The gravity of what we are undertaking is not lost on us: Innovation across markets and industries in a mobile-driven, digital world is no small task. Bridging the gap between visionary thought and rational delivery can present even more challenges.
When we launched Deloitte Digital a year ago, we included six distinct capabilities to support our brand and take on the disruption facing our clients. These offerings represent our experience, our alliances and our talent and share in common several characteristics including one that we had neglected to distinguish as its own, until now: Design.
Design is nothing new to us at Deloitte Digital. It is often so engrained in our work that we take for granted its value and its impact. Inclusive of the craft of user experience, visual design and experience engineering, design is not a bolt-on to the end product or a superficial veneer applied after the tough decisions have been made.
Rather, design is the fundamental narrative that links our capabilities, our environments and our approach. It is a way of solving problems, of thinking across systems—not objects—and a vehicle for transforming our world and ourselves. Design allows for beauty and humanity to become a part of everything we create.
Of course, we are not the only designers in this industry, and far be it from us to define the essence of great design. But since launching a year ago, our unique combination of design studio talent with corporate consulting culture has resulted in something special. We have come to realize that design is as much in perception and connections as it is in elegant solutions and products.
Why? Because design is both process and outcome. It's an approach to client work that starts with creative open-mindedness and finishes with vision. A way of seeking to understand through observation so that we might catch sight of the deeper truth. And as process, agile meets creative in ways that are practical and effective. So design informs the very relationships and ways we work with clients.
Design is always looking for an environment. For an opportunity, a problem, and a challenge. As we mature and grow, our design offering steadily learns from the new and changing demands faced by our clients. And in return, our consultancy is shaped by the design principles we hold dear. We can ask for nothing more compelling than the chance to evoke and transform business today.
And this we aim to do—by design.