“Design for Enterprises”: Developing European SMEs Capabilities for Design-driven Innovation

Abstract

This article aims to present Design for Enterprises (DfE) tender project, funded by the European Commission, designed and provided by the Consortium composed by D’Appolonia, MIP/Politecnico di Milano and ADI. DfE has been settled as a training program on design-driven innovation customized in order to prepare intermediary business development organizations to support SMEs managers and entrepreneurs. After a short introduction to the topic and a general presentation of the project, the article proposes a follow-up on the ADI contribution to support design thinking processes during the entire setup of the training course. The article reports also the critical points that occurred during the training, the relative modifications applied and the first results of the project, in order to increase training activities results toward a widespread diffusion of a design thinking mindset among the European SMEs.