Mastering Technologies in Design-Driven Innovation: How two Italian Companies made Design a Central Part of Their Innovation Process

Only a few companies have mastered the design-driven approach to innovation. This paper examines what it means to make design a central part of the business process, able to add value to products and create new markets. More specifically, it focuses on the interplay between the functional and semantic dimensions of a product. Case studies of two leading Italian companies in the furniture industry--Kartell and Luceplan--illustrate two principal interpretations of the role of technology in radical design-driven innovation: technology as an enabler of new product meanings for the customer, and the importance of supply networks that allow manufacturers to change product technologies quickly and experiment with new technologies.