DBA board changes to head up business plan

Changes in the way the Design Business Association’s board operates will form the core of the association’s business plan for 1996.

Specific responsibilities will be allocated to each of the DBA’s 12 board members as part of a plan to “create a flat structure of responsibility at the association”, according to DBA chairman Jonathan Sands.

“I’ve created a sort of round table of directors to form an interactive and highly accountable board structure that is democratically driven to deliver membership value,” he says.

The move comes as part of efforts to make the DBA a “more active and vibrant” authority within design.

“We should be an active and important partner to all those organisations which have complementary remits, such as The Design Council, the Chartered Society of Designers, British Design and Art Direction and The Marketing Council, and this is the most efficient way to achieve that,” says Sands.

Areas of responsibility include best practice, technology, membership and export.

The association is also hoping for staff expansion, including employing a full-time export expert to co-ordinate all export work for the DBA.

New DBA initiatives for 1996 also include putting the DBA and its members on the Internet as well as on to CD-ROM. “Having spoken to a lot of people, especially at Comdex, CD-ROMs are increasingly being used by businesses and are fast becoming a very popular medium,” says DBA chief executive Ian Rowland-Hill.