A Fine Line
How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business

The business world is going through a period of profound and massive change that goes far deeper than any financial slump. The economics of efficiency that has defined the landscape for at least the past hundred years is now giving way to an economics of creativity. Mass production is bowing to customization and niche markets. On top of that the once-maligned notion of sustainability has not only entrenched itself into the business world but its clear that companies who havent planned for a bright green future are scrambling to transform themselves or risk getting left behind. A Fine Line is a story about business transformation and a guide through this new business landscape. Written for business executives, managers, and consultants by Hartmut Essligner, the founder of one of the worlds foremost strategic-creative consulting firms, frog design, inc., this book reveals the secrets behind Esslinger and frogs own transformation from industrial design wunderkind to a strategic-creative consulting firm that has helped companies as varied as Apple and Disney change the way they do business. The success frog and its clients have discovered involves a creative processes steeped in design. And while businesses and designers have a long history of success working together, there is a unique difference between frog and most other design firms. Instead of working to inject a temporary innovation booster at companies, frog works to make design an integral and permanent part of a companys strategy. Design by frogs definition and practice is an end-to-end meta-process that cultivates innovation, designs the business system and organization to support the innovation, plans for success in a measurable way, and leads the client through execution. Only then will profound, sustainable, and lasting business transformation and success occur.  The stories, ideas, and strategies in these pages will prove that the cultural, humanistic, and economic power of creative strategy is the best preparation for the many evolving business challenges of the new century.