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The Commonwealth Club of California
San Francisco, CA
Jan 30th, 2008
[A video version of this presentation with transcripts is available at Fora.tv]
Kevin O'Malley, vice-chairman of the Commonwealth Club's business and leadership forum, moderates a discussion with panel members Nathan Shedroff, chair of California College of the Art's MBA in Design Strategy; Brandon Schauer, experience design director of the design firm Adaptive Path; Eric Ryan, founder of the green household products company method; and Rajan Dev, COO of Hot Studio, a San Francisco based design studio.
Conscious Capitalism means achieving profitability by understanding human centered design - understanding people and their needs - at a deep level. Doing so can enable companies to meet consumer needs better and in a more sustainable way. The point of departure for the discussion is the book Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences, which is co-authored by panelist Nathan Shedroff.
Mr. Shedroff explains that consumers normally go through five levels when evaluating a product or service: function, price, emotion, identity/values, and finally meaning - how a product or service fits the consumer's belief system and world view. Understanding meaning and incorporating it into the design process will be increasingly important to success in the 21st century.
Each panel member brings his own unique perspective to this discussion as the panel addresses such issues as developing people-centered methodologies, motivating companies to adopt sustainable business practices, business as an agent of change, and creating communication between designers and business people.
Kevin O'Malley is founding partner of Tech/Talk Studio, a full service speakers bureau and training firm. He applies unique training and coaching skills and partnership building to the world of corporate speaking and events. His approach successfully brings disciplines such as deconstruction and semiotics into executive development and face to face interactions with targeted audiences.
Nathan Shedroff is one of the pioneers in Experience Design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and requirements and explores common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful, as well as related fields, Interaction Design and Information Design. He speaks and teaches internationally and has written extensively on design and business issues, including, Experience Design 1 and Making Meaning. He's a a serial entrepreneur, works in several media, and consults strategically for companies to build better, more meaningful experiences for their customers
Brandon Schauer is an experience design director for Adaptive Path. He speaks, writes, trains, and practices experience design as a differentiator for business strategy. His passion for finding and understanding the unmet needs of customers has led him to diverse environments, from the homes of cancer patients to tunnels beneath Walt Disney World. This insight with customers - plus a solid grounding in business analysis and a mastery of design methods - allows Brandon to help organizations define and design more meaningful experiences for their customers.
At age 27, Eric Ryan founded method, a San Francisco-based consumer goods company that has reinvented homecare products with an innovative branding and product design approach. In five short years, method has challenged some of the world's largest multinationals in home cleaning, laundry, personal care and air care to become the fastest growing consumer products company in the US. Recently method was named #7 on the Inc 500 list for fastest growing private companies in America. In 2006 he was named PETA's person of the year and one of Time Magazine's eco leaders.
Rajan Dev is Chief Operating Officer of Hot Studio, a San Francisco based design studio. Prior to joining Hot Studio, he was the General Manager of the San Francisco office of Modern Media/Digitas for nearly six years. In that role, Rajan served clients such as Hewlett Packard, Intel, Sprint PCS, Michelin North America, Amgen and Charles Schwab delivering interactive marketing strategy and integrated marketing solutions (web, email and print). Rajan holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from UC Berkeley in Political Science and an MBA from Columbia University, where he focused on Finance and Marketing course work.
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