One of Australia’s largest industrial design consultancies, Design+Industry, signed a A$10 million joint venture with leading United States design company, Smart Design, in 2009 to create product designs for the healthcare market.
Both companies have over twenty years experience in the development of globally competitive design solutions.
Design+Industry is an industrial design consultancy with offices in Sydney and Melbourne. They are able to undertake large and technically complex projects from concept through to production covering a range of sectors such as medical, business, consumer, and environmental products.
Smart Design, a multi-disciplinary design consultancy headquartered in New York, is considered one of the top product design companies in the world and known in the US market for creating category changing consumer products. It has a client list that includes some of the best known brand names in the world.
Benefiting both companies
Murray Hunter, founder and CEO of the Sydney-based Design+Industry, said that bringing together the two design industry leaders benefits both companies.
“The Smart Healthcare Joint Venture means that we can offer clients the expertise of over 125 skilled designers and engineers – which is quite exceptional. Together, we have the consumer savvy, the design intelligence, and the proven track record to change the basis of competition for our clients.”
Mr Hunter said that the Smart Healthcare Joint Venture’s on-board expertise includes specialists in front-end opportunity development, user experience design, ergonomics, interaction design, and biomechanical engineering.
“With FDA compliance firmly established, the team is well equipped to deliver end-to-end strategic design services for clients in evolving healthcare consumer market.”
Mr Hunter said Austrade had been a considerable help to Design+Industry in getting this deal in place.
“Austrade assisted us with market intelligence, analysis and in identifying real relationship opportunities for business expansion,” he said.
“Through Austrade’s Sydney and New York networks of on-the-ground international contacts, they were able to link us with the most suitable candidates.”
Mr Hunter said that Australian companies such as Design+Industry often face daunting odds when approaching overseas markets.
“The advice we received from Austrade over a number of years, and the assistance we received in the form of an Export Market Development Grant, not only reduced our overall financial investment but also made offshore markets more attainable and well within reach.”
Simon Hill, Austrade’s New York-based Senior Business Development Manager, said the design industry around the world is surprisingly compact and very particular when it comes to sharing intellectual property.
“In addition, successfully entering the US is dependent on other key factors such as strong understanding of business culture, targeted strategic research and persistence,” Mr Hill said.
“However, with the assistance of my colleague David Howard, Austrade’s NSW and ACT State Manager, we were able to find a suitable US partner which shared the same synergies and business strategy.
“It's a tribute to Design+Industry’s internationally recognised skills that leading US design companies wanted to engage with them,” Mr Hill said.
Case study courtesy of the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)
Related Links
Austrade - www.austrade.gov.au
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14 July 2009