Roberto Verganti, Design Driven Innovation. Cambiare le regole della competizione innovando radicalmente il significato dei prodotti e dei servizi, ETAS, 2009
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17007
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Alvise Mattozzi
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Roberto Verganti, Design Driven Innovation. Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Press, 2009
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Book Reviews
2011-06-27
2023-05-22
2011-06-27
2023-07-03
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Alvise Mattozzi
2011/06/27
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17007
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Libera Università di Bolzano; LISaV, Università Iuav di Venezia
2038-3460
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Roberto Verganti, Design Driven Innovation. Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Press, 2009
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                                                                 TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)          125



             Roberto Verganti                        You should read it because Design
     Design Driven Innovation.                   Driven Innovation is not just a book
         Changing the Rules of                   about innovation management. By in-
Competition by Radically Innovat-                troducing the issue of meaning – and
        ing What Things Mean                     of the management of meaning in rela-
 2009, Harvard Business Press, 272 pp.           tion to artefacts – Verganti deals with
  (Design Driven Innovation. Cambiare le         issues that are very close to those tack-
   regole della competizione innovando           led by STS, – as he himself notices by
radicalmente il significato dei prodotti e dei   citing Callon, Bijker, Latour and Law.
       servizi. 2009, ETAS, 282 pp.)             Indeed, by focusing on meaning, Ver-
                                                 ganti investigates the sociocultural di-
              Alvise Mattozzi                    mension of artefacts and its relevance
       (Libera Università di Bolzano;            for innovation.
     LISaV, Università Iuav di Venezia)              You should read it because, by dis-
                                                 entangling the sociocultural dimension
    This is not a book for you. Unless           of innovations, Verganti takes into
you are a manager or, better, a top ex-          consideration the mediating role of ar-
ecutive. Otherwise, if you are, as I             tefacts and all those other actors – “in-
suppose, a scholar in STS or interested          terpreters” for Verganti – that consti-
in STS, this is not a book addressed to          tute the network through which inno-
you. As Roberto Verganti, professor of           vations take place.
Innovation Management at the                         You should read it because by fo-
Politecnico di Milano and author of              cusing on how innovations re-
the book, explicitly says, “this is a book       articulate the relations in which they
on management” (p. vii), a book                  take part – one of STS concerns – Ver-
“about the management of innovation              ganti gives the possibility to talk, with-
and design” (p. 219) where “the pro-             in innovation studies, about artefacts as
cess through which executives leverage           “matter of concern” and not as “mat-
external and internal resources and              ter of fact” (Latour 2008), and about
creativity to develop breakthrough in-           design as an articulation of issues and
novations” (p. 219) is examined.                 not as problem-solving.
    And yet, this is a book you should               Besides, you should read it because,
read if you are interested in artefacts,         should Verganti’s version of “design
design, technology. Anyhow, if you de-           driven innovation” (DDI)          become
cide to read it you should try not to            popular among managers, entrepre-
give too much relevance to the mana-             neurs and policy makers – as it seems
gerial rhetoric that peppers many parts          possible considering that the book has
of the book – all the references to              been praised by people such as Luca
“profit margins”, “competitive ad-               Cordero di Montezemolo – it could al-
vantage”, “inspiring leaders”, “your             low STS scholars to make STS’s issues
company”, “your customers”, “your                understandable for an audience who,
competitors”, etc. – which hampers a             at least in Italy, has never been too sen-
real engagement with the contents, at            sitive to them.
least for me, not being a manager ei-                Thus, you should read it, yes, but
ther.                                            without swallowing it – and not just
126   BOOK REVIEWS



      because it is peppered with a manage-        Michelis, assume (see Celaschi and
      rial rhetoric not always easy to digest.     Deserti 2007), but a different kind of
          The book summarizes ten years of         innovation that interacts with the other
      studies on innovation (see bibliog-          two. In this way Verganti is also able to
      raphy) giving them a managerial allure.      actually integrate DDI with the other
      These studies have been carried out by       two kinds of innovation, connecting
      Verganti himself and other scholars          his model to Giovanni Dosi’s one
      from management and design studies,          (1982) (Dell’Era, Marchesi and Ver-
      and are mainly about northern Italy          ganti 2008; Verganti 2008).
