Shimon Shmueli, IDSA, and Claire-Juliette Beale, IDSA, have founded Touch360, a multi-disciplinary strategic design firm that will be based in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
According to Shimon, "Right from the start our approach is to leverage on global trends and new thinking in design and product development that we passionately believe in. No big revolutions, just building it into the firm from day one. We look at the total customer-product experience, the relationships between the customer and the product, how they interact, and the product's function and form. We design the product outside in, by defining what the experience should be, and then going to the lower layers, and not the other way around where you build the basic product and then build the layers around it. Most importantly, we will emphasize the h-word (holistic) in everything we do, taking a deep look at and designing every aspect of the experience and the relationships among all aspects"
According to Claire-Juliette, "Looking at the needs of the many companies that need to escape commoditization by differentiating their products and grow by expanding into new markets, it has been clear that we need to build global thinking into our firm. Frankly, it has been quite easy so far with a French, an Israeli, a German, and two Brazilians, so we hope we are off to a good start. It is more than just language, it is a mind set, thinking, strategy, and everything we do, so we just call it our Global DNA."
Shimon Shmueli has held leadership positions in marketing, strategies, and new product development and design at IBM: PC products, ThinkPad line of consumer notebooks and accessories, and new mobile platforms. He led innovation in many areas, among them the creation of the USB Flash Drive product category, the IBM UltraPort, home servers and media center, beyond-the-box integration of services and products, and mobile computing usability.
Claire-Juliette Beale brings 15 years of experience in management consulting: McKinsey, KPMG Peat Marwick, and Cannon Associates (ATKearney). Most recently a Director, Business Development with Bresslergroup, she is a founding member of Global Market Insite Inc. where she has launched and championed new software products and services for consumer research, and worked with global market research firms and their clients to secure critical consumer insights.