A Decade of Innovations, Driven by Design
(Vice President, Global Consumer Design, Whirlpool Asia South), Pradyumna Vyas (Director NID), Dilip Chhabria (Founder D C Designs), Michael Foley (Founder Foley Designs) & Sharad Mehra (CEO Pearl Academy)
Mumbai, May 29, 2015: Design plays a pivotal role in today’s ever changing and dynamic businesses. It opens up valuable opportunities for various industries and as an element of a business, is of immense value. In today’s robust global economic framework, all businesses understand the power and financial value of good design. Taking into account the importance of Design and their extensive impact on businesses, ET Edge, an Economic Times Initiative, founded to empower multiple industries and segments through the dispersion of critical business knowledge through strategically developed conferences and summits, today held the ‘The Economic Times Design Summit 2015’ at ITC Grand Central, Mumbai.
Realizing the increasing importance of design in economic, industrial and societal development and in improving quality of products and services, the Government of India has declared 2010-2020 as a ‘Decade of Innovations’.
Being a leader in knowledge sharing and dissemination, ET Edge has always driven progressive economic change. The summit witnessed creative leaders and experts from the Design industry exchange their views on how design is helpful in reimagining the future and is a perfect catalyst that empowers organisations to make more intelligent decisions.
The summit created a platform for analyzing key market trends and discovered the most innovative projects through lectures and making it a learning experience for all. The experts discussed ranged across topics like ‘Design 20:20 Creating Designs for the Future’, ‘Tactical Architecture-Designing for Expanding India’ and ‘The Business of Design-Prospect of luxury brands in India’. The summit was opened by Mr. Rishi Kapoor (Sector Head, Times Conferences Ltd.), who spoke on the need for the design diaspora to be brought together in a meaningful way.
Speaking on the occasion, Deepak Lamba, President, Times Conferences Limited, said, “The dynamics of businesses are changing and today ‘Design’ plays an integral part in growth and sustenance of the business. Design is seen as a tool of development and is very vital for the progress of the country. Today, India is standing at a crucial crossroads of development where we require more emphasis on innovation and design for progress. Our esteemed speakers today shared their knowledge on the value of design and how an adaptation of innovative design strategy impacted their business while fuelling growth.”
Navroze Godrej, Executive Director – Strategy & Innovation, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company, waded into the discussion with his thoughts, saying that “A lot of people have this misconception that design is all about designing new products. To be clear, the definition of design has changed and evolved. It’s not just about making things good. It’s about understanding what people desire and what can add meaning to people’s lives and then working towards understanding how to create things that are also viable.”
Rocky S, Fashion Designer was of the opinion that we need to nurture and encourage talent better, saying that, “We have the right talent, but not the right backers to make luxury brands in India. We need talent to be nurtured and grown in the right direction with brand awareness without looking for instant returns. All over the world, talented designers are picked up by luxury houses to create their brand, and that is something to be kept in mind as we look to bring designers of age.”
The summit was attended by eminent speakers like Mr. Navroze Godrej (Executive Director – Strategy & Innovation, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company ), Mr. Robert Verrijt (Director, Architecture BRIO), Ms. Anjali Mody (Designer & Founder, JOSMO Design), Mr. Jay Dutta (Head of User Experience Design, Flipkart | AsiaOceania Co-ordinator, IxDA), Mr. Abhimanyu Kulkarni (Creative Director, Philips Design India), Ms. Preeti Vyas (Chairwoman & Chief Creative Officer, Vyas Giannetti |Creative Chief Mentor, Designomics), Rocky S (Fashion Designer), Dilip Chabbria (Founder D C Designs), Michael Foley (Founder, Foley Designs) and Pradyumna Vyas (Director, NID) amongst others.
This interactive and content-rich summit saw opinion leaders from different sectors like Product & Engineering Design, Architecture Design & Lifestyle Design talk about the impact of Design in their respective sectors. The summit saw over 200 participants like CEOs, Design/R&D Heads, Design houses, freelance designers, Design Engineers, Technocrats, Entrepreneurs, Innovators & premier Designers/ R&D/ Technical & Engineering institutes, amongst several others in attendance.
About ET Edge: Times Conferences Ltd., functional under the brand name ET Edge, is an Economic Times subsidiary founded to empower multiple industries and segments by sharing critical business knowledge through strategic conferences and summits. Encompassing the Indian business vista, ET Edge strives to bring together visionaries and key leaders on its knowledge platforms to create social and business ecology conducive to the positive changes required by the industry. The main aim of this initiative is to channel global business intelligence through summits and conferences in overarching lectures, hands-on workshops, panels, roundtables and case studies. The forums would ensure that senior decision makers are equipped with information to respond to challenges they face not just in India but also globally.