Designers, these entrepreneurs of tomorrow

A new generation of entrepreneurs endowed with a designer culture is beginning to rise, in extremely varied domains: intelligent thermostat (Nest’s Tony Fadell), mail processing programme (Mailbox’s Gentry Underwood), housing booking platform (Airbnb’s Brian Chesky) or washable disposable nappies (Génération Plume’s Florence Hallouin)… And this for one essential reason: the calling, way of thinking and action process of designers concern pragmatic problem solving. Just like entrepreneurs.

However, few designers are really aware of the fact that they are sitting on a goldmine as far as creating economic value is concerned.

As an entrepreneur and a designer myself, I have worked with the CEOs of large companies and SMEs, in Europe, North America and Asia. This was an opportunity for me to realise the degree to which the approaches of designers and traditional entrepreneurs are similar, and to better understand where the specific added values of each one of them can be found.
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