DESIGN MANAGEMENT AS CRUCIAL CREATIVE ESSENCE FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to work with a proposal that small and medium-sized enterprises are aware of the importance of design and also attribute an important role to it in the competition in the future. Is design really a company’s potential and will it be of greater importance to companies? The approach is based on theoretical sources and completed studies dealing with design management and its relation to prosperity. Two hypotheses, that verify the thesis, are statistically tested on the significance level 0.05. Practical implications confirm the thesis and undisputedly support the issue of the importance of design for business success in small and medium-sized enterprises. Both in the area of increasing the competitive potential and the increasing importance in the future. Therefore, future commercial impact is proven by statistical tests. The originality of the article lies primarily in the data freshness in connection with the cur-rent economic situation. There is a prediction that the Czech gross domestic product is at its peak and significant growth is not expected. It means that this is the last opportunity for companies to prepare for hyper-competition. One of the power that companies have at their disposal to assure a place in the market is design management.