Year of the Rabbit!
Yep! 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit (in case you did not know!) and 2010 was the Year of the Tiger.
.....Hmm, probably best to focus on the Rabbit.
The Chinese calendar states that the personality traits of the Rabbit are as follows...

"Rabbit people are articulate and talented. They are virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste. Rabbit people are admired, trusted, and are often financially lucky. They are clever at business and being conscientious. Good luck just seems to come their way unbidden. Rabbit people can be very ambitious and intuitively know how to get ahead in the world. They have a good eye for art, design and fashion, and are usually at the top of anyone's Best Dressed list."

I found this description interesting in a business sense as it has quite an optimistic outlook on the year ahead with latter of the description referring to style and design!

        "...politics should not be left to just the politicians!
                 And the same can be said about design and the designers!"

Things have been hard the last couple of years in business but there is a lot of optimism out there when you look for it and can be seen in many businesses with products and services that are excellent. But! .....
There is something that could increase the value of products and services in these highly competitive times and that simply put is design. Design helps companies survive in tough times making them more competitive and giving them a stronger presence in the market.

In service design, things such as the manner in which business is done, how things are presented, and the follow through all can be designed to add value instead of just being passive parts of the service. With products, the effects of design can be more readily visible.

With the majority of companies cutting back on expenses, especially anything not relating to their core business there lies an opportunity, an opportunity begging to stand out among the competition. As we have seen in the last couple of years - politics should not be left to just the politicians! And the same can be said about design and the designers! When you invest in design it bring about a big gap between you and the competition, which it turn is cutting back on many expenses!

The year of the Rabbit tells us that its a time to be ambitious, smart and design savvy. Good design leads to competitive advantage. My rabbit ears are up and ready, are yours?