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Hardcover
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN13: 9780470451021
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
praise for a fine line "A breath of turbo-charged fresh air that doesn't regurgitate the ego-maniac CEO's selective memory or an outside expert's misinterpretations. Hartmut explains innovation through the lens of design, and it's about time we gained his valuable perspective." —Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist, Apple and co-founder of Alltop.com "At Flextronics, we fell in love with Hartmut and frog, and their passion for bringing crazy great designs and design processes into the forefront of great product companies. We used their expertise to help our customers, many of the greatest product companies in the world, including Apple, HP, Cisco, Microsoft and others. It is a credit to Hartmut that in the midst of a shocking global recession, frog still sets quarterly revenue records. Theirs is a unique and fascinating story." —Michael Marks, partner, Riverwood Capital LLC and former CEO, Flextronics "Hartmut's new approach to design is felt in every room in every house in every country and in every business around the world. He proved that thoughtful design is not only good for people but is good for business—and that both are interlinked. I have been fortunate to have observed first hand his impact at Sony, Apple, and HP?and have learned so much from him. He is an unsung hero of our times! A Fine Line is a must-read for designers and business people alike." —Satjiv Chahil, senior vice president, Hewlett-Packard "A fascinating, breathtaking, and exemplary insight into a success story that never had so much topicality, and so much informative potential as just now. Esslinger offers an honest and encouraging portrait of the incredible power of the business and design alliance. A Fine Line is a handbook of design expertise and the art of business at its best, showing a variety of radical solutions and fresh new ideas." —Professor Dr Peter Zec, president, ICSID and founder, red dot awards
Product Description
"Esslinger's work shows that taste can triumph, design and production can be soul mates, and the eye of an individual can shape a product and a company." —From the Foreword by Michael Moritz, partner, Sequoia Capital For the first time, Hartmut Esslinger, internationally acclaimed designer and founder of frog design, inc., reveals the secrets to better business through better design. Having spent forty years helping build the world's most recognizable brands, Esslinger shows how business leaders and designers can join forces to build creative strategies that will ensure a more profitable and sustainable future. A Fine Line shares the amazing story of Esslinger's transformation from industrial design wunderkind to a global innovation powerhouse, while detailing the very real challenges facing businesses in the new global economy. Offering companies far more than a temporary innovation booster, Esslinger shows how he and frog build creative design into the framework of an organization's competitive strategy, the same approach that has worked so well for leading edge companies such as Sony, Louis Vuitton, Lufthansa, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, SAP, Microsoft, and Apple. Offering a step-by-step overview of the innovation process—from targeting goals to shepherding new products and services to the marketplace—Esslinger reveals how to arrive at a design that reflects an intensely human experience and will connect strongly with consumers. With Esslinger's unique perspective, rich stories, and global mindset, A Fine Line explores business solutions that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to the future of a thriving and lasting global economy. The blending of design and business intelligence holds the key for shaping a sustainable competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving creative economy. A Fine Line equips business leaders with the necessary tools to thrive in tomorrow's world. Design Strategy Examples from Frog Design, Inc. 
Apple's Brand and Design DNA
Frog Design collaborated on Apple’s “Snow-White” design language in the early 1980s. We worked closely with Steve Jobs and Apple’s developers to innovate computer usability and appearance, resulting in iconic products with no historic precedent. | 
Disney Cruise Lines
Frog Design's retro-futuristic designs for the Disney Magic® and Disney Wonder® combine classic maritime elegance with starship swagger – and appeal to parents and children, alike. | 
Lufthansa Airlines
In the 1990s, Lufthansa’s Executive Board asked Frog Design to create a new and more emotionally engaging image for the airline and its base at the Frankfurt am Main Airport. From check-in gates to plane interiors, our designs helped redefine the modern air travel experience. |
| Customer Reviews: |
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| A Blast starts in the middle - I want more |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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The first couple of chapters are pretty dry and more about his company history, but after that is full of inspiring thoughts and ideas. You will see the world differently after finish the book. One thing though. Essinger is such a great visionary. There are so many thoughts in this book that scream for more explicit detail discussion.
I hope he has the second book.
