Ben has worked with senior leaders of over thirty of the world’s largest companies: leading innovation, design and development on everything from jet engines to cars, from medical devices to coffee machines. The combined impact is billions of dollars in new revenue creation, and millions of users' lives improved.
He has often taken the co-CEO role of the new brand or product portfolio; growing it from rough concept to real business by assembling and leading McKinsey’s talent across research, design, engineering, manufacturing, project management and sales. A recent example was co-leading a disruptive new medical device start-up to improve tens of thousands of user lives. This included designing and developing physical devices, setting up a new robotic factory, as well as creating digital tools to improve clinician experience.
He has helped grow McKinsey’s design and development capabilities from their earliest stages to a global community of 400+ designers, 600+ engineers and several thousand design and development consultants, including acquisitions of LUNAR sand Veryday. He leads McKinsey's global research on design, as well as the Product Development and Design Practices in the UK. Together this community helps hundreds of clients design and launch world class products and services that delight customers, stand out from the competition and drive growth.
Ben co-founded and hosts the Chief Design Officers roundtable; a quarterly gathering of the world’s most senior design leaders, as a forum for global discussion on sustainable, inclusive growth. He also co-founded and chairs Design for Good, a non-profit alliance that aims to directly deliver measurable impact on society’s biggest challenges through global collaboration.
Published work
“Designers are critical to business performance, but there’s a big catch”, Fast Company, April 2022
“Founding members of Design for Good Alliance”, Sustainable Brands, April 2022
“Design for Good alliance”, Design for Good, April 2022
“Redesigning the design department,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022
“Made to measure: Getting design leadership metrics right,” McKinsey & Company, March 2021
“The Black Hole of Luxury Watch Repair,” The New York Times, April 2020
“Are you asking enough from your design leaders?,” McKinsey & Company, February 2020
“The luxury of time—Digitally enhanced experiences in an analog industry,” McKinsey & Company, April 2019
“How do you quantify the magic of design?,” McKinsey & Company, November 2018
“Good design is good for business, new study finds,” CNN, October 2018
“Ignore Design At Your Company’s Peril,” Forbes, October 2018
“Think Investing in Good Design Is a Waste? Think Again,” Metropolis, October 2018
“Consulting Firm McKinsey & Co. Takes On Design Strategy,” Wall Street Journal, October 2018
“This McKinsey study reveals what every business needs to know about design for 2019,” Fast Company, October 2018
“Good design is good for business, says McKinsey,” Dezeen, October 2018
“The business value of design,” McKinsey Quarterly, October 2018
“Designing a healthy future for medical devices,” McKinsey & Company, July 2018
“The changing face of medical-device design,” McKinsey & Company, February 2018
“More than a feeling: Ten design practices to deliver business value,” McKinsey & Company, December 2017
“Factory of the Future: exploiting advanced manufacturing technologies,” McKinsey & Company, October 2014
Videos
“The Business Value of Design,” Dezeen, October 2018
“McKinsey Design Index,” Vimeo, October 2018
Education
Institute of Engineering and Technology
FIET and C.Eng
Cambridge University
M.Eng