integrating them comprehensively, can better generate innovation. Many outstanding designers in China today have overseas study backgrounds, and they are not simply studying abroad, but more importantly, they begin to integrate into local cultural life, understand overseas customs and values, and gradually understand overseas consumers. buying propensity. Differentiation comes from the influence of the environment, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In an interview, Yao Yingjia mentioned the "experience density" that he mentioned in a previous forum, that is, the growth of a design talent is related to his experience environment. Now Chinese designers have a good environment, but they are also very challenging. They may experience 50 years of overseas growth and change in ten years, so their comprehensive awareness and sensitivity to problems may be very high. Yao Yingjia pointed out to "CEConline", "The key is how to let Chinese and foreign designers have a good environment and platform to play their value, and we must recognize and encourage them from management policies, methods, systems, and culture, and give them the opportunity to fully display their talents. Stage and space.”

Lenovo Group is not only recruiting mature overseas designers or mature local Chinese designers, but also recruiting those who have just graduated and have only worked for 3 or 4 years. Young designers, Yao Yingjia believes that young designers are full of vitality and the ability to imagine the future. If a company wants to cultivate its own design ability, it must break the rigid geographical and cultural barriers, and only rely on recruiting overseas designers. is not resolved. It is necessary to let Chinese and foreign designers complement each other, and let design become the right brain of the enterprise instead of the hand that simply executes the action. How to use Chinese and foreign designers to combine user needs with experience value Yes, the development of the right brain is relatively late and relatively slow, which will also become a weak point for enterprises to establish an international brand influence.

It is also very important for companies to set up a clear banner to attract overseas talents! Now there are many convenient channels to find overseas designers. Some design talents of Lenovo Group are found in our participation in various design competitions, industry forum speeches and other exchange activities. Whether it is through the designer docking platform, headhunting company or industry activities, or the process of building the company's own brand, there is a core point, that is, the company should cultivate design as a core competitiveness, so that it can naturally continue to attract outstanding talents. Keep getting closer to yourself, instead of recruiting people when you think you need a designer.

There are three basic principles for choosing an overseas designer: first, the overseas designer must have the ability to communicate and coordinate; second, he must have the ability to solve problems creatively; third, he must be professional skills and abilities. Yao Yingjia emphasized: the first two are more important, and the gap in professional experience has become smaller and smaller today. The key is to allow overseas designers to combine the demands of your company. The same designer can be introduced by different companies, and its value may vary greatly.

How to make effective judgments about cooperation with overseas independent designers or design companies is also the key. Enterprises must have their own design management talents, so that someone can organize judgments and know how to make judgments. , market-side, and enterprise-side evaluation for effective integration. Relying on business owners alone can sometimes seem subjective. Yao Yingjia pointed out that the judgment process is actually very complicated, but companies can reduce risks, such as managing design contracts in stages, market user research stage, concept presentation stage, concept demonstration and verification stage, then prototype stage, then production In the manufacturing stage, there is also an important result evaluation after the market launch, so that the design cooperation can be subdivided step by step to reduce the risk.

In addition, look at the designer's past design works, which is also a very important reference indicator. Ask a few more why, what value did the designer's previous plan bring to the enterprises that have served, and how to solve the problem? What problems? What was the feedback from the end user? Asking more questions like this will also help to understand whether the overseas designer is suitable for the enterprise, so as to be more able to integrate, participate, and solve the staged needs and competitive problems of the enterprise.

Yao Yingjia said, "The key is to focus on what kind of value the company wants to provide users and what kind of core competitiveness it needs, and constantly think about these two issues."

Half a step further than the user's needs

"Hiring a foreign designer sometimes seems to be a very simple problem, but behind him is actually a huge social, economic and cultural development trend. "Influence," Yao Yingjia said, "the company hires an overseas designer to help the company shape its core competitiveness. If it is just a superficial visual solution, the investment will not be maximized."

In 2013, Lenovo Group was a year worth celebrating in the design field. The design and experience innovation team of Lenovo Group won the highest award of the Red Dot Design Award, which is known as the "Oscar" in the design industry - "The Best Design Team of the Year Award" ”, which is undoubtedly a recognition of the power of enterprise design. At the same time, Lenovo Group has also won many gold awards in the iF Award and IDEA Award, which are also known as the world's three major design awards. However, I also remember that while Lenovo Group has gradually become bigger in recent years, it is also facing the challenge of growing stronger. According to its 2015 financial report, Lenovo has suffered another loss since the 2008 fiscal year, and there are voices of doubt. Frequently appeared in the newspapers, questioning its development speed and innovation ability.

"This is related to the decline in the development trend of the general market environment. At the same time, we also regard this as an opportunity and motivation! Everyone is looking forward to seeing more innovative experiences from Lenovo." Yao Yingjia said modestly, "Industrial upgrading and consumption upgrading are the two major trends in the future, and both of these upgrades are inseparable from design. Lenovo is also actively brewing and preparing how to become the leader of the new wave. Based on the innovation of this year's YOGA book, Phab 2, and MOTO Z, at the Lenovo Technology Innovation Conference in June next year, we may have more forward-looking solutions, and there will be more opportunities in the combination of device + AI (artificial intelligence). The system solution of perfect product experience is shared with users and the market.”

Intelligence and computing are being integrated into various industries, and cross-border cooperation and industrial integration will become an important driving force for business development, and design will play a role in this. very important role. In Yao Yingjia's view, now everyone prefers to look at enterprise management from a digital perspective, but the development and growth of successful domestic and foreign enterprises worth learning from is a complex intertwined with sensibility and rationality. Today's enterprise innovation management, not only Only see the power of design and user experience, but also see the power of culture and consumption trends, combining new core technologies, new business models, and new user needs, in this respect is science and art (design) A new field of value combined.

I used to talk about designing an experience plan that is half a step ahead of the user's needs. This statement is actually quite good. It's too advanced, and everyone may not accept it. "But you can't blindly follow the user's ideas. If you only follow the experience that the user can imagine, you may not be able to produce products and services that make the user 'WOW', because it is difficult for the user to know what will surprise him in the end," Yao Yingjia said.

Facing the possibility of the future, he confidently said, "Let's not only see the current situation with short-sightedness, how far you can go in the future depends on how well prepared you are today! We will It is the fleet with the most accumulated potential."

Photo/Wang Tao