设计新贵承载飞利浦复兴美梦.doc

When Sean Carney, the new Chief Design Officer at Royal Philips Electronics, walks into a boardroom with other C-suite executives, he likes to offer what he calls a sanity check. He defines this as plunking down an award-winning object such as a set of cushy, blood-red headphones, say, or a sleek-looking necklace hiding a sensor that detects when an elderly patient has fallen and alerts caregivers. First, you start these meetings with endless PowerPoint presentations and Excel files. So then Ill drag out a product and say, this is why were here; this is whats driving sales, says Carney, who is based in the Netherlands. Carney, 49, has a soft, even voice and, aside from neatly cropped salt-and-pepper hair and a few crows feet around his eyes, a baby face. This is the man with the considerable task of bringing Philips (PHG), Europes largest electronics maker, back to life. Philips grew into a global design powerhouse during the 1990s and 2000s, becoming one of the most coveted places for young creatives to work. Over the decades, the firm has made everything from flatscreen televisions to light bulbs to life-saving health equipment. In 2011, Philips celebrated a record-breaking number of international design awards. Thanks to the elegant, streamlined aesthetics of its products, in the most rarified design circles, Philips ranks with the likes of Apple (AAPL) and BMW.Its business hasnt fared so well, however. The slow-down in Europe has disproportionately hurt the company. Its lighting and healthcare divisions have struggled as global construction slowed and consumers and governments alike cut back on spending. The firm swung to a fourth-quarter loss, posting a net loss of 160 million euros ($211 million) after a profit of 465 million euros ($615 million) a year earlier. Near-term prospects have been anything but bright, with analysts from Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C) and JPMorgan (JPM) all issuing stark warnings in the past weeks. We are cautious about 2012, given the uncertainty in the global economy, and Europe in particular, chief executive Frans van Houten said in a statement when the company issued its last earnings report. Now, Carney finds himself with one of the worlds most coveted design roles and perhaps one of its most challenging.His rise has been notably quick. Hes only been at Philips since March of last year, when he came on board as design leader of the Consumer Lifestyle division. He left struggling Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to join Philips. There, he was head of Global Experience Design within the Imaging & Printing Group, based in San Diego. In July 2011, Philips revered design chief Stefano Marzano announced he would retire at the end of the year after two decades at the company. Carney was named to Marzanos high-profile post.Carney is stepping into big shoes. In 2011, Philips Design received 99 major international design awards, including multiple prestigious iF and Red Dot prizes for product design - the most ever for the brand. And then, dramatically, as of January 1, 2012, Carneys role shifted again, as the firm turned to design to help it out of its current difficulty. During Marzanos tenure, Philips Design operated as an internal service provider to the various divisions of the electronics giant - essentially a design agency within the larger organization. Now, under Carney, design is integrated as a strategy and a practice throughout Philips.The question is, could shifting design into more of a strategic business force within Philips help the company grow profits? Although it is too early to see the influence of Carneys leadership on current Philips products - it often takes months or years for items to be developed, manufactured, and meet regulatory approvals - executives at Philips believe hes already had an effect on the organization. Sean comes to Philips bringing experience that is very relevant for the challenges our businesses face today, says Caroline Clarke, CEO of Philips Personal Care business group. His experience and style have enabled him to challenge current thinking and build on long-admired design capabilities within Philips.Clarke adds that Carney has already made a noticeable impact. Some new products just coming to market, such as the latest Fidelio docking speakers for mobile phones and the ReAura Laser Skin Rejuvenation system, have his stamp on them in terms of their impact on the shelf and desirability, she says.Carneys C.V. lists the type of international, varied experience that is red meat for a 21st century chief design officer. Besides working at HP during the thriving Mark Hurd years, hes consulted with brands known for their hip aesthetics, such as Finnish glass maker iitala, and worked as Group Director of Design & Business Strategy at appliance maker Electrolux (where, in an intriguing twist, Marzano was named Chief Design Officer in January).But Carneys latest role, while ripe with opportunity, also bears tremendous pressure, both internally and externally. First, there is Marzanos legacy. During his two-decade tenure, Marzano grew the number of employees within Philips Design more than 300%. He also developed processes of intensive customer research and prototyping. Marzano was practicing what is now called design thinking in business circles about a decade and a half ahead of the concepts heyday, as practiced by innovation firms such as IDEO, in the mid- to late-2000s. Marzano was credited for some of Philips best known hits, such as the Senseo coffee maker, which has sold millions of units.Carney seems game to carry on Marzanos design philosophies while also adding his own spin. Similar to his predecessor, Carney practices so-called design thinking without the buzzwords trendiness in mind. Like Marzano, hes more of a design do-er. At HP, for instance, Carney was asked to re-design the experience of using photo-printing kiosks in retail environments, such as drugstores. Carney and his team not only observed the on-screen graphics that kiosk customers encountered, but also analyzed the jobs of the store employees who would process data from online users. Pleasing the behind-the-scenes photo processing staff, Carney believed, would help make the entire experience of printing photos better.They were digital natives at 18-19 years old, Carney said of the store clerks. They were alienated by the 1980s-style blue-and-white screens they had to use to process the pictures. Carney and his team then worked on a variety of new interfaces that would appeal to everyone involved in printing photos in a store, including store staff that werent originally a target audience. This example of Carneys approach - which he describes as helping to guide business executives and engineers toward alternative paths to product and service innovation - illustrates how his way of thinking might fit in well with Philips on the C-suite level.Carney believes in taking the time to empathize with all people who might be associated with the use of a forthcoming Philips lighting, medical, or consumer product, and not just an end user. With MRI scanners and other healthcare related items, Carney is making sure Philips designers also research how to improve the experiences of hospital administrators and radiologists, in addition to the patient. While patients and caregivers, of course, have top priority in terms of design effectiveness, Carney says that the people who buy equipment for hospitals as well as the guys on the shop floor - the people who do maintenance work on a medical device - need to be