Singapore (23/5/2013) – More than 40 Singapore-based Philippine Architects attended a presentation by Lawrence Chong, CEO at Consulus on the topic of Business Design. The event was held at Raffles Design Institute Singapore and was organised by the Singapore Chapter of United Architects of Philippines (UAP). The organisation is the leading Accredited Professional Organization of Architects (IAPOA) in the Philippines with more than 24,000 members.
Franz Joseph Tolaram Gonzales, Vice-President of UAP-Singapore giving the introduction
His topic of “A Dragon for our time” focused on how Asian professional practices need to adopt the approach of business design in order to move up the value-chain. Through a presentation of business trends and regional case-studies, Lawrence explained the power of business design in the following ways:
1. The importance of redesigning our organisations
Many Asian organisations are not properly designed to bring out the best in collaboration and to invent. To do this, it is important to adopt a business-driven approach to review a company’s purpose and redesign organisational culture so as to achieve an optimum approach. The case example of DST was cited to help participants understand how a business-design approach towards organisational change can improve collaboration.
2. A changing world needs new business models
The next challenge is many Asian firms are not willing to change their business models to match the conditions of our time. This then limits a company’s ability to increase profit margins. The case example of Fast Flow was presented to demonstrate how a business-design approach helped to maximise the probabilities for success through statistical research and strategic initiatives.
3. A powerful enterprise needs an influential brand experience to match it
The final step for any organisation is, how do they create believable experiences so that they can secure buy-in from stakeholders. Both FastFlow and DST were presented to demonstrate how design, when applied from the perspective of business, can bring about a more competitive advantage.
A lively questions-and-answers session then followed. Participants were interested about the different scenarios where business design can be applied to bring about change in their organisations. Lawrence then concluded the session by inviting the architects to think long term about their business models so that they can shape the future of Asia.
Group picture of the UAP gathering
