Brigitte Borja de Mozota

Who is Brigitte Borja de Mozota?

Brigitte Borja de Mozota started her career in 1969 as a buyer in the Department Store chain “Au Printemps” and as an entrepreneur for an import company that specialized in distributing designer gifts and party goods. She believes that working with designers is what made her a better manager. Through that experience she was convinced of the importance of design in management and has made it her life’s goal to try to prove, convince, and share with people the “joy of working with designers.”

During her career she has been building and giving evidence that design is the profession of designers, a profession with skills and competencies that are useful in management. This point of view has come to be called “design management”. Through researching the value of design, synthesizing knowledge in Design management through books, starting international research networks, promoting the creation of DM masters programs, and teaching in their classes, she has shared internationally her conviction that design should be seen as a strategic competency for any business, country or institution.

Any human activity needs to be managed, requiring design, project management, budget and team management, not all of which are specific to the design profession. Her aim is to define what is specific to design skills, taking the viewpoint of the entrepreneur and the CEO: “how can we improve our business through design skills, using design input in branding, innovation and strategy but also in finances, customer orientation, human capital, intellectual capital and technology capital.”