Predictable Magic: Unleash the Power of Design Strategy to Transform Your Business - Hardcover

Prahalad, Deepa; Sawhney, Ravi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0137023480 ISBN 13: 9780137023486

Publisher: Wharton School Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

Companies invest fortunes on innovation and product strategy. But, by some estimates, 80% of new products fail or dramatically underperform every year, though a few rare products succeed brilliantly. Why is this the case? Their creators have seamlessly integrated corporate strategy with design. They don’t deliver utilitarian objects: they craft rewarding, empowering experiences. To outsiders, this looks like magic: incomprehensible, and impossible to reproduce. But it isn’t. Predictable Magic presents a complete design process for making the “magic” happen -- over and over again. Veteran industrial designer Ravi Sawhney and business strategist Deepa Prahalad introduce Psycho-Aesthetics, a breakthrough approach for systematically creating deep emotional connections between consumers and brands. Step by step, the authors cover everything from research to strategy, implementation to consumer experience. They also demonstrate Psycho-Aesthetics at work – in case studies from some of the world’s top companies, including Sprint, Medtronic, Amana, and Hyundai. You’ll see how these great companies have used Psycho-Aesthetics to go beyond the utilitarian (or even the merely “beautiful”), to build products that powerfully connect with people... touch them... move them... time and again.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"By putting the empowerment of people at the center of strategy creation, "Predictable Magic" is as much a book about values and leadership as it is about design. It can help executives find meaning and value in their work as they create meaning and value for their consumers."-Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned executive coach; author, "The New York Times" bestsellers, "MOJO" and "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" "While every company strives to create products and services that dazzle, few achieve this feat. Prahalad and Sawhney lay out a simple but powerful methodology for turning deep consumer insights into attention-grabbing, expectation-defying designs. If you're looking to increase the 'magic quotient' in the things your company makes and sells, you'll want to dig into "Predictable Magic"."-Dr. Gary Hamel, Visiting Professor, London Business School; author, "The Future of Management" and "Leading the Revolution" "The natural fusion of psychology and creative disciplines enable a potent capability that will be critically important as we seek to better understand the demands of a diverse global population. "Predictable Magic" outlines an important framework to capture and define the emotional wants and needs of a user."-Ken Musgrave, IDSA, Director, Experience Design, Dell "Prahalad and Sawhney shine a light on an important piece of the strategic puzzle: how to convert consumer emotions into successful designs. They provide a rigorous approach to guide innovation efforts from strategy creation through execution. This is a must-read for anyone who is trying to create a new product or develop a new business model."-Dr. Vijay Govindarajan, Professor, Tuck School of Business; Chief Innovation Consultant, GE; author, "Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators" "Prahalad and Sawhney have written an unusually useful book. It is one of the rare sources that go beyond giving us another definition of innovation. With concrete examples linked to practical principles, they show us how to do it."-Patrick Whitney, Steelcase / Robert C. Pew Professor and Dean, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology

About the Author

Deepa Prahalad is a business strategist specializing in opportunities at the intersection of consumer experience, technology, and strategy. She has experience in a wide range of industries and has worked as a management consultant with firms from start-ups to large multinationals. Passionate about emerging markets and innovation, she began her career researching how to improve efficiency in UN procurement and later moved to Singapore to become a commodities trader with Cargill. She holds a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

 

Ravi Sawhney is founder and CEO of RKS, a global leader in strategy, innovation, and design. Sawhney’s contributions to the industrial design profession are legendary. At Xerox, he was sole Industrial Designer working with a team of 20 cognitive and social scientists to develop the world’s first touch-screen interface. Sawhney has been recognized with nearly every major industrial design award and has helped RKS’ elite clients generate more than 150 patents. He invented the popular Psycho-Aesthetics® design strategy presented in this book, an approach that has been profiled as a Harvard Business School case study.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0137023480
• ISBN 13: 9780137023486
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 183