The Difficulties of Forecasting The Return on Design

In a February 2007 Fast Company article, “No Accounting For Design?,” by Bill Breen, Associate Professor of Accounting Julie Hertenstein and Professor of Accounting Marjorie Platt indicate that the work involved on forecasting the return on design is burdensome. “First, it's incredibly difficult to untangle design's contribution from all of the business drivers--engineering, manufacturing, distribution, marketing--that ultimately fuel a product's performance in the marketplace. Then there's the accounting problem: Design investments are immediately written off as expenses. Months (or years) later, when a product finally hits shelves, companies are loath to retrieve the data necessary to calculate returns,” says Professor Hertenstein and Platt.

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