4. Enhance internal capabilities Businesses, like people, can be cognitively biased. Even if decision makers say they value innovation, there is always a strong organizational desire for reliability. The status quo in successful companies remains strong because it is built on effective, reliable systems that have demonstrably worked well. The problem is that the status quo can leave a firm stranded in the present by limiting the ideas under consideration and ignoring contradictory data. The net effect is a reduction in the flow of innovative ideas and products. Collaborative processes create an environment where everyone has a role to play in innovation, sustaining a culture that imagines alternatives and helps bring them into being. By helping to build a compelling vision that appeals across divisions and drives stakeholder alignment, a design approach enables a firm to pursue longer-term opportunities. CASE EXAMPLE Changing mindsets Pfizer has long been a successful innovator in the consumer healthcare field. To tap into disruptive ideas and technologies developing outside its walls, Pfizer initiated a Design Collaborative in 2015. It partnered with 20 startups taking non-traditional approaches to healthcare, assessing their potential and bringing the most promising ideas rapidly to market. The project was 2 complimentary to, but outside of, established innovation processes at Pfizer. Pfizer’s approach is an example of a company seeking to further develop its venture mindset by improving the novelty, value and breadth of ideas. This is one of the many tools that design brings into an organization, allowing it to enhance its internal capabilities. $300 million saved, 100% productivity gains Known for its industrial expertise, by 2010 General Electric Co. had qui- etly become the world’s 14th largest software developer by revenue. These capabilities had grown opportunistically, primarily in response to requests 2. Read more about Pfizer at www.frogdesign.com from specific clients. As a result, little software consistency existed across the BUSINESS VALUE OF DESIGN frogdesign.com | 11