On April 21st, the Japan Patent Office published a report summarizing the results of a survey on the effectiveness of design-based management in small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Design management" is,By thoroughly engaging with the managers themselves, employees, colleagues outside the company, the local community, and even the wider society, we aim to enhance the sustainability of the company and enable management to adapt to changes in the environment by working on "character formation," "culture development," and "value creation."" and is considered to contribute to the sustainable growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Since the "Design Management Declaration" in 2018, government and other support organizations have been supporting the practice of design management in small and medium-sized enterprises. However, design management, which takes years to see results, is a difficult challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises, and in fact, there has been a tendency for small and medium-sized enterprises to lag behind large enterprises in the penetration of design management.
In this survey, the Japan Patent Office found that design management is "Clarifying the company's identity","Recruiting and retaining talent","Creating new jobs" We found that the design-based business support program brings three effects to small and medium-sized enterprises. We then summarized the relationship between the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises that participated in the program and the three effects, and concluded that "Design management effect model" I found that.
Of the small and medium-sized enterprises that responded to the survey, approximately 90%Improving organizational culture,Improving employee and customer satisfactionAbout half of the respondents said they felt the following non-financial benefits:Increased sales,Improving gross profit marginsThey responded that they felt the financial benefits, such as:
Until now, support for utilizing intellectual property has been limited to the "rights" stage of intellectual property, and there has been an issue of not fully capturing the potential intellectual assets of companies. In the future, however, we will support the "rights stage" of intellectual property rights,Converting information into valuable information (explicit knowledge)It is necessary to broaden the scope to include "business as usual" and encourage companies to utilize their potential intellectual assets.
Because design management support also focuses on a company's potential intellectual assets, the design management support program is particularly effective in the "explicit knowledge" process and has the potential to develop into comprehensive support for utilizing intellectual property that is not limited to patenting.
For more information on the investigation conducted by the JPO, please see the following URL:
https://www.jpo.go.jp/introduction/soshiki/design_keiei/kouka.html