Emphasize Design – Blog

I was breezing through “Do You Matter” by Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery tonight and came across a few more quotes that I thought I would share. These types of quotes really motivate me and spark creativity from a business aspect for both Emphasize Deisgn and Reel Rydes. I strongly recommend any and all business people read this book! You won’t regret it as it is an engaging read, but the knowledge that you can draw from the book is priceless and will escalate your business to the next level. These are just a few examples – the book is full of many more!

The difference between a great product and a merely good product embodies an idea that people can understand and learn about an idea that grows in their minds, one they emotionally engage with.

You don’t sacrifice the experience for the growth; you drive growth from the experience

Design is a living, ongoing process that has to learn from mistakes, refresh itself, and take new risks all the time

You matter to customers only to the extent that you have become connected to their emotional needs and desires

Executing great design is everbody’s job, not just the designers

What matters about a brand is an individual’s gut feeling. When a bunch of individuals have the same gut feelings, you have a brand

Design is not a statement, but a dialog. It is a story that needs to be written in a cohesive and flowing way

If great design resided in research alone, there would be more great design

Don’t play the game, change the game. Look to design to uncover new territory

I have read several books by Robin Sharma now. I enjoy Robin’s positive and optimistic messages, and he very passionately extends his enthusiasm for “greatness” through his writings. Although sometimes overly utopian, daily encouragement is something everyone could use more of, so receiving it through Robin’s writing is refreshing. I now loosely follow Robin’s blog and I thought I would share one of his recent posts – I enjoyed it, hope you do too:

“Natural disturbances like fire, wind, insects and disease occur in forests. And they happen for a powerful reason: by showing up, these disruptions create areas of dead trees – making room for a new forest to grow. Business and life follows similar natural processes.

In business, disruption – and sometimes outright chaos – shows up. We call it bad but actually it’s good. Old ways of doing and being need to die before new and better ways can be installed. The very nature of innovation and advancement calls for this kind of a clearing out process. Yes, it’s confusing and often painful. But progress can’t happen without it. It just can’t. We’re seeing this phenomenon happening right now as outdated/sedated institutions crumble. Space is being made for better ones to grow.

And within our personal life, from time to time, various disturbances (sometimes small – once in a while really big) appear. Again, we fight them. We label them as bad. But may I suggest that they are ultimately good. Very good. Because they cause our evolution. They make us bigger. Stronger. And they introduce us to dormant powers we didn’t know we had. Like the forest, the curveballs of life clear out the old to make way for the new. And better.

Nature’s a great teacher. And just as it runs under a series of immutable laws, so does business. Along with life.”

–Robin Sharma

www.robinsharma.com/

I recently read one of the most inspiring business books ever! It was recommended to me by our business mentor, and I truly believe it to be a MUST read for any small business owner. I wanted to share a few quotes with you today that I feel Mike and I build our businesses around and consciously implement on a daily basis, and I encourage all you entrepreneurs to do the same. For those interested in purchasing a book to add some exciting challenges in the way you design your business, the book is called “Do you Matter”, and it is written by Robert Brunner & Steward Emery. Keep in mind that their suggestions are NOT a one time thing. It is a mindset that must be adopted into the way you conduct business. The sooner you adjust to the design mindset, the greater chance your business has of succeeding and truly influencing all those that surround your company. Please don’t confuse “design” with all things visual. In the context of the book, design applies to all areas of your business.

“If your business does not embrace the concept of design, the kind that embodies a positive and emotional customer experience, then it could be on life support sometime soon. Many reasons exist why doing business has become so much more challenging. As time goes on, customers become more demanding in terms of design. All you have to do is go to any number of blogs, review sites, or even sales platforms to see candid feedback that motivates companies to improve designs if they want to stay in business. Products and services get better … A broader idea playing out here is that designing a unique and highly valued set of customer experiences is really one of the only truly defensible strategies. If you have your own brand-driven approach to design, others can’t really take this from you. People can try to copy it, but then they become merely derivative.”

“The role of design here needs to go far beyond simply devising forms or details to differentiate a company’s desired market position. Rather, design should create products and services that dramatize the company’s core values”