Corporate leaders are losing their enthusiasm for design. That’s a mistake

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. Sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

When Apple announced its augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) headset earlier this month, some in the design community were less than impressed. After speaking with several people familiar with the development of the Vision Pro, Mark Wilson, Fast Company’s global design editor, characterized the headset as the product of a company that prioritizes engineering over design. One of his sources put it bluntly: “Apple is no longer a design-led company.” (Premium content, subscription required.)

Lead by design

Wilson’s reporting underscores a broader trend: Design seems to be losing its luster among corporate leaders. For nearly two decades, CEOs of businesses such as Procter & Gamble and Pepsi championed the concept of “design thinking.” They hired chief design officers and consultancies such as IDEO and Ammunition, in no small part to emulate Apple’s success with iMac, iPod, and iPhone. Today, few corporate executives tout their companies’ design prowess, and only one in 10 CEOs interviewed by McKinsey & Co. say their senior designer “plays a meaningful role in strategy development.”

Abandoning design seems like a missed opportunity for CEOs, who could benefit from the wisdom designers may bring to an organization. The best designers can be a proxy for your customers. Design thinking basically is fancy way of solving problems from the perspective of users. And far from being wild-eyed creatives, designers are accustomed to working with rules and constraints, making them the perfect leaders to consult when budgets tighten. (As a treat, check out this interview with industrial designers and constraint enthusiasts Charles and Ray Eames.)

Just add fun

The reason CEOs may be reluctant to fully embrace design might best be summed up by Jony Ive, the industrial designer who brilliantly worked with Steve Jobs on the beautiful—and profitable—computers and phones corporate America envied. “I think there has to be acceptance and engagement with the fact that the creative process is fabulously unpredictable,” Ive, who now runs creative agency LoveFrom, recently told McKinsey. “A great idea cannot be predicted.”

Ive’s descriptions of his process make his collaborations with CEO clients such as Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Exor’s John Elkann seem like the most energizing and intellectually stimulating sessions in the world. CEOs by now are used to unpredictability. Why not engage with your designers and have a little fun while navigating the uncertainty?

Do you keep design in mind?

Do you run a design-led company? How do you incorporate designers into your strategy? Send me your ideas, and I will try to share them in a future edition of the newsletter.

More reading on design

The true story behind Jony Ive’s LoveFrom typeface.

How to stand out in a world of uninspired design.

6 essential design books to read this summer.

An oral history of Apple Design.