The process where the problem solving and scientific thinking moves from disciplinary silos or domains to cross-disciplinarity, where phenomena are treated as unities that cannot be fully understood by breaking them into pieces that are studies just from one angle. Instead what is needed is true co-operation between experts and traditions of various fields. 

In the current societal, economical and cultural situation, good ideas and concepts have become the most essential intangible capital. The logic of continuous development was the means of operation in the industrial era, but it is no longer enough to survive the competition. Nowadays the competition has to be beat through innovation. There is a dire need for radical and systemic innovations.

There is no simple path to success. Life and the world are complex up to such a degree that success requires the right circumstances and timing just as well as precise and creative steps. However, it can be noted that creative concepts that connect different competences and different viewpoints increase in importance all the time.

Interviewees pointed out the need for comprehensive and non-silo thinking from the viewpoint of design as well as from the companies’ activities and service development processes in general.

“Breaking down silos and convergence of design fields will play a role in the future /.../.” [50]

“Reductions in silo-like thinking in companies make the use of comprehensive customer viewpoints possible.” [46]

“Change is born out of breaking down the barriers between the different fields of design as well as between design and other fields of expertise. In the future, there is no division in service development that follows the curricular borders of academic institutions. In working life, whole processes are planned from the customer viewpoint and the created service incorporates all the needed fields of competence. The value of service design is measured by the end result, by the created service per se.” [39]

“What’s needed is the ability to integrate various elements of a service to each other, the ability to integrate information systems to each other in order to streamline their usability and to advance their compatibility. Where information systems are concerned, this is a “common mantra” nowadays. Service integration means taking multiple issues simultaneously into consideration; this means that, for example, (randomly picking up issues from the list of fields used in the interview) architectural and multisensory design viewpoints have to be taken into account at the same time. In a sense, the integration of service elements is a form of art.” [33]

“We need more disruption, breaking of existing models of thinking and operational processes. We need some kind of a Derridian deconstruction of design; we need to smash The Vase designed by Alvar Aalto and glue the pieces back to form something new.” [42]

“The operational environment of small businesses is filled with just the same sort of service development challenges as larger companies. In big firms, comprehensive thinking about services from the customer viewpoint is more easily misguided because development activities take place quite a distance away from the customers. Various branches and professionals of different fields aim to optimize their own part of the service chain – perhaps without ever even meeting clients or other employees taking part in the production of the service. In the research department of big companies, there might be someone thinking things through from a customer perspective, but this information is not usually heard well enough in business or development activities. In other words, big businesses easily find themselves following signals from different channels separately from each other and thus create silo-like thinking even though clients only have a single customer experience: if the parking places are all taken or the lavatory smells dubious, the overall experience is bad even if everything else is done according to the highest standards.” [50]