Researching the design innovation process in a multinational: An Empathic Approach to the Application of Delphi Technique

Organizations need to balance exploration and exploitation in order to be ambidextrous which is an essential attribute for maintaining a strong innovation portfolio. This entails the creation of a collective mind between different functions working towards optimization of existing opportunities and creation of new value propositions. Hence, it is necessary to establish new and more effective social interactions in which all functions involved in innovation within an organization could connect and share in order to create a collective mind. The present chapter describes a research project with a multinational based in The Netherlands that aimed to align the core functions in the organization, namely; design, marketing, strategy and technology, to enable a shared leadership at a strategic level, and establish design as a leading functional discipline. The principal author undertook a nine months internship in the multinational, where action research was used to elicit and explicate the intrinsic values of the design innovation process. This chapter reports the post-rationalization of reflection-on-practice of the application of Delphi technique in a multinational looking to establish design as a leading functional discipline. The post-rationalization concluded that Delphi technique supported by the inclusion of an overarching action research methodology influenced the culture of the organization and challenged the pragmatic approach taken by the business towards ‘culture change’. This developed a sound reasoning for the use of design for formulating all social interactions within the organization and put empathy at the centre of transformation within multinationals.