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A little practice and encouragement can quickly renew imagination, curiosity, and courage. Everyone is a creative type, but some are insecure about their abilities. People can do amazing things if they just learn a few creative thinking methods. Being innovative is all about learning a new process, trusting yourself to come up with unique ideas, and having the courage to try them out.

We interview very experienced and accomplished designers, who have spent years at these companies and are very well read and traveled. However, they do not have anything to share in terms of work, or case studies. Their main identity as designer has become the title they have at the company, and the brand of the company itself.

Designers need to understand the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is defined as the ability to accomplish something with the least amount of wasted time, resources, and effort. Effectiveness is the degree to which something successfully produces the desired result. Effectiveness is to do with impact.

Brands need to articulate a straightforward brand story, relatable vision statement, and relevant mission objective. Only when employees understand the brand will they think and act in specific ways to produce the results the company is seeking. Employees must internalize the organization’s purpose and values to make decisions that support those priorities. Ultimately they design and deliver on-brand customer experiences that strengthen the brand’s competitive position and build equity in the brand.

Firing a client is not easy. While the emotional weight of such a decision can be heavy, toxic client relationships could affect your growth. You have to learn how to fire a client without any consequences to your future.

While talking about acquiring new clients at my recent Design Management class at NID, a student asked how to fire a client. An excellent question! It doesn’t happen very often, given that you want to work with as many clients as possible, but not every client is a good one. Some clients affect you negatively, and you have to let them go. Before figuring out how to fire a client, it is essential to clarify which clients to fire.

The new year has become a time to make jokes about everyone’s resolutions. We tend to expect new year resolutions to fail, and most do. However, they usually fail because they are not the right resolutions. They are too vague, or someone tells you to change something, but you are not convinced, or you really don’t have a plan to execute the resolutions.

Though trust seems to be the foundation of being likeable, employable, awardable, and many other things in life, no one teaches us how to gain trust or become trustworthy. The internet, of course, is full of advice on how to build trust.

It is your response to winning or losing that makes you a winner or loser. Every award or competition will always have more winners than entries. This is so by design and this is what makes winning meaningful. This also raises the bar. Every year we see better work and presentations – more attention is paid to images and language. This was the main reason we started bringing out a dedicated winners’ issue. We also decided on a hardbound book format that can be retained as reference material. These books get read by many more people than an average DesignIndia issue.

Winners always respond in extreme ways – either a very confident “We knew we would win” or a disbelieving but ecstatic “We didn’t think we could win!”

I have been part of a business network for over a year now and have had the opportunity to observe hundreds of tiny businesses from very close. I’ve come to realize that business learnings from big companies could help these small businesses grow. One significant difference between big and small businesses is planning. Big businesses always plan and invest huge resources in getting ready for business. Most small businesses are acts of daring, and they start on the back of confidence and encouragement and not much else. Some of them succeed, but most remain small. It is like jumping into water because you are confident that you will get through to the other side.