2018年最佳设计企业排行榜

当今社会，科技与全球化使得颠覆性创新发生得比以往任何时代都要快。为了保持优势地位，那些聪明的企业纷纷从设计入手，以更好地联系客户，并找到自己的竞争优势。

在本文中，我们就来说说各行各业的25家通过设计致胜的公司。其中既有苹果这样的老牌设计之王，也有Zalando这种中国读者不太熟悉的公司。

当爱彼迎（Airbnb）的几位创始人讲起公司的创业故事时，他们经常提到2009年的那个时刻。当时创业孵化器Y Combinator的负责人保罗·格拉汉姆给了他们四句话的重要建议。

当时，爱彼迎的注册房东只有不到一千人，创始人布莱恩·切斯基、乔伊·杰比亚和内特·布莱扎兹克蜷缩在硅谷的一隅，试图靠捣腾数据和改版网站将公司做大。虽然爱彼迎一开始是家貌似很有前途的公司，但它每周的营收只有200美元左右。为了找到问题所在，格拉汉姆要求三个创业人对爱彼迎的用户进行研究：他们的用户到底在哪里？

在一篇报道中，《财富》记者利·加拉格尔描述了格拉汉姆听到爱彼迎最大的客户基数其实是在纽约之后的反应：“他停了下来，又对三人重复了一遍：‘也就是说，你们现在在加州的山景城，但是你们的用户在纽约？’三人面面相觑：‘是的。’格拉汉姆对他们说道：‘那你们还在这儿待着干嘛？快到你们的用户那里去！’”

飞越半个国家去客户混在一起，这番训话与硅谷的传统智慧很不搭调，因为硅谷人历来相信数据和技术能解决所有问题。不过在采纳了格拉汉姆的建议后，爱彼迎确实迎来了关键的突破。比如他们发现，帮助房东给他们的房子拍些高大上的照片，是很能招徕住客的。

最近十年，“用户体验”已经成了一个被说滥了的词。但它的基础理念，也就是同理心的力量，却也变得前所未有地强大。

这至少有两个原因：首先是现代化全球化数字化的伟力正在打破一切传统壁垒。大公司无法再依赖强大的产能、供应链和销售网络保护他们的优势地位不受竞争对手挑战。中国等新兴经济体的崛起以及大数据、物联网、平台经济、人工智能等新兴技术的发展，也使得大企业传统的后端防御机制渐渐无法招架。其次是复杂性的原因。然而设计却可以在这个纷繁复杂的超互联世界中为我们带来某种秩序与和谐。

在这种新常态下，明智的企业领导者们越来越认同设计是决定成败的一个关键因素。好的设计可以让你运用自己理解力取悦顾客和用户，并且真正与他们建立联系。

设计可以在纷繁复杂的超互联世界中为我们带来某种秩序与和谐。

近年来，各行各业都掀起了一场“设计运动”。“财富500强”企业纷纷高薪聘请首席设计官并投巨资建立设计中心和创新中心。各类专业服务机构也不甘人后。2013年，埃森哲收购了知名设计公司Fjord，而普华永道则重金吃下了数字创新咨询公司BGT。2015年，麦肯锡公司收购了硅谷设计公司Lunar，同年10月，印度软件巨头威普罗收购了设计公司Cooper，这也是继其2015年收购Designit后第二次收购设计公司。同时，不少顶级商学院和设计学家也纷纷开设跨学科课程，帮助MBA们像设计师一样思考，或是让设计师们像MBA一样想问题。

在今天的“最佳设计企业”专题中，《财富》精心挑选了25家致力于通过设计获得竞争优势的公司。为了鉴定他们的设计水平，《财富》也在设计界进行了一番调查，访问了多名高管，并且搜寻了许多证据证明这些企业在设计方面的投入。本文的结果在科学上并不严谨（毕竟设计这东西本身是很难量化的），而且它也并非一份充分完整的名单（现在将赌注押在设计上的企业太多了，光靠一期杂志显然报导不完）。不过本文提到的企业都走在产品设计领域的前沿，且一心致力于打造更智能、更体贴的产品和体验。

