Research ranks Bolton Clarke a design leader
Bolton Clarke has become the first Australian aged care provider to undergo benchmarking using a new Design Maturity Index which provides a basis for measuring the link between use of design and organisational success.
The not-for-profit health and aged care provider, which has implemented a deliberate focus on human-centred design under CEO Stephen Muggleton, was one of the highest ranking of 10 businesses across diverse sectors measured using a new Design Value Chain analysis tool developed by the Design Business Council.
The tool is tailored to the Australian market and was developed to show how small and medium-sized enterprises and not-for-profits can benefit from the use of design.
Previous research shows design thinking is at the core of business strategy in the top 5 per cent of companies.
The research launched on 29 May assessed design maturity in areas including inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales and customer service.
Bolton Clarke Chief Integration Officer Wendy Flavien said the result was testament to the work undertaken to design and deliver evidence-based services.
“One of our strategic objectives since 2016 was to transition to a customer-led organisation,” Ms Flavien said.
“Bolton Clarke used its increased size and scale to deliver on this objective and we believed human-centred design was the best platform to make the transition.”
The work began with the establishment of a multi-disciplinary design integration team, building human-centred design capability within the team and then within the business.
The approach has borne fruit through innovations including a state-of-the-art digital wall which is a world first in dementia care, a wearable device to detect loneliness and client cards that support home nurses to work with clients and write a card describing what matters to them and why. This then underpins individual approaches to support.
CEO Stephen Muggleton said Bolton Clarke continued to work hard to develop design thinking across the group, including growing a strong network of partnerships and collaborating with customers and experts to design services and solutions.
“Innovation that makes a difference starts and finishes with the customer,” he said.
“Our goal is to better support our customers with solutions that are supportive, respectful and above all individual.”
