China · Japan · San Francisco · Fortune Technology
Peng first joined IDEO in 2006 and spent a decade in Japan, helping launch the firm’s Tokyo office
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While he’s currently based in San Francisco, he’s still paying attention to design trends across Asia.
Key facts
- Before IDEO’s current CEO, Mike Peng, took over the agency last year, it had reportedly cut a third of its workforce, closed its Munich and Tokyo offices, and seen its revenue decline to less
- Last year, job postings in product design fell by 18%, and graphic design by 57%, according to Fast Company
- Even Chinese consumer brands, like Mixue, Luckin Coffee, and Pop Mart, are starting to break into markets like the U.S
- Yet while more than half of companies claimed they were customer-centric, only about 30% of surveyed leaders strongly agreed their teams had the autonomy to experiment or effectively balance short
Summary
Procter & Gamble’s standing toothpaste tubes. The design agency, founded in 1991, eventually grew beyond pure product design to, for example, revamp Ford’s EV factories. But, in recent years, the storied design agency has faced a crisis. Last year, job postings in product design fell by 18%, and graphic design by 57%, according to Fast Company. Before IDEO’s current CEO, Mike Peng, took over the agency last year, it had reportedly cut a third of its workforce, closed its Munich and Tokyo offices, and seen its revenue decline to less than $100 million, from $300 million four years prior. Human-centered design defined the San Francisco-based agency’s approach for almost four decades, shaping its pitch to boardrooms and its approach to products. “Customer centricity, the thing that IDEO has always stood for, seems like it’s table stakes now,” Peng tells Fortune.