On Saturday, July 10th, 2010, Mr David Butler, VP-Design, The Coca Cola Company addressed students at MDI about the business aspects of design, and the importance of viewing design, not as a way of affecting objects but as a way of thinking. Over the years, design has increased in significance, especially with the coming to age of emerging markets, and business implications thereof. Mr Butler focused heavily on the current capability of design to affect a customer’s buying decision. As a company, Coke manufactures simple products; however, design still goes a long way in distinguishing them from the competition. Considering the fact that Coke operates across 206 countries (which is larger than the presence of the UN!) designs today dictate the success of failure of both individual products, brands and the company as a whole. Design, however, has no contemporary definition. It seems subjective and often has multiple interpretations. Coke’s aim is to turn design from being subjective, elite, superficial and random to simplistic, synergetic, sharp and concrete. The priority of design has moved from being optional and object oriented, to critical and capability oriented. Due to technological changes and the allied changes in expectations, market dynamics have significantly changed, and Coke now has to compete with retailers’ own in-house brands, such as Walmart’s Great Value juices. Mr. Butler took students through Coke’s entire design history, and showed how design helped Coke become the brand it is. Stressing on the art of problem solving, he illustrated Coke’s earlier focus on vertical problem solving and its current transition to a horizontal and synergetic approach. He took students through Coke’s new design endeavours, explaining why each of them was significant. Overall, for Coke, design is the art of making things better. Mr Butler then took students through Coke’s Global Design Agenda, which is to define strategic value, create clear standards, design modular systems, develop own capability and measure effectiveness. The session culminated in a round of questions, which related to application of design to global markets, difficulty of making managerial decisions on design, importance of reinventing oneself while retaining the brand identity, etc.