Vol. 7 Presenter: Matt Smith
Presenting
Decoupling Profit, Purpose & Value
Summary
America privileges profit. Considered by some to be an incentive for innovation and others an excuse for bad behavior, profit is broadly understood as essential to our American and global economies. But what if profit’s necessity is a myth and its pursuit is preventing us from exploring powerful alternatives? This talk will explore profit’s conceptual underpinnings, how profit can perpetuate perverse incentives in architecture, and how hybrid organizational structures and impact-based design practice can create value without privileging profit.
Bio
Matt Smith is a Managing Director at MASS Design Group where he co-leads the Santa Fe Studio and Research & Development. From 2015 to 2019 Matt oversaw global operations, using organizational design to guide MASS’s growth from 35 employees to now over 120. In his new role, Matt is developing Design Labs, scaling new ventures across the organization, and building new partnerships in the American West.
Originally from Montana, Matt has a passion for rural community development and is interested in ways design can strengthen community capital, enable civics, and convene dialogue around critical issues of economic disinvestment, climate change, and community identity.
Matt holds a Masters in Development Practice from Columbia University where he was the recipient of the U.S. Department of Education’s Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. Matt was also the recipient of a David L. Boren Fellowship, studying Kiswahili and entrepreneurial development programs in East Africa after graduating from Montana State University where he studied Business Management and Ethics.