Connected by Design: Seven Principles for Business Transformation Through Functional Integration

by Barry Wacksman, Barry Wacksman

In a world of fierce global competition and rapid technological change, traditional strategies for gaining market share and achieving efficiencies no longer yield the returns they once did. How can companies drive consumer preference and secure sustainable growth in this digital, social, and mobile age? The answer is through functional integration. Some of the world's most highly valued companies―including Amazon, Apple and Google―have harnessed this new business model to build highly interactive ecosystems of interrelated products and digital services, gaining new levels of customer engagement. Functional integration offers forward-looking brands a unique competitive edge by using transformative digital technologies to deliver high-value customer experiences, generate repeat business, and unlock lucrative new business-to-business revenue streams. Connected By Design is the first book to show business leaders and marketers exactly how to use functional integration to achieve transformative growth within any type of company. Based on R/GA's pioneering work with firms at the forefront of functional integration, Barry Wacksman and Chris Stutzman identify seven principles companies must follow in order to create and deliver new value for customers and capture new revenues. Connected By Design explains how functional integration drove the transformation of market-leading companies as diverse as Nike, General Motors, McCormick & Co., and Activision to establish authentic brand relationships with their customers, enter new categories, and develop new sources of income. With Connected by Design, any company can leverage technological disruption to redefine its mission and foster greater brand loyalty and engagement.

Genres: Business, Design, Technology, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Connected by Design' establishes R/GA's Business Transformation practice as a real force within the industry as old school companies embrace new technologies and alternate business models to better meet the needs of consumers today. "Functional integration" is essentially R/GA's term for a platform or ecosystem approach. The book also offers some examples of companies that have successfully transformed pipeline businesses into platform businesses. I especially like the construct of a "multi-contextual" world to think about the consumer experience. Rightly so, the authors identify the "final hurdle" as leadership. When are the old-school thinkers going to get out of the way so the new-school ones can actually affect real change?

[Mari Hosho · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book by employees of R/GA, a digital product agency that helps launch digital services such as Nike + iPod, and L’Oreal’s My Signature.

It was a comprehensive book to learn how to create a system (“functional integration”) that consumers depend on. Also, it was inspiring to learn more about how to expand the existing product’s functions using the internet or eventually AI to not only align with, but also anticipate users’ lifestyles. I liked how the book included many case studies and examples.

[Brad Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I work in an organisation that reveres user centered design driving the end result of consumer grade applications. This thought process has manifested in the rapid acceleration of application development in the realm of disruption given organisations feel the need to be agile and to get products to the market as soon as possible. Connected by Design centres around the concept of functional integration in that you built your solutions an capabilities in order to be functionally integrated. Using Apple as a case study in how they have taken an iPod and functionally integrated that capability into a iPhone, App Store, iCloud etc. Essentially organisations need to leverage functional integration to increase adoption, user experience and ultimately to maintain customer stickiness. This book provides countless examples of how this integration has taken place and how best to approach this in your organisation. Very interesting read!

Three key takeaways from the book:
1. There are ten leading contexts in being able to leverage functional integration: information, transaction, participation, conversation, application, location, diversion, aggregation/distribution, visualisation, gamification and interruption
2. The never ending challenge of functional integration is looking for new value/synergies. The best way is to master digital contexts in this era.
3. The key KPI for functionality integration ecosystems are usage and the frequency of usage

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than I expected. Avoids the histrionics and pseudoscience that a lot of design thinking books unwittingly include. Provides a powerful framework for building out a portfolio of services and products.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concepts of Functional Integration go beyond marketing concepts and illustrated with good use cases.