      furnishings and housewares compa-                Verganti’s version of DDI is out-
      nies, even if the book presents many         lined in the first part of the book –
      examples and cases from various com-         “The strategy of Design Driven Inno-
      panies from different parts of the           vation”. In order to illustrate it, I can
      world.                                       mention one of Verganti’s preferred
          These studies have been inspired by      examples (see also Verganti 2003): the
      Verganti’s specific perspective on DDI.      Metamorfosi light system by Artemide,
      The concept of DDI was introduced by         an Italian lamp manufacturer. Meta-
      Giorgio De Michelis (2001) in 1997 in        morfosi is not a lamp like Tizio or
      order to account for a third kind of in-     Tolomeo, also produced by Artemide.
      novation that does not fall under the        It is a three-spotlight system producing
      traditional two considered within in-        colored ambient light that can be
      novation literature – “technology            changed through a remote according
      push” and “market pull”. For De              to the situation and the user’s moods.
      Michelis such a third kind of innova-        For Verganti this is a radical innova-
      tion, which is typical of Italian indus-     tion “in what people mean by a lamp”
      trial districts, is characterized by the     (p.27): “it shifts people’s attention
      creation of a new user profile and, at       from the object of the light (…)” and
      the same time, of the product or ser-        “from white to colored light (…) to
      vice able to meet the expectations, de-      psychological well-being”, bypassing
      sires, needs, of this new user. De           the need to illuminate through a fo-
      Michelis also notices that such kind of      cused light as well as to have a nice ar-
      innovation makes it possible to create       tefact in the living room or in the stu-
      not only a product or service, but also      dio. Indeed, Metamorfosi, with all its
      a corporate vision related to the brand.     technical elements visible through the
          Drawing on Klaus Krippendorff’s          transparent bowl that constitute its
      dictum – “design is making sense of          shell, has to be placed on the floor, not
      things” – on which the “product se-          necessarily in view.
      mantics” approach (Krippendorff                  Thus, for Verganti, innovation is re-
      2006) of design studies is based, Ver-       lated to people’s need in two ways (see
      ganti reformulates the concept of DDI.       also Dell’Era, Marchesi and Verganti
      By doing so, he broadens, clarifies and      2010):
      specifies it, showing that DDI is not just       - through function, i.e. technologi-
      a blend of the two traditional kinds of      cal innovation – the three-spotlight sys-
      innovation in connection with a brand        tem of the Artemide lamp – which al-
      vision, as others, following De              lows the performance, and
                                                            TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)          127



    - through messages, i.e. language,      es on how a company can take part in
which convey a meaning – well-being         the “design discourse”, i.e. the dis-
instead of illumination.                    course produced by interpreters of the
    Performance-technology and mean-        cultural production and of technology
ing-language are schematized as the         such as, among others, artists, media,
two axes of a matrix where it is possi-     cultural organizations, technology
ble to distinguish incremental techno-      suppliers, retail and delivery firms, but
logical improvement from radical            also sociologists, anthropologists, se-
technological improvement as well as        mioticians as well as designers who
“adaptation to the evolution of soci-       have a specific role as “brokers of lan-
ocultural models” from “generation of       guage”. In order to develop a radical
new meanings” (p. 45). Radical im-          innovation, a company should listen to,
provement accounts for “technology          and interpret, the design discourse,
push” innovation, “generation of new        which means to develop its own vision
meanings” for DDI, incremental im-          by selecting the right information and,
provement and adaptation for “market        finally, influencing it in order to influ-
pull innovation”. For Verganti the lat-     ence in turn the more general public.
ter is equivalent to user-centred inno-         The last part of the book – “Build-
vation. Indeed Design Driven Innova-        ing Design Driven Capabilities” – tells
tion can also be read as a critique of      how Design-Driven labs can be built
user-centered design and all the related    and used and what “the vital role of
methods – usability tests as well as fo-    the top executives” (p. 202) is. Thus
cus groups. For Verganti, user-             the latter emerge as the actual protag-
centered design tends to conform to         onists of DDI since their job is to spin
present user needs, whereas radical in-     the design discourse in their favor.
