The new age is not defined by the mass production of goods and products or by individual consumer needs but will have a greater emphasis on community needs and social solutions. Pressing issues in society such as chronic illness, care for the elderly, education and increased mobility will determine the next generation of demands, growth and innovation.

Social solutions and social innovation inherently involve many actors and stakeholders. They cannot be developed behind closed corporate doors by experts but have to be carried out in an inclusive and democratic manner in a shared and open creative process. This approach will be crucial for design and innovation. Social design requires a new mindset with regard to approach, methods and behaviour. Consumers have become manufacturers, and new digital and social technologies will drive hierarchies to move from a pyramid to a pancake structure. Open networking across companies will replace closed, controlling systems.

One of the major challenges for companies today is to find a way to release this creativity and innovation so that it permeates the entire organisation.

Design thinking can reinvent the world. Designers have no fear of the blank sheet of paper but relish the challenge inherent in the great uncertainty we are facing. The world requires us to make something from nothing, and that is exactly what design thinking can do.

The discipline of design takes people as its point of departure, not technology, and that mindset is perfect for the new age. People decide, technology enables.

The new age will be dominated by multidisciplinary innovation processes with many stakeholders. They will benefit from the designer’s ability to integrate and facilitate a complex process; another key strategic tool will be the ability to create tangible solutions for intangible challenges.