Designing for Billions

Parsons School of Design 7/10/2011

Designing for Billions, a conference organized by School of Design Strategies faculty members Carlos Teixeira and Bruce Nussbaum as part of the Stephan Weiss Visiting Lecture Series at Parsons, examines new opportunities for designers, entrepreneurs, activists, policy makers and investors in the context of emerging markets. Designing for Billions specifically focuses on open innovation systems in India, Brazil, and China, analyzing the convergence of design practices, entrepreneurship, activism, philanthropy and venture capital in these dynamic emerging economies.

The panel: Prof. Lou Yongqi, Joo Tezza Neto, Bruce Nussbaum, Sonia Manchanda The day started at 10:00 am with Miodrag Mitrasincovic opening the conference. The symposium brought together leaders, designers and innovators from India, China and Brazil to share their work and experiences with the audience in New York and also to share with everyone how people from these countries (both designers and non-designers) are working together to bring about social change. And the learnings need to be shared.

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Developing economies or emerging markets? Jose Carlos Teixeira

Jose Carlos Teixeira a faculty member at the Department of Design and Management, at Parsons The New School for Design. He has a PhD in Design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology. His expertise is revealing the operational logics that guide design practice. He is DREAM:IN Project co-director.

Carlos then took over and spoke about emerging markets and his work in/with them in the recent past. He spoke about how he had been travelling to the BRIC nations and was studying their marketplaces, businesses and cultures, that, contrary to what the world thought about these countries having developing economies, they are far more developed, that these are not developing economies but emerging markets. He also spoke about how we can measure a countrys economy, that one way to do so is to measure the countrys GDP and the other would be to measure their markets. He also spoke about how these countries are and could work together to achieve scale by collaborating their small scale industries all over. Carlos then introduced the days first speaker.

Designing products are not enough, we need to design the way products are bring designed - Carlos Teixeira Traditional methods cannot handle designing for billions @CarlosTeixeira4

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How can we connect tHe rural anD urBan in cHina? Prof. Lou Yongqi
Prof. Lou Yongqi holds a PhD in urban studies from Tongji University, where he is Vice Dean of the College of Design & Innovation and Executive Director of the Sino-Finnish Center there. He also holds a visiting professorship in the School of Art and Design at Aalto University in Finland. Active in promoting interdisciplinary sustainable design education, research, and practice internationally, Lou sits on many design-oriented boards and advisory committees worldwide. In 2002, he founded the studio Tektao, seeking to deepen his research-based design practice; the studio has completed numerous projects in the areas of architecture, urban design, and exhibition design. Lous published works include the books Tektao Files (2007), Environmental Design (2008), and An Acupunctural Design Approach (2011). He is also the author of many published papers on urban planning, innovation, and design research.

The First speaker of the day was Prof. Lou spoke about a new era in China, New Design. He shared learnings from China and how they work. That there is a flatness in society where everyone can speak independently today, that the government, the people are taking a bottom up approach. He spoke on how the role of design is changing in different perspectives, from design doing to design thinking, the role of design is becoming bigger in China today. He also shared some of the issues that he faces in China which includes rapid urbanization and lack of Rural development. There were and are a lot of problems faced by people living in rural areas It is very difficult to find young people in these areas as people have been constantly moving towards the bigger cities for better opportunities. Very few of the people in these rural areas receive higher education and the government provides very poor services. Lou then went on to talk about the past, how 100 years ago people would receive very good local education, then move to bigger cities, and because of the importance of their family, they would eventually come back to their village and become important figures there. Unfortunately this tradition is not around because of industrialization today. So it is integral, that as a part of urban planning, to leave rural areas untouched (in a certain way) There must be a balance and interaction between Urban and Rural areas and Design today can be used as a tool to achieve the same. Lou then also briefly spoke on the new roles of design holistic solution provider, new entrepreneurship enabler and new business promoter and that a designers role today also includes being a mediator and a strategy planner. He spoke about a project he was involved in, in Rural China where he was working with

Dreams are always much more holistic - Prof Lou

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his team to set up an innovation hub in a rural area. Finally, Prof Lou shared with us something he developed while he was at a conference in Brazil, a diagram of a bird that shows how business, design, science & technology, innovation, people, culture and vision all make up an organism that works successfully only with all in equal proportions.

How can we sustain lives, liveliHooD anD tHe amazon? Joo Tezza Neto
Joo Tezza Neto trained in Economics at the Federal University of Acre, Brazil, and has pursued a career focused on sustainable economic development in the Amazon rain forest, specializing in the initiation and management of certification processes for forest products and services. As Director of the Department of Markets and Forest Extraction of Acre, he coordinated the construction of productive infrastructure and the preparation of business plans for forest products, especially Brazil nuts (1999). Neto participated directly in the creation of social criteria for the Brazil nut that were approved by the fair trade certification agency FLO International (2000). Subsequent positions have involved him in projects including the development of socio-environmental criteria for assessing the sustainability of fruit production across the Amazon. He currently serves as TechnicalScientific Director of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, part of a team responsible for implementing the Bolsa Floresta (forest allowances) program in the Amazon Protected Areas, which rewards traditional communities for adopting alternatives to deforestation.

The next speaker for the day was Joo Tezza Neto spoke about various aspects of the work he is involved in Brazil. Joao started off by sharing facts about Brazil, climate change and life in the Amazonia. He spoke about how his institution is trying to promote sustainable involvement, environmental conservation and improvement in life quality for communities in protected areas in the state of amazonas. His organization, FAS is an innovative institutional framework that was created through a partnership of public (Amazonas State Government) and private sector (Bradesco Bank). FAS (Amazonas Sustainable Foundation) has the support of a few other corporates and 90% of its resources come from the private sector. FAS is responsible for implementing the Bolsa Floresta program, the goal of which is to reward traditional populations for maintaining environmental services provided by rainforests through investments in life quality improvement and making forests worth more standing than cut.

