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Some of the momentum originates in firms offering distinctive techniques: IDEO and Frog, Thinkpublic and Engine have been amongst the pioneers, alongside some public bodies, such as SITRA in Finland with its Helsinki Design Lab, the Design Council in the UK and Region 27 in France, or umbrella organizations like the Design Management Initiative and collaborative programmes like DESIS. Interest in these various methods has grown in tandem with rising interest in social innovation.

Within the public sector the imperative to improve user experiences has combined with acute pressures to raise productivity. Within business the fact that a growing slice of the economy is made up of social industries, such as health, care, education and the environment, has persuaded many of the imperative to develop different models of innovation to those that worked in fields like microprocessors or pharmaceuticals. Add into …