设计新贵承载飞利浦复兴美梦

    问题是，调整设计部门的地位，使其在飞利浦内部更具有战略性地位，是否真能帮助该公司实现利润增长？尽管现在还看不出卡尼的领导水平对飞利浦产品有何影响——产品开发、制造及获得监管部门的批准往往需要几个月乃至几年时间——但飞利浦高管认为他已经对企业本身产生了影响。“肖恩来到飞利浦后，带来了与解决本公司当前面临的挑战息息相关的经验，”飞利浦个人护理业务集团首席执行官卡罗琳•克拉克称。“他的经验和风格使他有能力挑战原有的思维方式，在飞利浦内部构建将长期受人推崇的设计能力。”

    克拉克还补充说，卡尼“已经产生了值得注意的影响”。有些新产品刚刚上市，比如与手机搭配使用的Fidelio基座音箱和ReAura激光美肌系统。她说，这些产品“有着卡尼的印记，使他们在货架上更加抢眼，更受消费者追捧”。

    卡尼的简历颇为扎实，反映的正是21世纪首席设计官所需的实打实的国际化多元体验。除了曾经在马克•赫德时期效力于蒸蒸日上的惠普之外，他还为以嬉皮艺术风格著称的一些品牌提供过咨询服务，包括芬兰玻璃品制造商iitala，并担任过家电制造商伊莱克斯（Electrolux）设计与企业战略部门的集团总监。（有趣的是，马扎诺今年1月份反被任命为伊莱克斯的首席设计官）。

    不过，卡尼最新的这份工作既充满机遇，同时也承担着公司内外的巨大压力。首先，马扎诺时代的遗产无法忽视。在飞利浦任职的二十年间，马扎诺将飞利浦设计部门的员工数量增加了300%以上。他还开发了积极进行顾客调研和样机研究的模式。直到2000年代中后期，现在称为“设计思考”的概念才在创意工作室IDEO等公司的推崇下盛行起来，可早在大约15年前，马扎诺其实已经开始身体力行。飞利浦最畅销的一些产品离不开马扎诺的设计之功，包括销量达数百万台的Senseo咖啡机。

    看起来，卡尼继承了马扎诺的设计理念，同时又加入了自己的一些新元素。与他的前任相似，卡尼身体力行所谓的“设计思考”，但又不会将这个热门词汇挂在嘴边。与马扎诺一样，他是一个做得多、说得少的设计家。例如，在惠普的时候卡尼曾被要求重新设计在（药店等）零售环境下使用照片冲印机的体验。卡尼和他的团队不仅观察到了零售店消费者所接触的屏幕上的图像，还分析了店员处理在线用户传来的数据时的体验。卡尼相信，满足隐藏于幕后的照片处理人员的需求，将有助于从整体上改善照片冲印体验。

    “他们18-19岁时就成了数码世界的公民，”卡尼如此描述这些店员。“但却必须使用上世纪80年代那种风格的蓝白屏幕来处理照片，这种体验很陌生。”卡尼和他的团队研究了多种新界面，旨在满足参与商店中照片冲印流程的每一个人的需求，包括原本不被视为目标受众的店员。这个例子彰显了卡尼的行为模式——用他自己的话来说，这有助于帮助企业高管和工程师找到“另辟蹊径”，来实现产品和服务的创新方面——也形象地说明了为什么他的设计思路有可能助其在高管这一层面与飞利浦实现完美契合。

    卡尼坚信，无论是开发照明、医疗或消费产品，都有必要花时间来强调所有可能与飞利浦新产品有关的人士的需求，而不是只注重终端用户。设计核磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪和其他与医疗保健相关的设备时，卡尼正确保飞利浦设计师在注重患者需求的同时，还研究如何改善医院管理人员和放射科医生的体验。谈到某种设计的有效性，医生和护理人员的需求当然应当最优先考虑，但卡尼强调，为医院购买设备的人士以及“售后服务一线员工”——从事医疗设备维护工作的人士——也不能忽视，设计也必须考虑他们的感受。他认为，只有这样才能维持广泛的品牌忠诚度。

    The question is, could shifting design into more of a strategic business force within Philips help the company grow profits? Although it is too early to see the influence of Carney's leadership on current Philips products -- it often takes months or years for items to be developed, manufactured, and meet regulatory approvals -- executives at Philips believe he's already had an effect on the organization. "Sean comes to Philips bringing experience that is very relevant for the challenges our businesses face today," says Caroline Clarke, CEO of Philips' Personal Care business group. "His experience and style have enabled him to challenge current thinking and build on long-admired [design] capabilities within Philips."

    Clarke adds that Carney "has already made a noticeable impact." Some new products just coming to market, such as the latest Fidelio docking speakers for mobile phones and the ReAura Laser Skin Rejuvenation system, "have his stamp on them in terms of [their] impact on the shelf and desirability," she says.

    Carney's C.V. lists the type of international, varied experience that is red meat for a 21st century chief design officer. Besides working at HP during the thriving Mark Hurd years, he's consulted with brands known for their hip aesthetics, such as Finnish glass maker iitala, and worked as Group Director of Design & Business Strategy at appliance maker Electrolux (where, in an intriguing twist, Marzano was named Chief Design Officer in January).

    But Carney's latest role, while ripe with opportunity, also bears tremendous pressure, both internally and externally. First, there is Marzano's legacy. During his two-decade tenure, Marzano grew the number of employees within Philips Design more than 300%. He also developed processes of intensive customer research and prototyping. Marzano was practicing what is now called "design thinking" in business circles about a decade and a half ahead of the concept's heyday, as practiced by innovation firms such as IDEO, in the mid- to late-2000s. Marzano was credited for some of Philips' best known hits, such as the Senseo coffee maker, which has sold millions of units.

    Carney seems game to carry on Marzano's design philosophies while also adding his own spin. Similar to his predecessor, Carney practices so-called "design thinking" without the buzzword's trendiness in mind. Like Marzano, he's more of a design do-er. At HP, for instance, Carney was asked to re-design the experience of using photo-printing kiosks in retail environments, such as drugstores. Carney and his team not only observed the on-screen graphics that kiosk customers encountered, but also analyzed the jobs of the store employees who would process data from online users. Pleasing the behind-the-scenes photo processing staff, Carney believed, would help make the entire experience of printing photos better.

    "They were digital natives at 18-19 years old," Carney said of the store clerks. "They were alienated by the 1980s-style blue-and-white screens they had to use to process the pictures." Carney and his team then worked on a variety of new interfaces that would appeal to everyone involved in printing photos in a store, including store staff that weren't originally a target audience. This example of Carney's approach -- which he describes as helping to guide business executives and engineers toward "alternative paths" to product and service innovation -- illustrates how his way of thinking might fit in well with Philips on the C-suite level.

    Carney believes in taking the time to empathize with all people who might be associated with the use of a forthcoming Philips lighting, medical, or consumer product, and not just an end user. With MRI scanners and other healthcare related items, Carney is making sure Philips designers also research how to improve the experiences of hospital administrators and radiologists, in addition to the patient. While patients and caregivers, of course, have top priority in terms of design effectiveness, Carney says that the people who buy equipment for hospitals as well as "the guys on the shop floor" -- the people who do maintenance work on a medical device -- need to be considered, too. And designed for. This, he believes, is how to maintain widespread brand loyalty.