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| Little insight or detail |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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Let's all join hands and sing kumbaya... I was hoping for some good insight into the design process and instead get a diatribe on saving the planet and how design = (or should) corporate strategy. Those of us in the industry know Frog's success is pretty much solely the result of their association with Flextronics, an ability (or good luck) to have compliant clients, and an ability to bring "fashion" to otherwise utilitarian products. I was hoping for detailed thoughts on things like region influence on design, various design trade-off issues, and the design/engineering/manufacturing interface. Zip. If you are of the save the planet mindset this book may have appeal but if you have to make a living doing design and managing its' product execution it is pretty worthless.
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| How designers and managers can create an "innovation machine" |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Throughout the years since 1969 when Hartmut Esslinger founded frog design (one of the world's leading strategic design firms), having learned firsthand how truly great business leaders partner with designers, he has developed "a step-by-step innovation process that leverages the power of that partnership. That process is at the heart of the collaborative model of innovation-driven business design that [he's] outlined in this book."
First, Esslinger examines "the role of design in the rapidly developing creative economy and how savvy business leaders cultivate a culture of innovation within their organizations." Next, Esslinger "walks" his reader through a step-by-step view of the innovation process, "from targeting goals to successfully shepherding innovations to market," and then takes an "in-depth look at the tools of innovation and the sometimes counterintuitive process of following a highly technical path to arrive at an intensely human experience." Then in the book's final chapters, Esslinger takes "a long look" at the future of manufacturing and how business can transform the "cheap, cheaper, toxic" model of production outsourcing "into one of mutually beneficial and economic collaboration."
I wholly agree with Esslinger that creativity is the new major driver and a multi-million dollar segment of the new economic order. Also, that "design is the means by which companies can apply creativity strategically to their business purpose." I also agree that only business strategies based on creativity, insight, and cultural awareness can produce benefits that result in "human- adaptive solutions and not in commodity like products for which nobody is willing to pay full price - especially when the offerings outnumber the buyer...Only strategies that explore and take risks - those that are willing to surprise and inspire on the human scale - can hope to win in our evolving economy." It is imperative that designers understand the business context within which every organization struggles to compete successfully; it is imperative, meanwhile, that executives understand the role that designers must play "in the process of infusing any business with the energy of design-driven innovation." Esslinger draws upon a wealth of real-world experience when suggesting how creative minds and business minds can collaborate effectively, how both sides of what he characterizes as a "business-design partnership" can process within the process they share.
Readers will appreciate Esslinger's brilliant insights in combination with practice advice with regard to taking full advantage if them, as when he reveals and discusses "the four frog principles (Page 41), when he examines the three-step process by which a company can become an "engine of innovation" (Pages 57-71), when he examines the four-step process for ecologizing industrial production in today's globally networked environment (Pages 86-92), when he explains how to implement the ecological load factor (ELF) rating system and overcome the challenges of "going green" (Pages 94- 109), and when reviewing the benefits and advantages of open-source design that can be produced by professional collaboration on a global scale (Pages 119-128). Esslinger concludes with a compelling affirmation of faith that designers, executives, and consumers "are ready to be mobilized as never before through our understanding of the need for change.... As we prepare to enter this vast, new world of creativity in business, science, and industry, our mastery of today's `already here' challenges can guide us as we make `tomorrow' a productive and humanistic adventure. Welcome to the journey." Indeed, it has already begun.
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Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out two books by Roger Martin, Opposable Mind: Winning Through Integrative Thinking and The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage as well as Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, Tim Brown's Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, Roberto Verganti's Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, and two books by Thomas Kelley, The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm and The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization, both co-authored with Jonathan Littman.
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| Got-to-Have Insights |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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As a new venture strategist I recognize every day the "fine line" between home run deals and strike-out deals. This book is a great read about a great designer and his even more famous clients. This book offers one reality check after another. The reader has to have his/her attitude on "Got-to-Have" mode to take away the jewels Hartmut has packed in this box. Hartmut didn't have to write this book and give away so many secrets about frog design's success - he did and I'm better off today for it.
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| Any business library needs this |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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A FINE LINE: HOW DESIGN STRATEGIES ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS comes from a designer and founder of Frog Design Inc. and provides a series of tips of better business through better branding designs. This tells of the author's change from an industrial design genius to a global innovation powerhouse in the new global economy, telling how he and Frog blend creative design into company competitive strategies for maximum effect. A fine, and rare, step-by-step overview of the entire innovation process, from setting goals to designing to reflect the marketplace and connect with consumers. Any business library needs this.
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