Design Power Index tackles firms’ design value blind spot

Singapore’s new DPI framework aims to quantify design’s financial and social outcomes.

Singapore has launched what is being billed as the world’s first longitudinal framework to measure the economic and social impact of design, targeting a persistent problem for companies: design influences profit and growth, but most organisations cannot value it in financial terms.

Unveiled by the Design Business Chamber Singapore (DBCS) and global creative change firm Consulus at the inaugural World Design Business Forum, the Design Power Index (DPI) is positioned as a tool to help businesses make design decisions with the same rigour applied to other strategic investments.

“What we want to do is to be able to have a tool that is similar to green design that is used in ESG to help business leaders make very informed decisions, very objective financial decisions when it comes to use of design for profit and growth,” said Lawrence Chong, Group CEO of Consulus, CEO of DesignFutures Venture, and Secretary General of WDBO.

Chong pointed to the urgency of a measurement framework as companies face accelerating disruption. “Well as of now, if we talk about the economic transformation and the massive disruption that is brought about by artificial intelligence, we need a more scientific study on the role and impact of design in Business and Economics,” he said. The central gap, he added, is that “You can't do a financial valuation on the applied impact of design,” noting that “there is no such measure in the world right now.”

The DPI measures how design is applied to deliver business and societal outcomes, including profit growth, market expansion, customer loyalty enabled by technology, and social impact. Chong said the index focuses on applied results rather than design practice, using an approach comparable to how climate-linked metrics evaluate value creation.

Peer Mohideen Sathikh, Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, said DPI is framed not just as a problem-solver, but as a value proposition for organisations. “Rather than solve a problem, it's putting forward a proposition of how design can bring value, not just in terms of economic value, but also in terms of the way it is perceived by people,” he said, adding that DPI introduces “effectiveness” as a core dimension.

On which DPI metrics most influence competitiveness, Sathikh said “design thinking and design strategy” are likely to matter most, reflecting how organisations embed design into decisions and execution.

For low scorers, Chong said the framework pushes companies to assess three areas: how they identify design’s value, how they implement design to drive growth and impact, and the scale of outcomes delivered. He said this helps firms evaluate design “more objectively, rather than in very vague terms,” shifting away from “just design is beautiful, towards design as an economic… benchmark.”

Sathikh said organisations with limited design capability should start with partnerships. “If the company is small, I would say collaborations with designers and design groups would place them strategically better,” he said, whilst larger firms should revisit how design influences output, marketing, and media perception.