The 600-square-meter "museum" at Italian commercial design firm Alessi outside Milan contains 10,000 to 11,000 objects and more than 25,000 draft designs. These are not failures. Some of them are old products and original handmade prototypes.

And some of them are excellent designs that have not been put into production — yet. These products have either pushed the limits of sensibilities or, more often, technology, so they cannot be produced. Of the roughly 200 other great Alessi designs that escape the museum to make it into the marketplace every year, the odds are still not good. Maybe some 5 to 10 are hits, 5 to 10 do moderately well, and the rest are market flops. Even for one of the world's most successful design houses, recognizing and realizing good design requires a lot of experimentation.

Alessi's designs are created by a diverse group of more than 200 leading designers from around the world, who bring passion to ordinary products such as lemon squeezers, tea sets, and espresso machines. "Our mission is to put into the market some objects of real design at a cost that a large number of people can support," said Carlo Ricchetti, Alessi's head of production, who will be leading a session of the Wharton Fellows Master Class on Design, Innovation, and Strategy in Northwest Italy in September 2005.

Putting Design First

While some companies use design as ornamentation or to enhance marketing, for Alessi, design drives the process. Alessi designers move first and then engineering, operations, and marketing try to make the idea a reality.

"We would not change the idea of the designer for cost reasons," Ricchetti said. "If we can produce it exactly as the designer thought, we put it in our catalog. If not, the designs go to the museum. To me, design means to follow the ideas of the designer and change the technological limits to achieve the idea." Sometimes products are brought out of the museum into production after 2, 5 or even 8 years — when a technical challenge has been resolved or a market has opened.

How does Alessi decide what designs to produce? The design decisions are made by an executive committee that helps to mold these very diverse languages into something recognizable as "the hand of Alessi." Although the designers are very different, there is a coherence to the entire catalog. "Armani is Armani," said Ricchetti. "There is a certain way of making a dress. Alessi has many different lines, but it comes together in a common feeling, a common hand, a common aura."

Going to the Edge Without Falling Off

In describing the process of discovering great design, Ricchetti draws a line on a paper representing the "edge of the Earth." Far to the left of the line are the common products that do not go anywhere near the edge. Successful design products are right at the edge — but some will inevitably fall off. "The object of good design is to go to the limit without going off the edge," Ricchetti said. "The problem is that we don't know exactly where this border line is, and it is different from one nation to another."

Because this line is hard to pin down, there are many surprises at the edge. A creatively designed lemon squeezer seemed like it would have little demand. There wasn't a huge market for lemon squeezers, the price was too high, and there were many other good alternatives. But Alessi decided in 1990 to market it anyway. It became one of its hit products, selling more than 100,000 units in the first few months. "It is an object that people buy for the sensoriality [a passionate reaction to the object] or for memory. The object opened into the mind of the people. I'm sure not many people bought this object to squeeze lemon juice."

For every success like the lemon squeezer, there are many failures. For example, Alessi decided to create a playful and shocking, phallic-shaped lighter for gas ranges. The product, the "Firebird," didn't evoke a strong market response but did ignite the ire of the Catholic Church in Italy. It was pulled from the market. Ricchetti said this may be due in part to the fact that the design was developed during a more upbeat economy but hit the market as the economy was turning serious. It is also a reflection of the fact that products that are on the line will often cross over the edge.

How does a company that sells in 70 different countries meet the challenge of diverse global tastes? Its eclectic offerings help. "Not all countries buy all the catalog," Ricchetti said, "but with more than 3,000 items in the catalog, there is usually something that appeals to everyone." Alessi draw its designs from designers around the world, so there is great diversity in languages and approaches. "Design is international," he said. "The sensibilities of people are more and more transferable." Customers divide more along the lines of loving a particular designer than on national lines. "People who love Michael Graves may dislike Marc Newson," he said.

Transforming the Organization

As remarkable as its transformation of mundane products into objects of art, perhaps even more remarkable is Alessi's own transformation from a manufacturer into one of the factories of Italian design. "The core competence was no longer just to realize or manufacture an object but rather an organizational capacity to work with design and good distribution for design objects," Ricchetti said. Alessi carried this expertise into products from tea sets to toilet brushes, from cat dishes to clocks. They also moved from stainless steel into a wide range of other materials.

Ricchetti said it helped that the company was fairly small at the end of the 1970s. As they built up their design capabilities, they hired a large number of new employees. The company became a young company that was built for design. As it brings new designers into the organization, the museum is used as an educational tool. Designers can absorb the full range of the company's work — success and failures. It helps to transfer culture and convey a sense of the Alessi approach to design. "We use the archive museum for designers who want to work with us to encourage them to experiment with new ideas and appreciate the value of good ideas."

Related Links

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• Design, Innovation, and Strategy

• Wharton Executive Education
• The Wharton School

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