Can You Measure Design's Value?

Came across this fine article on the subject of measuring design's role in the business world. Here is the gist of it:

"Businesspeople are from Mars and designers are from Venus," joked Hartmut Esslinger, founder of Frog Design. "But managing design for better business is what we as designers have to do." To do that, he urged designers to educate themselves about business issues in order to become more effective and better designers.

The future direction of design requires a multidisciplinary approach: a blending of quantitative research and empathetic user-centered design. That may sound good in theory but, as Rhea noted, very few companies have adopted such a balanced design management strategy. For this new model to take hold, a company must have visionary leadership, a collaborative culture, and the willingness to invest. The only problem, as Rhea and every speaker who followed him admitted, is that such a combination is hard to find. "There are very few Steve Jobs around," he said. "That's why it is incumbent on designers to educate management as to the value of what we do."

Read the full article here.

Also, I find these resources for the design entreprenuers helpful.