Better Future - Design Practice - Harriet Wakelam

There is no doubt that enterprise design has taken off. You couldn’t find a Fortune 500 organisation today that hasn’t cottoned on to this new way of ‘design thinking’. However, introducing socialised design thinking into the enterprise is just the beginning… This week on our Expedition to a Better Future we are recognising a global industry leader who extends far beyond promoting mere enterprise literacy around design, instead delving deep into organisations to maximise the executional capacity of the design experts. Meet Harriet Wakelem.

I first met Harriet when she was working in the finance sector, accelerating the capacity for banks to develop inhouse skills and delivery capacity. It has been interesting to observe how some organisations have introduced broad-based design thinking to build aptitude, whereas others have taken the design thinking model to breed enterprise-wide awareness and understanding whilst simultaneously nurturing their design team and allowing them to emerge as the superheroes.

Today Harriet leads corporate teams, industry peer groups and academic forums on how the next wave of design practice will drive the experience economy. While others have been busy developing a gradual, rudimentary understanding of design in enterprise, expedition leaders like Harriet have gone the extra mile to ensure the depth of masterful practice evolves at break-neck speed.