Here are some definitions:

Tim Brown of IDEO has written that design thinking is “a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.”

– Tim Brown,”Design Thinking.” Harvard Business Review, June 2008. p. 86

“Design Thinking attempts to inspire the essential element of creativity, the ability to take an abstract idea and create something with it. … A big part of the [concept] involves empathy for those you are designing for.” – Reuven Cohe

“Design thinking” — a human-centered, prototype-driven process for innovation… – The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

• Wiki definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking

For this criterion, design thinking is referred to as a strategy to deliver financial value to a product, or service. Whether in the form of adding value to a business model, creating a new market, re-defining a product’s value-proposition.

Some examples of a design strategy adding value to the production chain include: On-demand services, like Spotify (music), Uber (logistics), or Airbnb (hospitality) re-defining their previously established production chains. In the case of Airbnb, re-defining the need for owning hotel buildings and related production chains; or Uber, operating fleets without owning the fleets.