“Design should be launched as a Movement across the nation by devising necessary policies for encouraging design leadership in organizational framework”
Says Mr. Udayant Malhoutra, Chairman, CII National Committee on Design & CEO & MD, Dynamatic Technologies at the World Industrial Design Day – India Dialogue hosted by CII and World Design Organisation.
Observed annually on 29 June, World Industrial Design Day (WIDD) was first declared in 2007 by the World Design Organization (WDO). WIDD celebrates and recognizes the power of design to strengthen economic, social, cultural, and environmental development around the world. WDO hosted the 24hours livestreamed event on 29 June, 2022 covering broad spectrum of topics under the theme of Leadership.
Confederation of Indian Industry hosted the India Dialogue in the WIDD event which touched-upon the current scenario of leadership and key strategies for involving designers in critical decision-making process.
While addressing at the session, Mr Udayant Malhoutra, Chairman, CII National Committee on Design & CEO & MD, Dynamatic Technologies stated that theme for the conference, “Leadership” is relevant in the current context where the world is dealing with an unprecedented situation and rapidly rising inflation which calls for a strong leadership to unfold new opportunities and make headways to success. He further emphasized that, to build a culture of design and to elevate the quality of design across a company, design leaders must be transparent about the process, educate people internally about its value, and advocate for its use across the organization by helping other teams get the design resources they need.
Ms. Suparna Mitra, Chief Executive Officer – Watches and Wearables division, Titan Company mentioned that Organizations & Individuals need to focus on Long term lifetime need of design in every aspect of the countries - this is a big shift in design. Leadership is about serving the customer and providing the accurate solution.
Mr. Mohan Krishnaraj, Chief Experience Officer, Wongdoody Infosys stated that the source of the value creation is shifted from product to Experience and in the current era, Vital Leaders are the ones who would be the key people to take it forward. Design has moved from Individualistic to Synchronistic approach where data is coming from different aspects. He also quoted a famous saying “ Leadership is about unlearning management & relearning being human.”
Mr. Sumit Singh, Associate Vice-President & Head of Customer Experience and Design, Havells India mentioned that from a designer point of view empathy is an important skillset when it comes to communicating the management about the key decisions taken during the product/ service design process. From a designer’s perse, one needs to focus on visualization and sustainability aspects.
Prof. Pradyumna Vyas, Senior Advisor, Confederation of Indian Industry & Board Member, World Design Organisation said that Design Leadership delineates a pathway to design excellence, which includes establishing a forward-looking strategy and an adequate organizational structure for the design function, empowering the design team, and scaling the impact of design across the entire organization.
The session also witnessed release of the CII STRIDE Journal 2nd edition, that features original, unique and impactful articles on technology, design innovations & IP, accomplished by industry, academia and research institutes, thereby providing leadership to India in taking long, decisive steps in direction of Design innovation excellence.
Additionally, CII in collaboration with WDO launched the ‘Young Designers Awards (YDA) 2022’, for the young professionals who will be the future champions. While discovering and nurturing the next generation of design talent, the award will help the design professionals develop their skills through cross-learning opportunities and networking with key industry players in the domain. Visit www.ciidesign.in for application details.
29 June 2022