Design management

"Simply put, "design management" is the business side of design. Design management encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications, environments, and brands that enhance our quality of life and provide organizational success." 
This means that design management is not limited on a single design discipline. In his 'Classification of Design' (1976), Gorb divided design into three different classes; design management operates in and across all three categories:
Design management is not independent from the organization and product context, and plays three integrative key roles in the interface of design, organisation and market:
Supportive activities are used in design management to manage design more efficient ('doing the things right') and effectively ('doing the right things'). Depending on a multitude of factors (such as industry, company size, design focus, market situation and the position / role of design within the company), design managers have a broad range of job profiles, with very different roles, activities and responsibilities.
Historical development.
It is difficult to exactly trace the history of design management. Even though design management as an expression is first mentioned in literature in 1964, earlier contributions created the context in which design management could arise. Throughout its history design management was influenced by a number of different disciplines (e.g. architecture, industrial design, management, software development, engineering) and movements (e.g. system theory, design methodologies) and in its understanding it can be attributed neither directly to design nor to management.
Historical development of design management: 
Design Management Hierarchy.
Design management can be divided by its different fields of application into the three different levels:
Further reading.
Books