Forty years ago, Thomas Watson Jr., chairman and chief executive of IBM during its most explosive period of growth, famously proclaimed, “Good design is good business.” Corporate America, however, barely looked up from its work. Except for a few mavericks such as IBM, Kodak, and Xerox, it would take years for design to move in from the fringes of business. But today, companies are creating products and services that delight customers with the grace of their fit and finish, and their exacting performance. Design, in short, is becoming an ever more important engine of corporate profit: It’s no longer enough simply to outperform the competition; to thrive in a world of ceaseless and rapid change, businesspeople have to outimagine the competition as well. They must begin to think—to become—more like designers.