novation creates new users, which               Verganti’s interest in meaning leads
cannot be tested before the innovation      him to take into consideration media-
has spread. As Verganti notices: “peo-      tion: the mediation deployed by inno-
ple seemed to have been waiting for         vative artefacts, the various mediations
the Swatch, although they did not           deployed by all actors – “interpreters”
think to look for it” (p. 73), “[p]eople    in Verganti’s words – constituting the
did not ask for that meaning, but they      networks of innovation and, most im-
loved it once they saw [Nintendo Wii’s      portantly for Verganti, the super-
features]” (p. 5), which allowed a shift    mediation carried out by managers.
from a “passive immersion in a virtual      Even if Verganti does not explicitly
world” to an “active physical enter-        mention mediation as a foundational
tainment, in the real world, through        concept of his approach, it emerges
socialization”.                             from the cases and examples he intro-
    The second part of the book –           duces. And it emerges in its radical,
“The Process of Design-Driven Inno-         Latourian, version: mediation as an in-
vation” – “shows how companies can          stance that does not connect two pre-
realize successful radical innovations of   existing terms, but two instances
meaning: how they can make unsolicit-       emerging through the mediating third
ed proposals that turn out to be what       (Hennion 1993).
people love” (p. 15). It basically focus-
128   BOOK REVIEWS



          Meaning is, indeed, seen as a result     with other theories of innovation,
      of a mediation that rearticulates the        probably for the catchiness of a sche-
      network in which the innovation takes        matization so entrenched in the always
      part, as the Metamorfosi’s case shows.       popular western dualisms, he uses it
      This is exactly the way in which Made-       and, through it, introduces other theo-
      leine Akrich (1990) conceived the sig-       ries of signification that cast a shadow
      nification of an artefact.                   of incoherence on his discourse.
          And yet, Verganti formalizes mean-           Following Akrich (1990), who rec-
      ing in another way: as opposed to func-      ognizes that signification emerges from
      tion, performance, technology. But as        the passage between “the world in-
      Akrich (1990) stated, “What we call          scribed in the object and the world de-
      function of technical objects is not op-     scribed by its displacement”, Verganti
      posed to signification. Such opposition      could have kept his schematization us-
      belongs to a perspective related to          ing a general and relational dichotomy
      technical or, on the contrary, to cultur-    such as “inside/outside”, acknowledg-
      al determinism. From our point of            ing, as he implicitly does, that meaning
      view ‘function’ is just part of the pro-     permeates the whole process of inno-
      gram of action outlined by the script of     vation, as this journal has showed (see
      a technical device”, as the Metamorfosi      Parolin 2010).
      case shows: the “technical” devices              Probably other STS -minded read-
      have a central role in the re-articulation   ers, not so interested in signification as
      of the illumination and hence in its         I am, would have focused on other dis-
      meaning.                                     crepancies with the STS approach, such
          Through his formalization, Ver-          as the fact that Verganti mainly pre-
      ganti recovers the quite known – at          sents success stories or the fact that he
      least since Barthes (1964) – opposition      considers users very marginally.
      between function and signification,              STS tend to be symmetrical and
      selling it as a new way to look at de-       consider innovation failures as much
      sign. Unfortunately that dichotomy –         interesting as successes, if not more. It
      which recalls other, more general dual-      is understandable that in a book that
      isms of the western thought – contin-        tries to sell a certain approach to inno-
      ues to pester the reflection carried out     vation to managers, success stories
      by the semiotics of objects, notwith-        have more relevance than failures. But
      standing the parallel efforts of the         certainly it would have been interesting
      Greimassian semiotics of objects             to examine not just successful DDIs,
      (Floch 1995; Mangano 2009) and of            such as the Swatch’s one, but also the
      Actor-Network Theory in overcoming           failure of Smart, which, at the begin-
      it – a thing Verganti does not really        ning, was managed by the same man-
      acknowledge since he considers STS           ager of Swatch under the same brand;
      only as a contribution to the techno-        or not just the process of Barilla’s pro-
      logical side of his theory.                  ject Beyond primo piatto, but also the
          Even if Verganti knows that such a       process that brought to the Alixir line,
      dichotomy does not hold (p. 33),             soon disappeared from our supermar-
      probably for the sake of an elegant and      kets.
