Focusing efforts towards positive impacts

Design and innovation know-how is gaining in strategic importance, which means it also gains more responsibility and potential social and environmental impact. EGGS’ purpose – formulated as Let’s Craft Lovable Futures - describes the positive impact that we want design and innovation to have. How do we translate this into real, actionable deliveries in our projects? Part of the answer lies in EGGS’ missions.

“In summary, our three missions represent a new focus for our design and innovation efforts. Our three missions are there as our guiding stars, for new and old EGGS, for clients and partners.”

Jan Walter Parr, Chief Creative Officer, EGGS Design

A way to structure our focus without being rigid

We have summarised the challenges we believe represent our biggest potential positive impacts into three main missions for EGGS Design:

Inclusive and seamless health and welfare
Greener, safer and smarter industries
Smart and sustainable connected living

In each of these phrases lies a shared understanding of certain challenges, project types, and potential impacts. Over the past years, design has matured and projects are now more complex, and design is in the driver’s seat and expected to deliver impact. Using the same recipe across all industries won’t cut it. We need to acknowledge the value of industry knowledge to bring design effect to the next level, and our missions represent the areas where we have the most value to add. None of them are new to EGGS – on the contrary they represent what we’re best at.

We used the Ikigai model to help us identify our missions. We’re are not talking about the traditional “Vision, Mission, Goals” type of missions – rather a way to coin the main challenges ahead, which will require many coordinated efforts to reach. Much in the way that Horizon Europe uses the term.

How do we use our missions?

1. Angling projects

The missions are there to remind us of the bigger picture – the trends and the possibilities that our clients navigate through – to help us angle projects to achieve maximum benefit. There’s no project in the world that wouldn’t benefit from having clear ambitions for social, economic or environmental positive effects. And, if a project doesn’t have such an agenda, we should permit ourselves to help put that agenda in place. As designers, our power (and responsibility) lies in guiding projects in the right direction. Design is not a brake pedal, but a steering wheel.

2. Prioritising capabilities and position

We’re faced daily with a number of situations requiring prioritisation where the missions should guide our choices. Some topics require long-term planning – such as new markets or partnerships to engage in, new strategic relationships with clients, or opening new offices. Other situations are more immediate, such as which job applicant to choose, which call-for-tender to respond to, or which events to attend or create. Over time, having missions to guide these choices will help us build the capabilities and position needed to gain more impact. Different market domains require special skills, capacities, knowledge, technologies and ways of rigging and running projects that don’t come by themselves.

Our missions represent areas where we already have accumulated hundreds of thousands of hours of experience and solid market presence, but also where we still have lots to learn and build.

1. Inclusive and seamless health and welfare

The population grows, we are getting older, and we get more complicated diseases. The pressure on health and welfare services rises. To maintain the welfare state as we know it, health and welfare services must be provided differently, and more efficiently. New thinking is needed - and the change must take place now. The different public and private sectors must work together on all levels of government, to create coordinated future health and welfare services to citizens. With our expertise, we in EGGS can help ensure that tomorrow's solutions and services, are inclusive and seamless, meeting the users in perhaps some of their most vulnerable moments in life. Read more about our mission 1 here.

2. Greener, safer and smarter industries

The industrial and B2B sectors are faced with huge challenges, and opportunities. Here, we find the ocean and maritime industries, but also the energy sector, manufacturing, ports, logistics, and agriculture. Many of the businesses in these sectors are made up of intricate, global ecosystems where the drivers for change are sustainability and circular economy, digitalisation, automation, and new regulations. But change is slowed down by complexity, risk, regulations, safety concerns, and conservatism. There is great potential in working with design and innovation here, and solving the interconnected challenges can create huge positive impacts. Read more about our mission 2 here.

3. Smart and sustainable connected living

This third mission is about what you and I do during our everyday lives – travelling to work, going to the store, fixing our house, and having fun. More and more, the things we do as “consumers” is made possible by smart and connected services – powered by tech.In this mission, we’ll be working with physical and digital consumer products, banks, mobility actors, and smart homes. Common for them all is their search to become beloved tools in our daily lives, that bring us towards lovable and more sustainable ways of living. Read more about our mission 3 here.

In summary, our three missions represent a new focus for our design and innovation efforts. Our three missions are there as our guiding stars, for new and old EGGS, for clients and partners. Come on, join us - let’s work together to solve the challenges!