If there’s one guiding principle that shapes my approach to life, it’s design thinking. That might sound strange coming from the managing director of a company known for creating commercial accounting software. But I actually think that people who are familiar with our product, the tech industry and contemporary business in general wouldn’t find it surprising at all. It’s just problem-solving.
True, it’s still hard for some people to grasp. In particular, the founder and CEO of our company has been pretty unrelenting in his disdain for it over the years, and it’s taken me the better part of a decade to win him over to ‘design’ not being a dirty word. Lately, it’s seeming like he’s finally beginning to grasp what I’ve been saying all along, which is that design thinking can be applied to solving problems in any medium. Architectural, financial, strategic, biological – you name it, you can apply design to it.
This is good news, because it means he might finally give the go-ahead for overhauling our office fitout. Melbourne businesses have some stiff competition when it comes to innovative workspace concepts, and I’d been starting to fear that we’d be left behind somehow – you know, written off as being old-hat. The company is actually far from that, being at the cutting edge of commercial software, but many of us feel that old mate has been holding us back from exploding into the next wave of innovation.
Ever since we opened a branch in Melbourne, office design companies have been beating down my door to do various landmark projects with the outstanding piece of real estate we’re based in. It’s a particularly unique building with an interesting history, and in my opinion the current design was never adequately thought through to do it justice. A lot of in was inherited from the previous occupant, a venerable but somewhat stale law firm.
Anyway, I’m excited to see what our leader’s newfound appreciation of design holds for the company’s future.