Two Leaders Transform Fortune 500 Giants Through Design Thinking

Businesses often face challenges in adapting to changing market demands, but leaders like Phil Gilbert at IBM and Tony Bynum at Northwestern Mutual have successfully navigated these waters by embracing design thinking as a transformative tool. Their innovative approaches have not only reshaped their companies but also redefined the way employees engage with their work.

Phil Gilbert joined IBM in 2010 after the company acquired his software firm, Lombardi. Initially feeling out of place, he recognized that IBM needed to embrace a new way of thinking to drive cultural change among its vast workforce of 400,000 employees. Speaking at Fortune Brainstorm Design in Macau, Gilbert reflected on his early doubts: “I pretty much knew that I was a square peg in a round hole.”

In 2012, after being appointed general manager of design, Gilbert took bold steps to integrate design thinking across the organization. He faced a significant challenge: motivating a large workforce without direct authority over them. Rather than adopting a conventional top-down approach, Gilbert conceptualized the change initiative as a product, positioning IBM as a marketplace and its teams as customers. His strategy emphasized empathy and achieving user outcomes, allowing employees to opt-in to the process.

This approach fostered a sense of ownership among employees. “It gives them agency and having agency makes all the difference,” he explained. As a result, design thinking became a central framework at IBM, leading to the recruitment of over 1,000 designers who collaborated with engineers and developers. The outcomes included accelerated product development cycles, improved project alignment, and quicker product launches.

At Northwestern Mutual, Tony Bynum recognized the need for a cohesive approach to design thinking. In 2020, he established the company’s Design Thinking Center of Excellence to unify the diverse methods and tools being used across various teams. Bynum emphasized the importance of shifting focus from outputs to outcomes, likening traditional methods to blind men attempting to understand an elephant by feeling different parts. “We’re all touching the same elephant and every person’s perspective has merit and value in reconstructing the elephant,” he stated.

Now serving as the director of the Institute for Design’s new ID Academy in Chicago, Bynum advocates for “dexterity” as a crucial trait for leaders in today’s complex environment. He described this concept as the ability to perform while simultaneously transforming processes through design-led capabilities.

Bynum also pointed out that successful leaders must embody humility. He shared, “A successful leader in a culture of change requires humility, bar none.” Gilbert echoed this sentiment, stating that humility is essential for driving cultural transformation. “We need humility first with ourselves, and then with our users,” he said.

The journeys of Gilbert and Bynum illustrate the power of design thinking in large organizations. Their emphasis on empathy, collaboration, and user-centered outcomes not only transformed their own companies but also set a precedent for others seeking to navigate the complexities of modern business. By prioritizing these values, they have shown that effective leadership in today’s world requires both adaptability and a deep understanding of human experiences.