Design Into Profit

Tekes and Design Foundation Finland have launched a Design Into Profit initiative to promote design and design expertise in Finnish SMEs. By focusing on design, companies can improve their competitiveness and create preconditions for expanding their business and speeding up their internationalisation.

Design helps to meet the needs of customers and end users better while increasing product value. Design also supports the development of the actual products and services as well as the company’s business concepts.

”The word design is often only understood in the sense of industrial design, for example as lights, coffee mugs and fabrics.  However, design is a wider term that includes the design of service concepts, strategic design and management of design expertise”, says Merja Salonen, Senior Adviser in creative fields from Tekes. According to Salonen, the project wishes to activate SMEs in various sectors to consider how design could help improve the company’s renewal, ability to grow and pioneering spirit.

Design Foundation Finland has at its disposal a five-strong team consisting of Professor Eero Miettinen, Design Agent Jorma Lehtonen, Industrial Designer Juha Lätti, Managing Director Ari Kujala and Project Manager Matti Turpeinen.

The Design Into Profit project will continue until the end of 2012, encompassing some 100-150 companies around Finland selected by Tekes. Experts from Design Foundation Finland will visit the companies to explain and discuss how the companies could use design expertise better to develop their business in practical terms. If the company decides to initiate development projects to tap design expertise, Tekes can provide funding.

”Tekes experts meet thousands of companies every year. Among these, we have already identified customers of ours who will be introduced to ways of using design to develop their activities. But if Tekes does not contact your company, you can also contact us, says Director Janne Viemerö from Tekes.

Tekes offers its customers expert funding that encourages companies to engage in diverse innovation activities and renewal. Tekes funds research, development and innovation projects that would not be implemented in an equally ambitious form or on such a large scale without public funding.

Design, brands and other immaterial content is one of the focus areas of the new Tekes strategy published in spring 2011.

For more information

Director Janne Viemerö
Tel. 010 60 55848
janne.viemero@tekes.fi

Senior Adviser Merja Salonen
Tel. 010 60 55974
merja.salonen@tekes.fi