      alluring formalization that complies
                                                                          TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)               129



    As for the second point, Verganti                     PUF, pp. 181-214 (Eng. transl. Opinel: In-
pays overwhelming attention to man-                       telligence at Knifepoint, in “Visual Identi-
                                                          ties”, London, Continuum, 2000, pp. 145-
agers and their super-mediations,                         171).
compared with the almost non-existent                 Hennion A. (1993) La passion musicale. Une so-
attention given to the users. However,                    ciologie de la médiation, Paris, Métaillé.
the latter do not just constitute the                 Krippendorff K. (2006) The Semantic Turn, Bo-
                                                          ca Raton, CRC Press.
market through the expression of their
                                                      Latour B. (2008) A Caustious Prometheus? A
present needs and desires. Users some-                    Few Steps toward a Philosophy of Design, in
times innovate too, through more dis-                     F. Hackne, J. Glynne and V. Minto (eds.),
tributed processes than the manager-                      “Proceedings of the Annual International
centered ones privileged by Verganti.                     Conference of the Design History Society”,
                                                          Universal Publishers, pp. 2-10.
    Thus, Verganti’s version of DDI can
                                                      Mangano D. (2009) Semiotica e design, Milano,
interestingly bridge innovation studies                   Carocci.
and STS, but, in order for the bridge                 Parolin L.L. (2010), Sulla produzione materiale.
to be solid, we still have much work to                   Qualità sensibili e sapere pratico nel processo
do.                                                       di stabilizzazione degli artefatti, “Tecnos-
                                                          cienza”, 1 (1), pp. 39-56.
                                                      Verganti R. (2003) Desing as Brokering of
                                                          Languages: Innovation strategies in Italian
References                                                firms, “Design Management Journal”, 13
                                                          (3), pp. 34-42.
Akrich M. (1990) De la sociologie des techniques      Verganti R. (2008) Design, Meanings, and Radi-
    à une sociologie des usages: l’impossible inté-       cal Innovation: A Metamodel and a Research
    gration du magnétoscope dans le réseaux               Agenda, “The Journal of Product Innova-
    câblés de première génération, “Technique et          tion Management”, 25, pp. 436-456.
    culture”, 16, pp. 83-110.
Barthes R. (1964) Sémantique de l’objet, now in
    “L’aventure sémiologique”, Paris, Seuil,
    1985, pp. 249-260; Eng. transl. Semantics of                             ***
    the Object, in “The Semiotic Challenge”,
    London, Blackwell, 1988, pp. 179-190.
Celaschi F. and Deserti A. (2007) Design e inno-         Vadim, Volkov, Oleg Xarxordin
    vazione, Roma, Carocci.
Dell’Era C., Marchesi, A. e Verganti R. (2008)
                                                                 [Kharkhordin]
    Linguistic Networks Configurations: Mana-         Теория практик - Teorija praktik
    gement of Innovation in Design Intensive                   [Theory of Practice]
    Firms, “International Journal of Innovation            2008, EUSP Press, 298 pp.
    Management”, 12 (1), pp. 1-9.
Dell’Era C., Marchesi, A. e Verganti R. (2010)
    Mastering Technology in Design-Driven In-                       Alessandro Mongili
    novation, “Research-Technology Manage-                         (Università di Padova)
    ment”, 53 (2), pp. 12-23.
De Michelis G. (2001) La creazione di conoscen-       Teorija praktik is a book addressed to
    za e l’innovazione design-driven nei distretti
    allargati, “Studi Organizzativi”, 1, pp. 121-     the Russian public, which gives an
    136.                                              overview of the pragmatic turn taking
Dosi G. (1982) Technological Paradigms and            place in contemporary social sciences.
    Technological Trajectories, “Research Poli-       Pragmatic Turn is also the name of a
    cy”, 11, pp. 147-162.
                                                      series of books published by the newly
Floch J. M. (1995) L’intelligence au bout de
    l’Opinel, in “Identités Visuelles”, Paris,        founded European University at Saint
