Since NOVA design was founded in 1988, it has held on to its management philosophy of "Design creates value." After 16 years of hard work, NOVA design has become the largest product design company in the global Chinese circle. Its work involves product project design, and R&D in different fields, including automotive, motorcycle, household appliance, consumer electronics, information technology products, telecommunication and house ware.

Mr. Huang Guo-Huang, vice president of NOVA Design, pointed out that this company was at first invested by Chinfon Group,

mainly designing vehicles, such as motorcycles and automobiles. With a stable customer source in the beginning, NOVA had affluent resources for facility investment and technology development, which brought them a better competitive advantage. Huang also mentioned that NOVA's initial goal was to meet the Chinfon

Group's demand for design. It benchmarked from European and Japanese businesses, learned designing skills from topnotch Italian design companies, learned molding technology from top Japanese molding companies, invited European designers to give lectures and sent employees to study abroad. After five years of hard work, NOVA established a solid foundation for its development in designing and molding technology. Huang said that the first few years of NOVA's history, it rooted its technology foundation through learning from benchmarking. After its technology reached maturity, it extended its work from designing and developing vehicles to other fields, such as 3C products (Computer, Communication and Consumer) and other appliances.

Insisting on the Belief of Design Creates Value

NOVA has three beliefs from the beginning of its development. They are:

1. Design creates value: NOVA is devoted to transforming design into a high value added knowledge-based work through creating a model of adding high value on the designing profession. The company also devotes itself to creating high profits for products as well as designers.

2. Ceaselessly increasing the value of design: To improve the quality of works through continuous learning, and raise the added value of design through integrating resources, technology and process.

3. Create and cultivate the spirit of continuous learning in the team: NOVA selects and trains a team that identifies with the company's core philosophy.

In order to meet these three beliefs and reach a sustainable growth, NOVA, though in a field where creativity is highly valued, adopts similar strategic planning as businesses in other fields do. It also conducts more in-depth research at a more rapid pace.

Huang stressed that the factor which differentiates NOVA from other design companies is the efforts it has put into management. "We may be in the creativity industry; however, we believe that we can never overlook the nature of business management, which is to make a profit. Only a profiting business can draw more resources to better its development. This is a virtuous cycle," Huang said.

With increasing services and business volume, NOVA is taking more and more projects. NOVA has adopted the Project Management System to help the process and management of projects. In 1997, in order to better systemize and rationalize the operation process, and store all the Know how information, which our designers and technicians have in mind to read texts, NOVA decided to apply the ISO09001 Quality Management System into their business. Huang explained that the first half of design process is idea development. Creativity should not be limited. The second

half of design process involves product development and production. This part of process requires more prudence and needs to be systemized, standardized and rationalized. ISO9001 makes the quality standard clear as well as giving all employees the same concept, which is to stand in customers' shoes. Then, through the systemized document management and management system required by the ISO, dominant information within the company will be transformed into texts. Then dominant and recessive information will be combined together and stored as the intelligence capital of the business.

In 1998, NOVA design was ISO9001 certified. With this achievement, NOVA further pursued the National Outstanding Small and Medium Enterprise Award. To win this award, a company has to possess its own design ideas and techniques, as well as sound development in systems of production, sales, human resource, development and finance. In 2000, NOVA Design won this award, which affirmed the efforts it had made in its management.