说到设计和“不同凡想”的伟力，没有哪家公司比苹果更有发言权了。虽说近几年也有人提出，苹果的设计魔力是不是有些消退了，但作为全球最有价值公司的苹果依然在不断推动创新设计的边界。除了苹果之外，包括Alphabet、亚马逊、Nike在内的很多领先企业的成功，也离不开对设计的精益求精。“设计思维”原本是IDEO公司创始人大卫·凯利2003年生造的一个词，但现在，它已经成了以用户中心型思维构建产品和服务的同义词。

当然，对于设计和“设计思维”的突然大热，持反对意见的也不乏人在。比如在2017年纽约的一场设计大会上，Pentagram公司的合伙人娜塔莎·詹就做了一场题为“设计思维是狗屎”的演讲，从而引发了一场激烈争论。她的主要观点是，设计从业者往往执著于标新立异，而忽视了自己的作品本身是否是一个不好的设计。科技设计师加迪·阿米特曾从事Fitbit手环和Lytro相机的设计，他表示，科技公司对“设计思维”的执迷会浪费掉大量时间，而且也已无法适应现代产品周期的惊人变革速度。

真理越辩越明，这样的争论是应该有的。2018年3月，《财富》将携手《时代周刊》和英国知名设计杂志《墙纸》（Wallpaper），在新加坡的“脑力风暴设计大会”上继续探讨这个问题。

不过有一件事是明显的：有了好的设计，生意几乎总是能做得更好。

下面便是2018年的“最佳设计企业”名单：

Technology and globalization are leading to more and faster disruption than ever. To stay ahead, smart companies are turning to design to better connect with customers and find their competitive advantage.

Here, we feature 25 companies from—Apple to Zalando—in a range of industries that are getting design right.

When Airbnb’s founders tell their origin story, they often hark back to the moment in 2009 when Paul Graham, head of startup incubator Y Combinator, gave them four crucial words of advice.

At the time, Airbnb had fewer than a thousand registered hosts. Founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nate Blecharczyk were hunkered down in Silicon Valley, scrambling to scale the business by poring over data and revamping the website. After a promising start, revenue had flatlined at $200 per week. To figure out what wasn’t working, Graham pressed the trio for information about Airbnb’s users. Where were they, exactly?

In The Airbnb Story, Fortune’s Leigh Gallagher recounts Graham’s reaction upon learning that the largest concentration of them resided in New York City: “[He] paused and repeated back to them what they had just told him: ‘So, you’re in Mountain View, and your users are in New York?’ he asked. They looked at each other, then back at him. ‘Yeah,’ they said. ‘What are you still doing here?’ Graham said to them. ‘Go to your users.’ ”

That exhortation—to fly across the country and hang out with customers—defied a fundamental tenet of Silicon Valley wisdom: that data and technology are the solution to every problem. And yet, for Airbnb, heeding Graham’s advice led to key breakthroughs. Among them: Helping hosts produce better photos of their properties would boost business. (For more on Airbnb and design, see Gallagher’s Q&A with Gebbia.)

A decade on, “user experience” is among the tech industry’s most overused buzz phrases. But the underlying idea—that there is power in empathy—has never been more profound.

That’s true for at least two reasons: One is that the great forces of the modern age, globalization and digitization, are removing traditional barriers to entry. Large firms can no longer rely on great manufacturing capacity, a superior supply chain, and established distribution networks to defend their market position from challengers. The rise of China and other emerging economies, combined with newfangled technological developments like big data, the Internet of things, platform economies, A.I., and automation are combining to flatten and commodify traditional back-end defenses. A second reason is complexity. Design can help bring order and coherence to the chaos of our hyper-connected world.

In this new landscape, smart corporate leaders are embracing the idea that design—channeling insight to delight and truly connect with customers and users—can be a crucial differentiator.

Design can help bring coherence to the chaos of our hyper-connected world.

The result is a major design moment. Fortune 500 companies are hiring chief design officers and investing heavily in design centers and innovation centers. Professional services firms, too, have joined the fray. In 2013, Accenture acquired Fjord, a leading design firm, while PwC snapped up BGT, a digital creative consultancy. In 2015, McKinsey & Co. purchased Lunar, a Silicon Valley–based design firm. In October, Indian software giant Wipro acquired design agency Cooper, adding to its 2015 purchase of Designit. Meanwhile a host of top business and design schools have introduced interdisciplinary programs to help MBAs think more like designers and vice versa.

