Career Club: The Recession-Design Paradox

Is your organisation feeling the pinch of the economic downturn? Many organisations instinctively tighten their belts during a recession, and as a result, the investment in their design team.

As in-house designers what can we do to support ourselves and each other while driving the customer agenda forward? What needs to change for us to work with the current market mood, rather than against it, and still achieve our goals and stay true to our mandate?

This meetup is the first in a series which we are calling ‘Career Club’. Designed as themed, facilitated conversations, we want to surface knowledge, stories and tools to help you leverage your design practice as a competitive advantage in these challenging times.

Join us during this session to explore the topic through these conversation starters:

• The Recession-Design Paradox: Can cutting back on design  actually cost organisations more in the long run?
• Innovation in a Downturn: What real-world examples exist in our community of organisations that thrived during / after recessions by prioritising design and innovation.
• How can we confidently advocate for design investment during an economic downturn.

As Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to former US president Barack Obama, reminds us “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste…And what I mean by that is, it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Optional pre-read:

“During the 2008 recession, companies that increased their R&D spending outperformed the overall market by 12% in the subsequent year.” — Harvard Business Review.

“Organizations that maintained their innovation focus through the 2009 financial crisis, emerged stronger, outperforming the market average by more than 30 percent and continuing to deliver accelerated growth over the subsequent three to five years.” — McKinsey & Company