REDI final conference: Go! Go! Go! Brussels, 10th March 2015

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1 REDI final conference: Go! Go! Go! Brussels, 10th March 2015 Last week policy makers and support programme managers in charge of design or innovation came from all over Europe to Brussels to share the experiments and reflections that we have conducted during 30 months to favour the integration of design by SMEs. The participants have actively participated to workshops where were discussed the key position occupied by intermediaries in direct relationship with the SMEs (business advisors), the need to adopt tools tailored to the local context, and the role of regional, national and European policy to support design-driven innovation for SMEs. Three support programme managers Jane Oblikas (Design Bulldozer/Estonia); David Ferron & Thomas Chuzeville (3pod/Nord- Pas-de-Calais) and Berta Perez (Fad- Ins/Barcelona) have kindly summarized the discussions and have put their experience into perspective with the services developed within the Redi project. Bonifacio Garcia Porras (European Commission/DG GROW) has presented the latest orientations of the European designdriven innovation policy and announced the launching late April of the call "Capabilities for Design-Driven Innovation in European SMEs". The discussions continued over a drink and in the middle of an exhibition of young design professionals works with SMEs. The all event was organized in fruitful collaboration with the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union in Brussels. You can download now the conference presentation, as well as the benchmark and the REDI project synthesis. The services developed within the REDI project have been developed in such a way that they can be adapted to other contexts. If you think that they can meet the challenges of your region, just contact us, we will be pleased to share our findings and to cooperate in actions! Please find below a short overview of the REDI project For further information regarding the REDI project: Sandrine Gibet, Redi project coordinator, sgibet@apci.asso.fr or the regional project managers: Bulgaria: Christina Kasparyan, christi@smebg.net Finland: Juho Salminen, juho.salminen@lut.fi Germany: Birthe Herder, herder@dznrw.com Brittany (France): Alexandre Colomb, alexandre.colomb@bretagne.cci.fr Redi is a project managed by 5 partners active in the field of design and innovation. Follow the green light at Redi is co-funded by the European Union, under the European design innovation initiative

2 Objective and target group of the REDI project REDI is one of the six programmes supported by the European Commission under the EDII (European Design Innovation Initiative) through its "Action Plan for Design-Driven Innovation". REDI aims at the consolidation of territorial ecosystems that support design-driven innovation. The core issue is to bridge the gap between the demand side (businesses) and the supply side (design professionals) in order to multiply the design-innovation potential of industries and services. Business support organisations and their advisors are in direct contact with SMEs: they have a central role to play in this shift. But most of these advisors have a blurred vision of what design can do, and do not see how they can integrate it in their counselling activities. The key objective of REDI is to understand their perspective and provide them with tools that will help them to promote design as one of the contributing factors to the success of any business strategy. By using a service-design methodology, partners invented tools and discourses rooted in the regional specificities: the existing demand (SMEs and advisors), the existing offer (design services) and the framework of policy measures. Partners of REDI consortium 2 design support organisations: APCI (Agence pour la promotion de la création industrielle - Paris, France) Lead partner DZNRW (Design Zentrum Nordrhein- Westfalen / reddot - Essen, Germany) 3 business support organisations: CCIB / ARIST (Brittany Chamber of Commerce / Strategic and Technological Information Regional Agency - Rennes, France) BSC-SME (Business Support Center for SMEs - Ruse, Bulgaria) LUT Lahti (Lappeenranta University of Technology - Lahti, Finland) The process: co-design workshops & pilot projects The REDI partners did evaluate beforehand different initiatives developed to support the uptake of design by businesses, and targeting primarily SMEs. Two strands of actions have been compared: activities driven by design support organisations, and programmes set up by regional innovation agencies. The background, the target groups, the methodology, and the connections they might have to broader innovation support activities, and the impact of the activities have been studied. The findings have been published in our report: Supporting design-driven innovation: a review of selected programmes. This document published in July 2013 acts as a reference frame for REDI partners and beyond. Taking as input this benchmark and the regional context, the business support organisations involved in the project gathered stakeholders to define a service concept to best help SMEs to integrate design in their innovation strategy. Using a service design approach, two workshops have been run by CCIB, LUT and BSC SME. A strong focus was put on the intermediaries: what resources, material and training are needed, how can they connect to external support providers (e.g.: advisory services, consultants, design support organisations...) to which they can delegate the follow-up. For 6 months, a pilot phase was conducted in each region to reveal whether the assumption about the service held or not. In addition, evaluations were conducted all through the project in order to leverage impact, keeping businesses and advisors in focus. In order to disseminate the results to other regions and countries, workshops were run with external experts in order to strengthen the services. As a matter of fact, if the service is too "local" there might be little value in disseminating the result as it is, and more value in disseminating the method used. Moreover, the consortium has been built in such a way that each partner acts both as a regional and transnational hub. At the regional level, each partner mobilises the 2