In the “Business by Design” package, Fortune highlights some two dozen companies that have turned a commitment to design into a competitive advantage. To identify them, Fortune surveyed the design community, grilled executives, and searched for evidence of true corporate commitment. The result is not a completely scientific list. (Design, for the most part, is not quantitative.) And it’s not a truly comprehensive list. (Too many companies are betting on design these days to include in one issue of the magazine.) But all of the companies that made the cut are at the forefront of the movement to create smarter, more thoughtful products and experiences.

No company tops Apple (AAPL, +0.03%) for demonstrating the strategic power of great design and learning to “think different.” While there is a raging debate about whether or not Apple has lost some of its design mojo in recent years, as the story “Has Apple Lost Its Design Mojo” explores, the world’s most valuable company continues to push boundaries. Meanwhile, a host of other leading companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, and Nike, have achieved success by expanding design capabilities. The phrase “design thinking,” coined back in 2003 by IDEO cofounder David Kelley, has become synonymous with taking a user-centric approach to creating products and services.

The sudden enthusiasm for design and design thinking has its detractors. Pentagram partner Natasha Jen sparked a lively debate at a New York design conference early in 2017 with a presentation titled “Design Thinking Is Bullshit.” Her main complaint: that practitioners too often neglect to call out bad design. Gadi Amit, a technology designer who has worked on Fitbit trackers and the Lytro camera, frets that design thinking’s obsession with empathy leads to wasted time and is out of step with the breakneck pace of modern product cycles.

It’s a debate worth having. And one that Fortune will continue this March in Singapore, in collaboration with colleagues at Time and Wallpaper*, at a new conference we’re launching called Brainstorm Design.

One thing is clear, though: Business is almost always better by design. —C.C.

See our full 2018 Business by Design list below.

苹果的“设计魔力”消失了吗？

整整一代的无与伦比的产品，使苹果成了世界上最有价值的公司。不过现在也有不少果粉质疑后乔布斯时代的苹果还剩下几分设计功底。其实苹果的设计水平依然是业界顶尖的，你可点此了解更多。

Has Apple Lost Its Design Mojo?

A generation of peerless products made Apple the world’s most valuable company. Now some in the i-universe are questioning if the magic—in the post–Steve Jobs era—is still there. Don’t believe the naysayers. Read more.

什么样的吹风机最酷？一要有强大的研发，二要有高度的专注

英国工业设计师詹姆斯·戴森的神奇之处，就在于他将颠覆性的创新技术与“苹果流”的极简主义融为一体，将吸尘器、电风扇、吹风机这种无趣的家用产品变成了令无数人心仪的东西——比如上图中的戴森超声波吹风机。它的研发耗时足足4年，光原型机就设计了600多个。它内置的数字马达的重量只有传统吹风机的一半，速度却是传统吹风机的八倍。

如此的严谨对戴森来说并非孤例。戴森是英国机器人和人工智能领域的最大投资者。随着公司的工程师和科学家越来越多（到2020年或将翻一番，达到6000人），2017年9月，戴森公司还成立了一所内部大学——戴森工程技术学院。戴森公司还计划在2020年前投资26亿美元用于研发电池动力汽车。

When is a hair dryer cool? When it’s the product of powerful R&D and laser-like focus

British industrial designer James Dyson has spent his career marrying disruptive technology with an Apple-esque minimalism to transform drab everyday appliances such as vacuum cleaners, fans, and hair dryers into products with cult followings. Case in point: the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer pictured above. Developed over four years and through 600 prototypes, it features a digital motor half the weight and eight times the speed of a traditional dryer.

Such rigor is no anomaly. Dyson is the U.K.’s biggest investor in robotics and artificial intelligence research. In September, the company launched the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, a university within its office grounds, to feed its growing headcount of engineers and scientists, which Dyson predicts will double to 6,000 by 2020. Dyson also plans to invest $2.6 billion into developing battery-operated vehicles in the same time frame. —D.Y.

