Businesses Take a Page From Design Firms†

Sloan-Kettering Taps Industry for Innovative Ideas on Management, Dealing With Unexpected Rivals

Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2008 — When New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center wanted to make the chemotherapy process easier on patients three years ago, it sought help from an unusual place: the design firm IDEO Inc.

The IDEO consultants approached the problem the way they design eggbeaters or CD players: by closely watching patients and testing little changes.

The process delivered surprises. Clinic staffers thought patients disliked long waits for treatments. But patients said other worries were more stressful, so the clinic changed how patients are tested, how they learn about chemotherapy and how they get to the clinics.