Existing in the Wild: Designer-entrepreneurs moving from invention to innovation via an advantage-seeking mindset - a brief discussion of concepts

Entrepreneurially talented people inside organisations know how to navigate adversity, to leverage the elements of their ecosystem in order to make things happen, and how effectively to utilize the given means to drive change. In a new venture these characteristics are crucial to thrive. Start-ups rely on their talent to adapt to constant change and unstable situations.

This paper describes two concepts in how design talent becomes entrepreneurial, through ‘cognitive harmony’ and ‘cognitive dissonance’. Designer entrepreneurs navigate from the design to the business discipline, adapting business theory and practice in a different sequence. Designers are known for their creative skills, which help them to realise products and services in a desirable, viable and feasible way. They increase revenue in companies in a two-to-one ratio, but they also impact other areas of the organisation, such as culture, customer experience and brand value. This paper discusses these ideas and proposes developments of the ‘opportunity-seeking mindset’ more accurately describing the designer-entrepreneur. We propose that designers can be considered talent in any organisation due to their contribution to business goals.