Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

I thought I would just share a quick blog after I attended a ‘Design to innovate’ workshop on my Phase 3 attachment with Aurecon today.

Aurecon is big multi-national company formed out of the merger of Africon, Connell Wagner and Ninham Strand in 2009. It’s main markets are Australia/NZ, Asia and parts of Africa. Its big selling point is that it claims to offer a different service from ‘all the other consultants out there’ and it has been described as the Google of the design world.

while I have initially been a bit cynical about this self styled approach, the quote I have titled this blog with came up in my workshop today and I thought it was quite good. The workshop then went on to explain the background to Aurecon’s thinking and introduced the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’, a concept which was new to me and one I thought worthy of sharing for those who haven’t come across it. Rather than try and explain it myself, the short 2 1/2 minute video below will give you the idea;

Aurecon are trying to provide the next level of service in design consultancy, by improving the client experience and pushing the boundaries of the traditional design service. An example of this is that they are actively identifying future issues in their market areas, designing against them and them approaching clients with a solution to a problem they don’t necessarily yet know they are going to have.

I am not yet 100% convinced how much of what they are offering is new (and given my lack of experience I have nothing to compare against), but am interested to see what I pick up over the next couple of months. Maybe everyone else consultant has a similar pitch..?!