Are major companies taking the idea of design seriously? More companies are hiring top designers, with 36 of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies now having a chief design officer, compared to 18 in 2014.
Yet recent history is littered with new products, redesigns, and other design-forward initiatives that failed to get any traction in the marketplace. And then there's general ignorance: A recent survey from McKinsey found that only a third of CEOs and their direct reports could confidently state what their designers even do. As Fast Company's Suzanne Labarre argued in October 2022, design is "no magical solution for transforming companies and conquering competitors."