considered, too. And designed for. This, he believes, is how to maintain widespread brand loyalty.The MRI scenario is particularly relevant given that the overall design strategy for Philips today is to leverage research in user experience from the healthcare sector into all portfolios. Its a continuation of a long-term plan that has its roots in Marzanos work at Philips Design along the lines of creating more ambient products, or goods that gently help people ease into their use of Philips machinery in clinical, and eventually consumer, retail, and infrastructure contexts. These include an MRI machine that includes a glowing halo of light that distracts patients during a scan, and a home alarm clock that uses soothing beams instead of a harsh sound to rouse people from sleep. Carneys lifestyle background might prove extremely valuable as patients and healthcare providers expect more user-friendly, consumer-style interfaces and environments in the future. When you realize youre dealing with real, live human beings, you want to ask, how do I make the quality of their life better?Carney says.Carney is careful not to use the d word - design - too much in his executive meetings, although it appears in his new, elevated title and is the reason hes been invited to the C-suite table. Designers can be intimidating to those in suits and cuff links. But at the same time, we have to be careful not to dilute our impact by overstating design, Carney says. We also discredit ourselves if we dont talk about whats perceived as soft and fluffy aspects of our work, if we dont wax poetic about materials and surfaces. In the end, its all about balance. Were doing this, after all, to drive business. And to do that, our products need to be desirable.皇家飞利浦电子公司（Royal Philips Electronics）新任首席设计官肖恩卡尼与其他顶级高管一起走进会议室时，总是喜欢来一出所谓的“清醒度检查”。做法很简单：拿出一件屡获大奖的飞利浦产品，比如一副舒适的血红色耳机，或者一款精美的项圈里面藏着一个感应器，如果佩戴它的老人摔倒，护理者就会收到警报。卡尼如说：“开会的时候，一般会先播放一组没完没了的幻灯片和Excel表格。轮到我时，我会直接拿出某一款产品，大声说：这就是我们来开会的目的。只有拳头产品才能推动销量上涨。”卡尼目前常驻荷兰工作。卡尼现年49岁，声音柔和平缓，一头整齐的头发已经斑白，眼角也已经出现了少许鱼尾纹，但却长着一张娃娃脸。不过，他肩头的重任却不容儿戏：协助欧洲最大电子产品厂商飞利浦起死回生。1990和2000年代，飞利浦成长为全球设计巨头，成了最受青年创意人才青睐的职业圣地之一。这二十年来，该公司的产品无所不包，涵盖了平板电视、电灯泡和救死扶伤的医疗保健设备。2011年，飞利浦获得的国际设计奖项再创记录。得益于其产品线条流畅的优雅美感，飞利浦得以比肩苹果（Apple）和宝马（BMW），在最纯粹的设计圈中也享有盛誉。可是，飞利浦的企业经营就不那么成功了，欧洲经济增长放缓对该公司造成的打击非常严重。由于全球建筑业减速，而各国消费者和政府纷纷削减开支，飞利浦的照明和医疗保健部门都遭受重挫。该公司第四季度陷入亏损，净亏损达1.6亿欧元（2.11亿美元），而上年同期却实现了4.65亿欧元（6.15亿美元）的净利润。近期前景颇为黯淡，毫无亮点可言，美国银行（Bank of America）、花旗（Citi）和摩根大通（JPMorgan）的分析师们全都发出了用词尖锐的警告。“考虑到全球经济不确定性，特别是欧洲经济形势不佳，我们对2012年业绩持谨慎态度，”飞利浦首席执行官范豪敦发布最新财报时表示。因此，卡尼现在这份设计工作或许是全世界最令人艳羡的职位，但同时也可能是最具挑战性的职位。他的蹿升速度令人印象深刻。去年3月他才加盟飞利浦，担任消费生活方式部门的设计主管。加入飞利浦之前，他为眼下处境同样不佳的惠普（Hewlett-Packard）效力，在那里曾担任总部设在圣地亚哥市的打印及成像集团的全球体验设计主管。2011年7月，飞利浦备受尊崇的设计主管史特法诺马扎诺宣布，为该公司效力20年之后，他将于同年年底退休。随后卡尼被任命为这个备受瞩目的职位的继任者。卡尼的这一职责一点也不简单。2011年，飞利浦设计荣获了99项国际设计大奖，创下了公司的历史最高纪录，其中包括多个iF和红点（Red Dot）等在业内极受推崇的产品设计奖项。随后，飞利浦调整战略，希望借助设计来摆脱当前的颓势，因此，卡尼的角色于2012年1月1日再次发生了变化。在马扎诺的任期内，飞利浦设计以内部服务提供商的模式运作，为这家电子巨头的各个部门效劳，基本上也就是集团内部的一家设计公司。如今，在卡尼的领导下，“设计”被重新整合，融入了飞利浦的整体战略，成为公司上下都需践行的原则。问题是，调整设计部门的地位，使其在飞利浦内部更具有战略性地位，是否真能帮助该公司实现利润增长？尽管现在还看不出卡尼的领导水平对飞利浦产品有何影响产品开发、制造及获得监管部门的批准往往需要几个月乃至几年时间但飞利浦高管认为他已经对企业本身产生了影响。“肖恩来到飞利浦后，带来了与解决本公司当前面临的挑战息息相关的经验，”飞利浦个人护理业务集团首席执行官卡罗琳克拉克称。“他的经验和风格使他有能力挑战原有的思维方式，在飞利浦内部构建将长期受人推崇的设计能力。”克拉克还补充说，卡尼“已经产生了值得注意的影响”。有些新产品刚刚上市，比如与手机搭配使用的Fidelio基座音箱和ReAura激光美肌系统。她说，这些产品“有着卡尼的印记，使他们在货架上更加抢眼，更受消费者追捧”。卡尼的简历颇为扎实，反映的正是21世纪首席设计官所需的实打实的国际化多元体验。除了曾经在马克赫德时期效力于蒸蒸日上的惠普之外，他还为以嬉皮艺术风格著称的一些品牌提供过咨询服务，包括芬兰玻璃品制造商iitala，并担任过家电制造商伊莱克斯（Electrolux）设计与企业战略部门的集团总监。（有趣的是，马扎诺今年1月份反被任命为伊莱克斯的首席设计官）。不过，卡尼最新的这份工作既充满机遇，同时也承担着公司内外的巨大压力。首先，马扎诺时代的遗产无法忽视。在飞利浦任职的二十年间，马扎诺将飞利浦设计部门的员工数量增加了300%以上。他还开发了积极进行顾客调研和样机研究的模式。直到2000年代中后期，现在称为“设计思考”的概念才在创意工作室IDEO等公司的推崇下盛行起来，可早在大约15年前，马扎诺其实已经开始身体力行。飞利浦最畅销的一些产品离不开马扎诺的设计之功，包括销量达数百万台的Senseo咖啡机。看起来，卡尼继承了马扎诺的设计理念，同时又加入了自己的一些新元素。与他的前任相似，卡尼身体力行所谓的“设计思考”，但又不会将这个热门词