Valuing design: Enhancing corporate performance through design effectiveness

It's an initial study, but the analysis indicates that good design is, indeed, good business. Julie H. Hertenstein, Marjorie B. Platt, and David R. Brown have devised a method for relating an organization's focus on design with bottom‐line outcomes. They use 12 measures of financial performance and investigate 51 companies in four industries over a five‐year time frame. Confirming a long‐held belief—design‐conscious firms generally do better.