Before, I was a designer... Since the 'Design Thinking', apparently I have a brain.

In reality, nothing has changed for us designers, except that we are being increasingly perceived as problem-solving professionals, and that many of us are increasingly at ease with being artisans of innovation.

Designers are the men and women of innovation.

They know how to draw that methodological and collaborative path that will lead the whole company towards tomorrow’s model. Yet, competitiveness depends largely on innovation. So then why, while they are at the centre of the driving force of competitiveness, do companies under-exploit them? The rate of design utilisation by companies at the strategic level is low in Europe, barely 40% for instance in France (See in particular a study conducted by the APCI, Cité du design and the Institut Français de la Mode on behalf of the French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment in 2010). This finding is not new, but it is becoming increasingly preoccupying for our competitiveness. Better understanding their inputs and integration into the company is therefore a major issue!

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I met  Chris Lunch, co-founder of InsightShare: I highly respect his pure socio-anthropological approach. His idea, as audacious as it is, is to push the scientific observation approach to the extreme... until anthropologists disappear altogether!

How and why? The ambition of the teams working at InsightShare is to transform social realities thanks to the power of participative video. They train men and women in communities to use video equipment and make video films. They give them the power to observe one another and to express what they feel with no outside influence. As such, anthropologists disappear to the benefit of the observed/observers.

At last, a case of biter/bit that produces social wealth!

(c) image InsightShare

Participative financing, micro-credit, integral loans, crowdfunding, call it what you want but financing new projects has never been so out of reach to traditional banks. The need for financing local projects is on the forefront of innovative initiatives in the financial sector. The transformation of financial organisations has begun. We are still far from the expected mutation. It will impact – and is already impacting! – on all our lives.

For those interested in the subject, I recommend reading the excellent article (in French!) entitled "Entre nous, le bonheur est dans le prêt" by Anne-Sophie Novel, dealing with co-operative finance initiatives on the blog of online French newspaper Le Monde, which highlights a deep aspiration to see money (re)becoming a tool, more than a means of speculation. For the growth of SMEs, for the dynamism of our economic system, the years to come are going to be fascinating!