Better by design inspiring companies

From the first hospital bed he built in his New Plymouth workshop, grew a highly successful business manufacturing top-quality medical beds and stretchers for sale in New Zealand and Australia. Fifty years on, Howard Wright Limited faces aggressive international competition and superb engineering alone is not enough to maintain market share and increase revenue.

To strengthen the small, privately owned company, Howard Wright Limited participated in the Design 360 programme in 2005. CEO, Bruce Moller, says the Company had reached a crossroads and welcomed a design-led approach. It had well engineered products, but this did not translate into a price premium.

“We were good engineers, but we weren't necessarily good industrial designers and marketers.”

A key recommendation of the Design 360 assessment was introducing industrial design expertise to the Company. The purpose was to balance predominantly engineering design skills with industrial design knowledge and thereby increase product value and price commensurate with quality.

Howard Wright Limited has hired its first industrial design graduate, and continues a strong ongoing mentor relationship with Peter Haythornthwaite who was part of the Design 360 assessment team. The Company's credentials in precision engineering and industrial design will be on display in 2008 when it launches two new products to the market.

Core to the Design 360 assessment, is the requirement for the Company to rethink the long-term vision, understand where the future opportunity lies and to rebuild the business around this.

Howard Wright Limited's brand centers on caring for others - being motivated by user empathy. “There are many users of our products and many people who interface with them. Our whole focus and the way we do things is about making sure we put ourselves in their shoes,” says Bruce Moller.

Marketing the Company according to its newly defined opportunity was another significant recommendation from the Design 360 assessment. A re-branding process is underway with brand design company Studio Alexander in Auckland and will be launched by mid-2008.

Future business plans focus on consolidating the Company's position in the Australian market, where the population continues to grow. Howard Wright Limited has been selling directly in Australia for six years and this market now generates over half the Company's turnover. Going forward, it is exciting to be the only medical bed and stretcher company in Australasia with a world-class design team committed to making human care easier.

“We are on the spot with our customers and can offer them something others can't.” says Bruce Moller. “In the last two years, we have developed a unique design language.  Everything we do is simple, smart and human.”