In pursuit of efficiency and cost savings, big companies I have become aquinted recently seem lost in products to introduce to market. Okay five companies over the past half years, but I have a feeling there are lots more companies like them.
I would become intimate with their product development and/or design departments, but with absolute minimum team members, they are so wrapped up in speedy execution of getting their product ready for mass production line, they are not able to THINK about unexpressed needs and wants of users. Actually, they admit that they can’t even get around to finding out what users want now, because they are expected to do such research on top of their detailed work which already requires overtime.
This is happening in Japan, but with the way IDEO and similar companies are being so sought after to do conceptual product development, it seems to be the trend to advanced countries in global scale.
If any of these companies that are not spending enough time doing concept design are doing well now, it is simply because they are being pulled by countries that are growing now, BRICS countries. But when the ir customer countries slow down, there will be another turmoil.
FUJIKO SUDA 