3 innovation support communities (advisors, support structures, designers, policy developers). In addition, each member is active in some of the complementary European networks, such as EEN (Enterprise Europe Network), Beda and Design Management Europe (Design community), Eurochambers (European federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry), ENoLL (Living Labs community) etc. The regional policy makers have been included in the process at an early stage. The REDI project stakeholders Main outcomes and deliverables With the support of APCI and DZNRW, CCIB, BSC SME and LUT have developed a set of services and supporting documents that are relevant to its national or regional context. These documents articulate the key factors that are critical for helping regional SMEs to embrace user centred design in their innovation activities, as much as recommending actions for supporting designers to better respond to demand. Recommendations to policy makers, the articulation and architecture of innovation support actors, measures, existing tools such as those that can help businesses or advisors to benchmark the innovation capability have also been taken into consideration. In response to the remarks of the three business support organisations, DZNRW and APCI looked for new means to improve the understanding of design. Convinced that video games could open a way of communicating the value of design to businesses, we have investigated the potential of serious games for promoting design to businesses and business advisors (role playing, scenario, access to online resources etc.). KID - "Knowledge for Innovation by Design" in Brittany (France) ARIST has developed different tools and processes dedicated to its specific targets: For innovation support organisations, a coaching offer divided in three steps: 1. Taking into account the local territory. 2. Create a dedicated training module 3. A durable approach: the snow ball effect. For business advisors, training and toolkit: ü A list of the key questions that lead the manager to the design process. ü A comprehensive presentation of the design process (steps / deliverables). ü A methodological guide for user-centred observations. ü A document that describes the design professions and the required skills. ü A design brief template. ü The contractual terms and conditions (rights and obligations). ü A document that introduces the different funding and financing possibilities. For business managers: seven testimonies including two videos. For more details: "Brokerage Design Lab" in Ruse (Bulgaria) The Brokerage Design Lab is a service where the business advisor works with both parties the company and the designer and supports them in the matchmaking process. The offer - Individualized b2b service: REDI makes cases presentation to SMEs during an event. Interested SME supported by REDI develops their business profiles. REDI contacts and selects (by portfolio of projects and references) designers that can analyze the profile and offer solutions. REDI supports the matching process between the designer and the applicant. REDI supports the SME in proceeding with the best option. 3

4 The designers work regarding the previous analysis and his proposal is covered by the service provider. The designers work on the design project with a matching SME is covered by the SME. The Brokerage Design Lab has already supported about 10 small design projects. "Design Option" in Lahti (Finland) Design Option targets SMEs that have not used design services, and answers to their reluctance. The basic idea is that by buying a Design Option, the SME buys the right to preview the end result of a design project before committing to pay the full designer s fee. If the project suits the company, the SME pays the designer in the normal way. Otherwise, the service provider will cover the designer s fee and thus carry some of the project s risks. LUT has interviewed numerous SMEs to promote the service and they reach the conclusion that the Design Option as such does not answer the needs of SMEs in the Lahti region. However, the service design approach used during the development worked very well and can be warmly recommended. In addition to helping the transition from fuzzy ideas to a refined concept, the approach also facilitated networking with regional stakeholders and created new connections between separate organisations. How will the results be exploited? In France CCIB offers a coaching package (design training + tools conception) to similar innovation support structures, adapted to the specificities of their territory and to their advisors skills. A communication campaign will promote it to French innovation support organisations located in regions where there are few actions to promote design. Moreover, a regional seminar will take place in April 2015 with regional stakeholders in order to make a link between REDI findings and a possible regional program. This program would involve business support organisations and would also draw the basis for a funding scheme supporting design activities. At national level, Bpifrance (the French innovation and business public investment bank - has launched in February 2015 a new communication campaign - Innovation new generation - that demonstrates a real twist in their approach towards innovation. User-centred innovation, non-technical innovation and design are now recognised for their potential to boost competitiveness. In Bulgaria BSC SME has gathered all its tested tools in a guidebook for business support organisations that could be used, enriched and adapted in their daily practice. Many of these are directly relevant for neighbouring regions that face the same challenges. Next steps: Specialized trainings should be organized: For SMEs, to describe the design process, and how design could help them. For business support organisations, to prepare them to go beyond information supplying, and to include design in their consultation services package. Moreover, the experience gained throughout the project has been used in BSC SME s contribution to regional and national steering groups for planning the next generation of programmes for EU funding. Last but not least, BSC SME has initiated the development of the Smart Specialization Strategy of North Central Region, where support to the creative industries and fostering of design-driven innovation are going to be embedded. In Finland A service was developed and marketed to the stakeholders. Although we cannot talk about sustainability of the developed service in this case, ways were found to link the lessons learned during the process to other initiatives in the region. New knowledge was created concerning companies needs, and this knowledge will contribute to a stronger basis for future endeavours. The knowledge has 4

5 been communicated to business support organisations, businesses and other stakeholders. The knowledge will also be incorporated into the regional innovation ecosystem, in which LUT Lahti has an active role. Dissemination efforts and materials have reached other regions in Finland, and joint plans for design, service and innovation management projects are being developed. Special attention has been paid to synthesize and consolidate the lessons learned during the REDI project. The impacts of using design services on SMEs have been evaluated to contribute to a stronger basis for future projects and development activities. The lessons learned from the development project are broadly disseminated towards design related actors and regional development stakeholders. European Network of Living Labs and the general public have been reached through conference papers and seminar presentations, and the academic community through publications. The mutual understanding between innovation and design actors in the Lahti and surrounding regions has increased during the REDI project s duration, and they now acknowledge each other as parts of the local ecosystem. The result is a stronger basis for future collaboration, which has started to realize itself in the form of new collaborative projects, for instance on user-driven innovation, digital service development and game design. And now, what next? The first success of the project is to leave design embedded within the toolbox of business advisors. The service design method is effective as it adjusted the perspective on design and the tools to the context in which advisors operate. Scaling is the key: business advisors are not design advisors, but they have a good enough understanding of how design can help businesses grow, and a good knowledge of companies evolution to frame their design demand. The method can be transferred. The tools and services are designed to support smaller businesses that never used design in any of their activities. They take into account the regional context. We don t think that they can be replicated; they must be adapted and reinvented. Because we have managed to create services that are streamlined within the larger umbrella of innovation and business support, the likeliness of their sustainability is much bigger. In these regions, this opens the opportunity to allocate funds to deepen actions, to offer incentives such as vouchers, to support creative industries while supporting innovation. 5