Date

1995

Author

Er, Özlem

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In the advanced market economies, companies choose to commission professional designers to carry out design work externally at an increasing rate, rather than employing in-house design teams on a permanent basis. This paper first explores the historical development of the design consultancy business and sets out the reasons behind the preferences of companies either to use external or in-house design expertise. It then looks at the issue of using externa! design expertise from the industrial development perspective of a group of developing countries defined as Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs). By identifying the kind of expertise provided by design consultancies from an industrially advanced country (Britain) to NIC clients, it explores the use of design consultancy expertise in a technology transfer scenario. The paper ends with concluding remarks. In recent years, a significant body of knowledge has been built into the management of design consultancies/individual consultants-client relationships. Studies in this area have been partly the result of the increasing tendency on the part of clients to commission design work to external professionals (e.g., Morris; 1993; Bruce and Docherty, 1993; Bruce and Morris, 1994; Ingols, 1996; Aldersey-Williams, 1996). Commissioning pf design work to external sources of expertise has generally been looked into from the perspectives of the role of design in competitiveness and 'how best to manage design and designers (in-house/external)' in industry. However, beyond the arguments developed within these perspectives,, the use of foreign design consultancies by developing country clients has different aspects. It has been firmly established that in the industrial development strategies of NICs, design has a role with increasing importance (Kim, 1989; Er, H. A., 1993; Er, 1995). Since design consultancies are agents providing skills and expertise for different industries, and NIC companies try to develop indigenous capabilities mainly by continuous technology-and knowledge transfer via various mechanisms, it would be expected that consultancies take part in such transfers. A recent study by the author looked into the increasing use of external design expertise from a development point of view trying to identify the kind of roles design consultancies from a developed country play, for clients from a particular group of developing countries (Er, 1995). The main emphasis of the mentioned study was on the question of whether the commissioning of design consultancies related to the long-term planning/strategies of NIC clients. In the following three sections, the emergence of design consultancy as a business sector and the reasons behind the increasing tendency of using external design expertise will be explored. Further sections will set the significance of using design consultancy expertise for NIC clients with reference to the findings of the above mentioned research study.

Subject Keywords

Design Consultancy, In-House Design, Newly Industrialised Countries, Technology Transfer

URI

http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/1995/cilt15/sayi_1_2/75-91.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51114

Collections

Department of Architecture, Article