The 150-year-old technical textiles company Scott & Fyfe has embraced design thinking and moved to employee ownership in the last decade, transforming its success and how it solves problems for customers worldwide.
Michaela Millar is Business Development Officer and a key champion of the commitment to design in every aspect of the company, without which, she says, “it is believed we would not have survived the last few years”.
“We weave, stitch, bond, knit, coat and print textiles that are used in carpet underlay backings, motorcycle helmets, irrigation pipe systems, yachts, waterslides and sanding discs, to name but a few,” Michaela adds, but it was working with Glasgow School of Art which fundamentally changed the company’s focus.
Approaching all aspects of the business as design problems “was hugely transformative for Scott & Fyfe”, she says. “By thinking like designers we began to communicate better with other companies, individuals and our colleagues. Instead of talking we started to listen, have empathy and collaborate.”
This approach extended to the redesign of the company’s working practices and the workplace itself, creating an Astroturfed innovation area where teams work in coloured “market-focused pods” focused on different markets and their challenges.
For Michaela the passion for design and creativity started early, with “getting into trouble” as an eight-year-old when she learned how to make a box from a single sheet of paper. “By the end of the weekend my bedroom had all but turned into a miniature production line. The boxes covered every part of my floor and I had no use for them at all!”
Studying textile design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design only deepened her fascination with different materials. “I find it amazing how yarn can be manipulated to become something completely different whether it is through the structure or by adding heat or moisture,” she adds.
Michaela believes that everyone can learn from the way designers work, with companies in particular needing a commitment to “fail fast” and create lots of prototypes that customers can interact with, test and criticise.
“It is a great way for companies to stay relevant and innovate,” she says. “Ultimately it gave us what we needed to create products that were commercially successful innovations as opposed to great products that no one cared about!”
Scott & Fyfe has many successful products, but Michaela is particularly proud of the “Alphashield range which includes seamless, glass fibre textile ‘socks’ which are fed into defective pipes deep underground and set in place to repair the damage.” This allows historic pipework to be repaired without massively disrupting towns and cities by digging huge holes.
“I think design matters as it has the power to positively impact people’s lives. When done well, it should seamlessly blend into people’s lives, improving them,” she adds.
Michaela is excited for the future of Dundee “which already has a very strong creative community but I feel V&A Dundee has the power to make design available to everyone, locals and businesses alike”. “It already has everyone talking and I can’t wait for it to open!”
For her passion for the importance of design in every aspect of how a company functions, and to acknowledge the huge success of the wider Scott & Fyfe team, we’re delighted to make Michaela a V&A Dundee Design Champion.
To find out more, please visit the Scott & Fyfe website.
The V&A Dundee Design Champions are inspirational designers creating high-quality work and helping to enhance people’s lives, or champions of the power of design to improve the world.
We will announce 50 Design Champions in the run-up to the museum opening on Saturday 15 September 2018.
V&A Dundee’s Design Champions project is working with Dezeen as its media partner.
Dezeen is the world’s most popular and influential architecture and design magazine, with an audience of 2.5 million unique visitors each month.
