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Not exactly, says Makorn Chaovanich, the managing director at Cerebrum Design.

"You also have to be very much concerned about marketing return and business payback," says the 31yearold, by which he means how much money you're going to make from the product.

"Cool ideas by themselves don't work."

Makorn's pragmatism stems from his seven years' experience at the Philips Research and Development Centre in Singapore, where he was the first Thai hired - and at 23 when he started there, its youngest designer ever.

"If the product is a flop it's easy to blame the designer, but the problem may have been in the marketing strategy."

It's the designer's responsibility to have more than clever ideas, Makorn says. He needs leadership skills and must be persuasive too.

"Every time you make a presentation you'll get questions from the people in engineering and marketing, trying to shoot your project down.

"You have to be able to answer all challenges with full confidence, and back up your idea with business sense. Never show any sign of hesitation."

Thai designers, he laments, "are taught mainly just to create things, not to be a leader or negotiator. When it's time to sell their idea, they just can't explain it."

At his own company, Cerebrum - they handle the IMobile phone - Makorn has branched out from product design into business development.

 

By Watchara Saengsrisin

The Nation