Why Design Is Still a Polite Cost Centre With Good PR | Lisa Gralnek

May 27 · 1 hr 15 min · Season 5 · Episode 12 · 36.3 MB

0:00-1:15:43

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What does it take to build brand presence for one of the world's most rigorous design institutions in a market that barely knows it exists?

In this episode of Why Design, Lisa Gralnek shares the belief that sits at the heart of her work: that design is not just products and packaging, but platforms, places, and policies and that if designers cannot speak the language of business, they will always be treated as a cost centre.

Rather than staying in a thriving solo consultancy, Lisa chose to take the first role she had ever been offered that she had not in some way anticipated. That decision led to becoming iF Design's first ever US Managing Director, Head of Global Sustainability and Impact, and the person responsible for introducing one of the world's oldest and most rigorous design institutions to a market that had never needed to think about it before.

This conversation is not about design awards. It is about what happens when you spend 30 years building things that do not exist yet - and what that costs, and what it gives you.

Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign

What You'll Learn

🧭 Why iF Design had 74 years of global authority and almost no US brand presence outside product design, and what it actually takes to change that.
🔄 How change agents get beaten by organisations, not by their own ideas - and what to check before taking on an internal transformation role.
💬 Why designers who cannot speak the language of business will always be positioned as a cost centre, and how the iF Design Academy is trying to fix it.
🤖 What confident AI decision-making looks like for design leaders who are not engineers and cannot predict where the field is going.
🌱 Why 20% of every iF Design Award score now goes to sustainability across all 93 categories - and what the gold winners tell you about what excellence really means.
🏗️ How to think about design leadership in hardware when talent pipelines are shrinking and everything is changing faster than your planning cycle.

Memorable Quotes

"I've only ever in that almost 30 year career had roles that don't exist before I take them."

"There are 10,000 things that can go wrong in change management... 9,998 of them have nothing to do with the change agent."

"The hybrid between the business and the creative side. That is my superpower."

"I graduated into financial collapse of 08 with over $200,000 of capitalized debt for that short degree program."

"You design products, you design packaging, you design platforms, you design places, you design policies. Like it is all design."

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon -> whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes -> YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte -> linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗 Connect with - iF Design

🔗 Connect with Lisa Gralnek -> LinkedIn

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

0:00Introduction
0:58Lisa's first reaction to iF Design: "I was underwhelmed by the website"
2:20"They offered me the job the next day - I was like, what job?"
4:00The mandate: grow participation in the iF Design Award across the US
5:30Why iF had no US office for 74 years
6:10Known in product design, invisible everywhere else: Apple, Lenovo, Dell
8:00How US design awards compare to iF's rigour and transparency
9:00iF's fee structure: everyone pays the same, no pay-to-play
10:15Lisa's background: BCG, Adidas, Walmart, Chobani, Moo - and the thread
12:00Graduating into the 2008 collapse with $200,000 of INSEAD debt
13:00"The hybrid between business and the creative side - that is my superpower"
14:20Did she have a plan? "Not a chance
15:30Professional karma and the value of doing good without a five-year plan
17:00Why gratitude is harder than it sounds, and why nothing can be taken for granted
19:00How Future of XYZ started as a LinkedIn interview series during the pandemic
21:00Season 8, nearly 170 episodes, booked through the end of the year
22:30Does running a podcast actually open doors? The honest answer
24:10iF's content pillars: trend report, online magazine, podcast
25:30The oyster farming episode - and why everything is designed
27:45Products, packaging, platforms, places, policies: the five Ps of design
29:00Design getting a seat at the board - is it real this time?
30:30The argument for leaving her consultancy and saying yes to iF
32:00Starting the consultancy in 2017 after Chobani, and the pandemic pivot
33:30Working on the Warner Brothers-Discovery merger as a solo practitioner
34:10"What do I have to lose?" - the moment she decided to take the role
36:00Change agents inside organisations vs. the consultant brought in from outside
37:30What Lisa learned at BCG about why consultants are actually hired
39:00As the consultant: "you could say what you needed to say"
40:00Advice for anyone about to become an internal change agent
41:30Stakeholder interviews, filling skill gaps, and the 90-day plan
43:30Launching the iF Design Academy in September 2024
45:00The gap the Academy was built to fill: design leaders without business tools
46:30Academy formats: seven-week hybrid, one-week AI course, two-day in-person
47:30The AI course: confident decision-making, not tutorials or tool demos
49:00AI at South by Southwest: "you're already too late"
50:00Senior executives mandating AI spend without a brief
51:00What exceptional design leadership looks like inside a hardware company
53:00Talent pipelines, sustainability, thinking across systems
54:00Sustainability resources and the upcoming iF Academy course in 2027
55:0020% of every iF Design Award score is sustainability, across all 93 categories
56:10Was design a real strategic priority at BCG, Adidas, Walmart, Chobani, and Moo?
57:30Founder-led vs. PE-backed: "don't go to a private equity company"
59:30Walmart: 98% of Americans within 10 miles - and design at the forefront
1:00:00The five Ps: products, packaging, platforms, places, policies
1:01:00What does iF Design USA look like in five years?
1:02:00Quickfire: fastest way to lose a design leader's respect in a meeting
1:03:00BCG Washington DC and the culture shock of leaving fashion behind
1:04:30Favourite recent product: the Volkswagen ID Buzz
1:05:30Insider jury detail from former VW Group design head's colleague
1:06:15Future of XYZ favourite episode: "I can't answer the question"
1:07:45Does Lisa listen back to old episodes? No - and she explains why not
1:09:00The Foster and Partners episode: "I geeked out so much it's not a great episode"