Delineating Design Leaders: A Framework of Design Management Roles in Fashion Retail

Abstract

Design management is widely acknowledged as important in optimizing the contribution of design in organizations, especially where survival in turbulent industries such as fashion retail depends upon design for differentiation, value engineering and an agile response. However, design management in this industry has received scant attention, in spite of the sector's degree of design intensity. This paper seeks to redress this imbalance with interviewbased case studies in seven leading UK-based international retailers, by investigating design management activities. The results reveal design management is composed of two distinct cohorts, with true design leaders privileged by formal design education and extensive design experience and others we term 'managers of design'. From these findings we provide a framework, which more accurately depicts the roles of design management in this dynamic industry, thereby helping to develop understanding in both academic and practical contexts.

Understanding the Skills of Design Leaders

“…Therefore, formal design education and experiential learning (Kolb, ) through extensive practice are prerequisites to effective design leadership in this industry. Indeed, this assertion is supported, as all 20 individuals fulfill these criteria, underpinning our findings from a related study (Miller and Moultrie, ). Moreover, formal recruitment to these design leadership positions is contingent upon meeting these requirements.…”

“…As the main researcher has a background in the retail industry, access was initially arranged via personal contacts and thereafter through snowball sampling (Robson, ). Twenty separate semi‐structured interviews were conducted between March and July 2011 with individuals who fulfill the criteria for design leaders (Miller and Moultrie, ). The individuals within these organizations typically have job titles such as design director or head of design and are shown in Table .…”

“…Returning to the original problem highlighted in the introduction, we now recognize that fashion retailing is a high‐risk, design‐intensive industry (McColl and Moore, ), where survival in highly competitive markets is contingent upon effective design leadership (Miller and Moultrie, ). However, design leadership literature provides somewhat contradictory views (Jozaisse, ) of the nature of design leaders and specifically whether design skills are essential.…”

“…These design capabilities are predominantly internalized (Abecassis‐Moedas, ) and embedded as strategically valuable resources (Stevens and Moultrie, , ) to differentiate and value engineer products and respond to shortening life cycles (Christopher, Lowson, and Peck, ). However, optimization of these assets is contingent upon effective design leadership (Miller and Moultrie, ). Design leadership, according to Topalian (), is the most advanced state of design responsibility within an organization.…”

Microfoundations of dynamic design capabilities: An empirical analysis of “excellent” Italian design firms

“…T A B L E 2Scenario representation (SR)Morelli and Tollestrup (2007);Topalian (2013);Sherwin and Maguire (2010);Miller and Moultrie (2013); Joziasse (2011);Turner (2016) …”