用心去做电子消费产品和软件

成熟的谷歌终于有了自己的审美了。像苹果、雅虎、亚马逊等很多科技公司一样，早期的谷歌在审美上也有过一段不堪回首的经历。早期的谷歌喜欢的是恣意使用各种颜色、字体和标点符号的“杀马特”式审美（不信的可以看看1998年的谷歌主页）。随着时间的推移，谷歌的大多数竞争对手们也都成熟了，渐渐放弃了那些不上档次的审美怪癖，风格越来越靠近极简主义，在颜色搭配上也越来越控制和考究，其中最具代表性的就是那种光滑亮泽、颇具未来主义和德式工艺风的“苹果范儿”。不过在19岁生日来临之际，谷歌却重拾起了它的少年心，将先进的工业设计、软件设计与奇怪的造型、新材料和明亮的颜色（比如Pixel 2手机的电源键）相结合，在这样一个手机外观设计千人一面的时代，迸发出了丰富的人的活力——这也提醒了上面那几家科技巨头，尽量别把自己搞得太严肃了。

三星/Samsung

整体的战略信念

前几年，三星还站在法庭上针对苹果的指控竭力辩驳“你凭什么污人清白”，不过经过几十年的厚积薄发，三星也终于摘掉了廉价机的帽子。如今的三星是在研发上最舍得下本的科技公司了。它的电视、电话、家电、服务和地产等也都在市面上颇受追捧。

亚马逊/Amazon

以人为本的资本主义

好设计不仅看审美，更看功能。说到功能性，谁能拼得过“卖一切”的亚马逊呢？从强大的电商网站，到线下的无现金实体店，再到亚马逊出品的一系列语音控制设备，亚马逊对顾客的关注始终是不容忽视的。

华为/Huawei

打造创新基础

现下，中国的科技巨头纷纷将眼光瞄准了海外市场，可由于知识产权的原因，很多中国公司也只能是望洋兴叹了。不过华为却有闯荡海外的底气。这家总部位于深圳（可不是“山寨”哦）的设备厂商在软硬件专利上已经走在了全球前列。

微软/Microsoft

为99%的人而设计

微软的界面设计相当杰出，它现代都市感的设计语言和互动化的流畅设计体系都非常值得称道。但其最杰出的一点，就是它对包容性设计的专注，哪怕是残疾人也可以一样使用它的产品。

In search of consumer electronics and software with soul

Google is all grown up. As with many tech companies—Apple, Yahoo, even Amazon—Google’s design language has come a long way since its kaleidoscopic early days, when every color, typeface, and punctuation mark was used with abandon. (Seriously—just look at that 1998 homepage.) Over time, most of Google’s peers matured by shedding their quirks and shades in favor of minimalist forms and a restrained palette, best embodied by the sleek, futuristic, Braun-influenced stylings of Apple. Not Google. In the wake of its 19th birthday, the company, now part of the conglomerate known as Alphabet, has retained the personality of its youth by wedding sophisticated industrial and software design (have you seen Google Home and Android 8.1?) with strange shapes, novel fabrics, and pops of bright color, such as the power button on its new Pixel 2 phone. In a world where today’s angular machines are plastic and glass, black and white, and altogether expressionless, Google’s products burst with the exuberance of, well, humans—a signal to its peers that they shouldn’t take themselves too seriously. —A.N.

Samsung

Holistic, strategic conviction

It wasn’t so long ago that Samsung found itself in a courtroom defending its creativity against Apple. But the company’s decades-long bid to move beyond its reputation as a budget brand has paid off. Today Samsung is tech’s largest spender on R&D. And its TVs, phones, appliances, services, and offices? Covetable. —A.N.

Amazon

Human-centered capitalism

Good Design isn’t limited to aesthetics; it is equally about function. And what could be more functional than the store that sells everything? From its bulletproof website to its cashierless stores to its family of speech-enabled devices, Amazon’s customer focus cannot be ignored. —A.N.

Huawei

Building a base of innovation

When China’s tech giants looked to markets beyond their own shores, it was clear that many wouldn’t be able to make the trip thanks to dubious intellectual-property portfolios. Not Huawei. The Shenzhen (but not shanzhai) gadget maker is a leader in international patents for software and hardware alike. —A.N.

Microsoft

Design for the 99%

There’s much to be said about Microsoft’s whiz-bang interfaces, modern Metro design language, and interactive Fluent Design System. But what sets this titan apart is its emphasis on inclusive design that makes products as accessible to people with disabilities as to those without. —A.N.