Professor Elam

Design Shines at B Schools

I have advocated making Design a centerpiece of an MBA program. Here is an article that manufacturers are turning to Business Week's list of Design schools for a competition, click on the list of BW Design Schools to see what I mean. 

Tablets to Come Back

Yesterday i speculated that the Kindle lacked an internet ability and it would need that to catch on. 

I also speculated that the tablet might re emerge as that product. Well whaddya know?

Apple and a host of other elec manufacturers are racing to do just that. I really don't see the necessity of allowing one to write by hand on the thing, but I do think merging e books and i downloads i necessary. Now if Apple can figure out where my music went that I paid for I might down load some again....

A blogger speculates on data entry in this post. 

Kindle Prices Coming Down

Kidnle Prices are coming down, not enough to appeal to students yet.  I have thought Amazon would ned to bundle this with some books, but the textbook companies tell me that AMazon will not come off its price. While the product down loads books from the net, it seems to me it would need to be able to access the internet to have real appeal. After all most of the fancier cell phones do that now. 

I finally held one of these and it is a nice design and replicates the look of a book. but this concept has still not taken on iPod like status. 

KIA Ups the Ante

Kia has replaced the Spectra, which sold very well. Yet Kia says the car did not connect with its owners.

Get this straight, management accounting is not just about numbers. How we feel (read How We Decide or my remarks on socionomics) determines what we do. 

We are studying managerial accounting.  Benchmarking best practices is a topic of Chapter Two. Note that the new Kia Forte was fashioned not in Seoul but in Kia's California design studios. Note also the number of articles that appear on this blog about the importance of design. 

Kia has been using words beginning with S ot name its cars,  a soft sound now that I think about it, Spectra, Sephia (huh?), Sorento, Sonata (I am going to sleep, sounds like a baby lullaby)

As MT says this is THE toughest segment matching off against Honda CIvic, Toyota Corolla, and Mazda 3. 

This time Kia chose the name Forte, let's check

1 : the part of a sword or foil blade that is between the middle and the hilt and that is the strongest part of the blade2 : one's strong poin

Hmm I think they are serious. With US auto sales still below 10 M a year, a huge 30% drop the competition is more fierce than ever. So you say big deal a 30% drop so what?  The so what part is that for most manufacturers, we have dropped to break even or below in terms of units sold. This is why it is imperative to grasp the cost terms of fixed and variable cost as well as those cost of goods sold statements in chapter two gross profit or gross margin is REALLY important) as well as the break even graphs in chapters 5 and 6. 

The Administration has created a new jobs program with Chrysler and GM.  Chrysler does not even offer an economy car, take about zero to bad strategic planning. GM has finally produced a cobalt that is getting good reviews, good thing they competition is heating up. My point being that our Government has the weakest players in the game to field an economy car. Good thing it owns the money printing press....

Yes I will make a lot of references to the car industry, I understand cars and they are more fun than computer chips. And they are front and center in the news. Car Wars are always fierce but now more than ever. A company can only go so long at break even. Everyone is assuming the economy will improve soon and car sales will go back up. But the stats I read have Americans saving for the first time in decades, not spending. Companies will be competing as thought their existence depended on it, it does. 

KIA Better by Design

Improving business with superior design is another theme of the blog.  In this article

we learn that Kia hired chief Audi designer Peter Schreyer.

Sales are up so that a lower cost car now has a more chic image.

Again I suggested that MBA programs would be improved with an emphasis on Design. Some around the country are already doing just that. 

Bad by Design

I believe that we should consider a graduate business degree with a Design component. Here is another example of what I mean.

This is a photo of the parking lot across from the Municipal Auditorium. That is a new curb holding water in the parking lot. Yes you read it correctly. In the background is a mural on the San Antonio River. So since the water cannot drain through the newly laid curb, everyone parked in the lot is sloshing through ankle deep water. Why not put spaces in the curbing so that the water could drain into the river? 

This is another example of not just bad but atrocious design.

This shot includes the river below. It highlights the irony that the water which should drain into the river, cannot thanks to a poor design by someone no doubt paid to make a good design. For all I know the water is still there!

Have you seen any examples of good or bad design?

Sixth Sense at MIT

MIT is working on the iPhone of the future. I am not quite sure this is a great idea but 

remember that the picture phone was a wonder of the 1960s, it took 40 years to get here but even with web cams has not caught on , I am not sure we really want everyone to see what we look like first thing in the morning...

Dennis

Great Design

Does it catch your eye?  Is this a 'classic' Scagletti design? A collector thought so paying $12.1 million for this 1957 Ferrari Testa Rosa.

Only  a few dozen were produced and it won consistently from 1958-1961.

We will be studying  Total Quality Management and consumer preferences in Managerial Accounting. Ferrari is to this day a producer of a small number of expensive autos. Yet the very name Ferrari like the Fabrege Egg is synonomous with exclusivity. Arrive in a Ferrari and you have, arrived. What other products display such a mystique? The dresses and jewelry on display by famous or would be famous women at the Academy Awards are an example.   What factors does such a car possess that no NASCAR racer for example will ever convey? 

When does such a manufacture object become an art object?  Is it a car, or an artistic expression of its creator? When does a painting, a sculpture, a car, a building (the famous Sydney Opera House for example) become art ?  Is it possible to start from scratch and achieve such distinction?

The Importance of Good Design

I cropped the photo down to this corner of each micro wave able box. See the difference?

The contents are clearly labeled on the bottom box, not so for the top box. So if they are stacked in the freezer, a quick glance reveals the contents of the box. With the design of the top box, one has no idea what the box contains. 

Given that one supposes companies the size of Con Agra which make this product, has seen the improvement and that the newer design is the one on the bottom, right?

Wrong, the top box is the newer design.While the overall box has a more 'breezy' color scheme, it conveys less information. This is an example of the design process going the wrong way. the contents is on the top of the box and the longer side of the box but not the end, which is the logical way to stack them in the freezer.

 

Check out Don Norman's the Design of Everyday Things for more on this very important topic.