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Pantech regroups after a too-close focus on design

By squirrelbait - April 12, 2007

in Object Culture | design.edu | Design Business

BusinessWeek reports on the revival efforts of Korean cellphone manufacturer Pantech after seeing no returns from their 3-year hardcore focus on design. This included semester-long collaborations with students at the California College of the Arts, where students walked away with real-world industry experience and Pantech gained insight into the uninhibited mind of the student. The resulting concepts yielded design awards and some media attention, but to Pantech's dismay, they did not produce revenue.

For its part, Pantech was also reminded of the need to keep one eye on its core business at all times: The semester-long project may have resulted in a series of interesting prototypes and new ways of thinking about mobile communications, but its conclusion also saw the company being put into a debt-rescheduling program by creditors. A $613 million rescue package was announced at the end of March. Chief Executive Officer and Co-President Sung-Kyu Lee resigned earlier this month.

Read the article and view a slideshow of the Pantech/CCA concepts here.

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Adam Richardson

17 years ago

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This is a sloppily written article I'm afraid to say. It implies three things which a reading of the full BW article do not bear out:
1. That the CCA collaboration led to the massive financial losses at Pantech
2. That the students were expected to create shipping products that resulted in revenue.

#2 should never be true when doing a sponsored project in a design school setting, otherwise the company is simply using the students as sources of free ideas that they should be paying market rate for. And the school should not be allowing it to happen. Behar's existing professional relationship with Pantech possibly blurs that distinction, which is potentially concerning.
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