AgTalk | Focusing on sustainable growth: Design IT's Mikal Hallstrup

Design IT is a strategic design consultancy with integrated services in innovation, service design, product design, interactive design, interaction design, and branding and communication. By combining human needs with strategy, Design IT acts as an agent of change for society and business. With 290+ professionals working out of 14 offices in 11 countries, they excel at helping ambitious companies make innovation happen and create strong and sustainable business value through strategy and design. Developing across the entire customer experience, their unique interdisciplinary teams create compelling products, services and experiences, driving customer engagement and realizing business growth. Their expertise spans a broad range of industries and they solve challenges from end-to-end for a wide variety of international clients. Informed by strategy and realized by design, Design IT challenges conventional assumptions to create disruptive, future-ready solutions across the entire customer experience.With Scandinavian roots and a European mindset, Design IT has a global reach.

Denmark was country partner at the Nasscom India Leadership forum that concluded recently in Mumbai. The ‘Design Thinking’ workshop held on 13th February 2014, showcased strategies that marry human needs, business strategy, and technology with a unique & creative workshop on how to apply creativity and a user driven approach to make more meaningful innovation in technology industry. The workshop conducted by Mikal Hallstrup, Chief Visionary Officer & Co Founder of Design IT, engaged the audience minds and inspired them to think about effective, workable and relevant design ideas to their individual business challenges. The interesting workshop saw an attendance of 40 enthusiastic participants.  The ‘Danish Design Thinking’ workshop at Nasscom India Leadership Forum is indicative of the growing collaboration between Denmark and India.

Design is one of the new themes that they are exploring and believe that Denmark has a lot to offer Indian companies as they seek to build capability within this area. This initiative is only one of several in the pipeline

Adgully caught up with Mikal Hallstrup, Chief Visionary Officer & Co Founder, Design IT to learn more about the company, his thoughts on the design industry and how he envisages a better future given the scope this industry provides today.

Adgully (AG):  Brief us about the thought behind the inception of global strategic design firm Design IT.

Mikal Hallstrup (MH): From the start we have always believed that design and creativity has the power to improve both business and the lives we live. We believe that, citizens, consumers, patients, students, travellers etc all over the world deserve great designs that make us live better, happier and more meaningful lives. In the digital/mobile age there’s a lot of stuff to be done.

AG:  Share with us your understanding of Design IT market in India and abroad?

MH: The industry needs to shift from only developing new tech to also applying it in meaningful ways. We want to live smart lives, not complicated lives, and if we don’t want to get tangled up in various digital systems we have to focus more on putting users first. Again, citizens, patients, consumers, travellers, they all long for easy and frustration free experiences. Just think about online self-service. Self-service can be the best service if it’s designed with the user in mind. In this way, Indian companies can evolve from being (replaceable) service providers to (irreplaceable) value providers. I think the Danish Ambassador made some very good points on this note.

AG: Being one of Europe's biggest design consultancy, what kind of varied services do you offer to your clients?

MH: Product design, Service design, Experience design, preferably, in a unified offering, because that’s what many companies actually need in the digital age. Product-Service eco-system is a huge opportunity that many companies struggle to get their heads wrapped around.

AG:  Brief us about your clientele and how you are located globally?

MH: We have a strong base in Europe. We have 14 offices which are very diverse, yet all multi-skilled. Besides that, Copenhagen is really strong in healthcare and public design. Munich is big in automotive, technology and consumer electronics. Madrid is strong in finance and telecom.  Also our office in Tel Aviv is extremely strong in brand experience and helping tech-startups into the market.

AG: How is the market accepting your business and how is it evolving with time?

MH: We have a strong adoption on the European and American market and also evincing keen interest from new growth economies like China, India and Brazil. The fact that design is a growth driver and a strategic business tool, not decoration, but rather a foundation is being accepted globally.

AG: What is your edge over competition and any challenges Design IT has faced which comes to mind?

MH: Our strongest edge is our collaborative way of working with companies and the product-service-experience offering.

AG: Which are the industries that work well for your business and which you primarily focus on?

MH: Healthcare, Automotive, Financial services, Telecom, Public, Energy and Utility, IT, Consumer products, Industrial products and more.

AG: What does the future hold for Design IT in a rapidly changing world?

MH: A big and growing one. The world needs it! If we dream of liveable cities, smarter lives etc. there’s no way around applying design.

AG: What are Design IT’s plans and strategies for the year ahead?

MH: Sustainable growth and strong market focus with our product-service-experience offering.