Nature of Design Consultancy Work for Newly Industrialized Country Clients

Abstract

This paper presents selected findings of a recent study into the use of external design expertise by client bodies from a group of countries defined as Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). The study examined the subject with reference to the relations between British design consultancies and NIC clients. The paper provides a comparative analysis of design consultant-client relationships in the European and NICs contexts. The nature of the relationship between design consultancies of a mature industrial country and NIC client bodies has distinctive properties due to the particular conditions of the latter. The findings indicate that design consultancies have a role as agents of organizational learning. This role occurs as a by-product of the process of cooperation between design consultancies and the commissioning NIC clients, and involves technology and skills transfer. Decisions on the use of foreign design consultancy expertise by NIC clients appear to be taken as part of conscious policy options both at company and country levels to achieve autonomous production and marketing.