Focusing On Technology Without Design Is One Of The Challenges In India

WHEN A BUSINESS embraces design as a management tool, it becomes a transformation engine helping write success stories. This column puts the spotlight on captains of industry who are design evangelists and have successfully employed strategic design thinking and design disciplines such as Branding, Packaging, Digital, Retail, Product, Textiles and more. They will talk about how they have profited from design in conversation with Preeti Vyas, Chairwoman of Vyas Giannetti Creative, a consultancy. A design veteran from NID, Vyas is also on the Governing Council of the National Institute of Design, Amaravati as well as Chief Mentor of Designomics, a knowledge platform helping foster the understanding of the value of design.

- Preeti Vyas

Udayant Malhoutra is the poster boy of ‘Make in India’. He is the CEO & MD of Dynamatic Technologies that manufactures and supplies complex parts to marquee global brands like BMW, Audi, Daimler, Airbus, and Boeing, and thrives on its design thinking. He is also the Chairman of the Amaravatibased National Institute of Design. A true design evangelist, Malhotra believes India needs to have a movement where “design becomes an element of our education system from school”. He talks to Preeti Vyas about his journey, design thinking, and innovation at his company, business profit from design, among other things.

Let’s hear your story about your great success. Well, if I may say so, we’re just on a journey right now. More than business accomplishment or size, the thing that I take the greatest pleasure and joy and pride in is the quality of business that we have built in India and overseas and the kind of customers we have – they are the best of their breed -- BMW, Audi, Daimler, Airbus, Boeing, Bell Helicopter, John Deere, Cummings. What’s critical to be a successful supplier across these industries is your ability to innovate and create value for these customers.

We’re not producing commodities, we are producing customized products and customizing delivery models for each of these companies. And the reason I separate the two is that a lot of people think of design as what a product is designed like, what it looks like. It’s form, fit, and function, and also performance -- that’s design. But in terms of the delivery models and value creation model, there’s a bigger design story -- that is design thinking. It’s why we operate manufacturing plants in India, in the US, Germany, and the UK. A lot of people express surprise as to why an Indian company would invest in “high-cost economies” in Europe.