"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." --Wayne Gretzky

For forward-thinking businesses, it’s a no-brainer. Actually, more to the point: it’s a right brainer. With major economic challenges and competitive shifts coming fast and furious, the old business models simply aren’t working well anymore.

Companies that are highly compartmentalized with numerous silos; that operate with onerous, sluggish processes, and have reactive rather than proactive mentalities, are having a difficult time responding to the unprecedented challenges of today’s marketplace. This business model is still too dependent upon owning proprietary manufacturing processes and intellectual property to churn out me-too products, or marginally improved ones, which are dubbed “innovative”. It continues to raise capital, shoring up the supply chain and forcing distribution, in an effort to realize better efficiencies.

Businesses that fit this mold are becoming dinosaurs. That may be hard to believe, but it’s true. All consumer product companies need to respond to the red flags that are popping up everywhere. It’s no longer business as usual.

For one thing, consumers have taken over the marketplace. Today’s consumers are global, smart and demanding. They’re not blindly loyal to brands since there are so many competitive choices. Consumers have wrested a great deal of control in the shaping of brands. They’re talking in large numbers and they have the power to make or break brands.

In this environment, companies can’t be agile and forward-thinking about a fast-changing present and future where consumer expectations are concerned, if their business models are firmly rooted in the past. The old business models are too slow, too cumbersome and much too reactive to work in today’s global economy.

Business publications everywhere, as well as business and design consultants, constantly talk about “innovation” as the key to success now. The problems with that: CEOs and upper management pay lip service to the idea of being innovative while squelching ideas that are too far out of the box. Indifference or outright hostility are the enemies of innovation. So are compartmentalized silos because they do not encourage cross-cultural collaboration.

Innovation and Problem Solving.

Innovation is really about being proactive. Innovation happens if corporate cultures are collaborative. It’s about developing products that create demand and excitement. It’s also about anticipating the consumer. The most innovative consumer products are launched by companies that are design-oriented (read: right-brained) at the core.

Design-oriented thinking at its best offers more than innovative product solutions. It can also be employed to solve tough internal business problems or new challenges, as well. Approaching any problem with integrated perspectives makes sense. Furthermore, implementing a design mentality as an overall business strategy is exactly what is needed in the frenzied business environment everyone is operating in.

Think Procter & Gamble and its Swiffer or Febreze brands. Apple and its iPod and iPhone. Nintendo and its Wii. Toyota and its Prius. BMW and its entire fleet. Whirlpool and its Duet washer and dryer. Notice that many of these brands have created or redefined product categories. There’s nothing like anticipating the marketplace, is there? Proof of success? These brands have become icons among consumers.

Lest anyone think that design innovation is only possible for large companies with deep pockets and almost limitless resources, think again. Design sells products at every level and in every sphere of society. Think of Michael Graves’ teakettles. Dirt Devil’s KONE hand-held vacuum, designed by Karim Rashid. Pom Wonderful’s pomegranate juice. Iron City beer in aluminum bottles. Do consumers gravitate to products due to great design? You bet they do.

Of course, many consumer product companies balk at the idea of sticking their necks out in a big way. When it comes to launching dramatically new products and carving out new categories, there is a great deal of risk involved.

No risk, no reward. There’s a lot at stake, but look at it this way: it’s survival of the fittest time. Relying on collecting yet more customer data to put off making decisions isn’t a good idea. Playing it too safe isn’t in the best interests of companies.

Rather than reacting to diminishing returns and intense competition, why not reorient the company in a new way that meets current challenges head-on and welcomes the future?

The Integrated Business Model.

By their very nature, training and education, businesspeople are left-brained. That is, they are taught to be analytical, quantitative and management oriented. With few exceptions, most companies are examples of left-brained business models. That may have been fine in the past. But now, the complex challenges of doing business in current and future environments, demands a truly balanced approach. Right-brainers take a creative, idea-rich, solutions-driven approach to problem solving.

Design-oriented thinking is leading innovation in the most successful businesses. Design thinking, and all creative thinking, is a right brain skill set. Companies that have integrated a “design first” mentality have broken down silos so they can be more nimble and responsive to trends and ideas. They have changed their cultures in the best possible way: they have created collaborative environments.

Should companies opt solely for the collaborative, creative skills of right-brained designers, and throw out staid, disciplined left-brained thinking that’s been pervasive for so long? Of course not. Both bring very different skill sets to organizations and both are needed. The strength of companies can be realized in the integration of both and the open collaboration—and problem solving--that result.

Reorienting consumer product companies with new philosophies has to come from the top down—creative thinking has to be wanted and welcome, prized even—and the more revolutionary, the better. Challenging times call for radically new ideas. And this is perhaps the toughest challenge—management has to be willing, able and supportive to accomplish this.

By adding design personnel into every department; or by bringing in dedicated in-house design departments, and then sanctioning their value, companies can begin to rebuild their cultures in a significant way. They can reach out to outside design consultancies, as well, to begin to solve problems due with the strength of entirely different perspectives.

A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble took this tack in 2001 when he appointed P&G marketing veteran Claudia Kotchka to become the company’s first VP of Design Innovation & Strategy. Her job? "Building design into the DNA of P&G”, according to Kotchka herself. Not only was design integrated into every department, but inside design staff and outside design consultancies have collaborated ever since.

If a behemoth consumer product company like P&G can do this successfully—and it has--having turned its culture into a design-oriented, solutions-driven organization, any company can. It takes will, a new philosophy, buy-in from the top down, and a maniacal commitment to make it happen. Understanding that this process takes time and hits a few snags has to be moderated by the long view: the potential pay-off.

Smaller companies can implement this plan more modestly. Adding one or two design-oriented employees in key areas and then employing the talents of outside consultants might be more doable due to leaner resources. Regardless, collaboration is key. Creative, forward-seeing, solutions-driven perspectives have the power to reposition companies for the future, as they change internal cultures and make them much more nimble.