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How can we realize Billions of Dreams in inDia? Sonia Manchanda

Sonia Manchanda is a graduate of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. As Cofounder and Principal of Idiom, one of Indias largest integrated design practices, she works in the areas of business design, brand identity, and visual communications, consulting with large corporations and small businesses alike, in sectors including healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, sports, media, and entertainment. Frequently involving civic values and public/ private partnerships, Manchandas practice has included work on national cultural events, urban development initiatives, and the identity of the 19th Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in 2010. She is the creator of SPREAD, a radical design education and consulting initiative, and has played a lead role in DREAM:IN, an open source innovation project that employs design thinking to create value for life and society across the Indian continent.

The group then broke out for a quick break. Post lunch, the auditorium got pretty crowded and the final speaker for the day was Sonia Manchanda started off by telling the audience how she came to meet Carlos Teixeira a few years ago. Since then, their relationship has been a very fruitful one. That the day that Carlos Texeira walked into idiom, changed the way the world sees design in India. The day that Bruce Nussbaum started talking about Idiom, changed the way Indian design sees itself...it no longer feels that it must closely walk in the footsteps of western design but can make its own path. In a relationship, you always give more than you take. And very quickly, learning together, in a market like India, design can acquire believers who benefit by the belief system and go on to create tomorrow. That design is philosophy and philosophy informs process. The 3 pillars of which we propose are - Insights: or a deep understanding of cultures and people and business, Ideas: that challenge the status quo and Implementation: the integrity and detail that bring the idea alive.

Design is philosophy @sonia_manchanda After interacting with us, most of our clients end up sending their children to design schools, passing on the philosophy Sonia

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Idiom believes that design is what will create new value and therefore new meaning for India and the world. In an eternal cycle of creation, preservation, destruction. Or a balance between continuity and change without ever losing the soul or the essence. That Design is thus a living process. Thought design is where out practice starts from, before becoming resilient businesses, brands, experiences. There are transformative journeys that design and business have taken together and then, there are projects. Smart entrepreneurs and seasoned funds in India are discovering that the best brands and businesses can be designed to succeed. The holistic nature of the design practice future proofs them while the idea is expressed in the most simple, clear way. Idiom, the space itself is designed like ripples of disruptive activity in a still and reflective pool. Future group and the soney ki chidiya - an idea for the future aspiration of every Indian - to soar higher. A philosophical business solution and a successful unique model. With stores, a unique workspace - designed for disproportionate growth and even a new model of mentor entrepreneurship. Manipal - or the story of how a place became an idea in education and healthcare. With proposed 5 universities globally and 5 nationally. And a plan to be the 3rd largest education services provider in the world. Most examples are dream realisation stories, where design was the catalyst for an audacious dream. Sonia then went on to Share the DREAM:IN story. In Indian thought, there is an expression or a universally applicable thought aham brahmasmi. Which simply expressed, is the idea that there is no depth that is not within me, there is no height that is not within me. If I have explored myself, I have explored the universe. Could billions undertake this journey so that they can dream unique dreams and be connected with those who believe, so long as they are willing to work towards realising that dream. Could the social network online be replaced with an on ground and online imagination network? So that a new stream of consciousness, meaning and most of all value can be created. Could we prototype this thought? To find out if there is a way to bridge the gap between today and tomorrow, between thought and action, between what is and what can be, with skill speed and imagination.

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Create - preserve - destroy : design&job. Also the thought process that @Design_IDIOM follows Big bazaar, future group, manipal group ... Sonia is taking the New York audience through some of @Design_ IDIOMs big projects Design realizes dreams - from @Design_ IDIOM to the DREAM:IN project This is the 3rd time DREAM:IN is being showcased in New York, a good precursor to the NY chapter set up meeting on the 13th What is your dream for DREAM:IN? Sonia - equal futures

India, Brazil, Sri Lanka are places where the project will grow and go further in. And well find out if people there have unique ideas that we/they can convert into enterprise and policy ideas. Besides becoming a methodology that can be applied for various communities and issues. So that in the future, people dont forget to dream and we can design with billions, by billions besides designing for billions. The last part of the say was the panel discussion moderated by Bruce Nussbaum and Carlos Teixeira. The audience and the patrons dealt with questions from their talks earlier as well as topics related to need to dream today. Sonias talk really changed and shifted the focus of the conversation. Suddenly the whole room was intensely talking about why we need to follow our dreams and not live by our needs. An interesting conversation that ranged from questions about dreams as intellectual property to dreaming being fundamental lasted for about 90 minutes. The Designing for Billions conference is/was only the beginning of a collaboration between the countries and their people, working together to bringing about social change, leapfrogging developmental steps, by design. This initiative by Carlos Teixeira and Bruce Nussbaum will create a continuing dialogue about design in emerging markets, marked with significant active steps.

The personal feel good moments for me were: that a powerful article by Bruce appeared in the Fastco design blog just a few days ago. That Roy Singham, Chairman ThoughtWorks flew down from Washington DC just for the event and stirred up the atmosphere. That Tomas Cunzolo and Rachel were celebrating their second honeymoon in New York and decided to spend the day with us, that Bowie Snodgrass stayed through the event somehow managing little Jacob who also stayed through it. And that I got to meet the amazing soul that is Prof Joao, see the passonate Prof Lou in action and connect with Miodrag, Bruce and Carlos in person again. Oh and of course, meeting Kaleem and Schneider for the first time. Sonia Manchanda

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