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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
How to leverage the enduring human need for analogue experiences to attract and retain more customers in a digital world. Anything that can be digitised will be digitised. But can the digital-connect ever really replace the personal touch? Is word-of-mouse always more effective than word-of-mouth? And what of customers' enduring need for analogue experiences (think analogue watches, paperback books and multiplex movie theatres, for example). In your rush to embrace your customers' digital mind are you ignoring an equally valuable asset: their analogue heart? Better yet, how can you leverage the analogue heart to provide your company or brand with an unbeatable competitive edge? The answer, according to internationally acclaimed futurist, Anders Sormon-Nilsson is Digilogue -- the "translational sweet-spot, the convergence of the digital and the analogue." A book that will revolutionise how you do business in a digital world, Digilogue provides powerful insights, strategies and tools to help you provide value to digital minds, while connecting with analogue hearts.
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Digilogue : how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customers
Table of Contents
The futurist, John Naisbitt, introduced us to the idea of high tech and high touch. We are now introduced to a contemporary replacement for that old and once useful concept — digital dialogue — the meeting of the digital mind and the analogue heart. Let yourself be provoked by these ideas in order to come up with your own business solutions . . . or watch from the sidelines while others relegate you to the past.
— Dr Stephen Lundin, Author of Fish!
As a fighter in the digital revolution, I’ll concede that Digilogue understands what few on my side are willing to acknowledge: there is beautiful, emotional value to old-school analogue ways. The answer for business owners and marketers is to understand both worlds and utilise the best of each to reach and engage your customers. Digilogue provides you with the perfect roadmap.
— Dina Kaplan, co-founder of Blip.tv, Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs and Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Web 2.0
In a world where digital is disrupting everything from retail to media to travel at an accelerating rate, companies have to ask the tough question ‘Are we facing our Kodak moment?’ Digilogue is a valuable guide to anyone who wants to address this challenge, providing practical ideas on how to reinvent businesses of all shapes and sizes in the digital tsunami of change.
— Rachel Botsman, TEDster and 2013 Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
As we make the shift to digital products and new distribution and service models, the friction of old high touch processes sometimes clash dramatically with new, more efficient high-tech engagement models. It’s clear from Anders’ latest book that this transition is not a simple on/off state, or a choice of one over the other. Digilogue is a great platform for nuancing the balance of this transition.
— Brett King, Banking Futurist and Founder of Moven
Futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson’s Digilogue offers excellent insights on how to deal with these forces, how to embrace change and how to exploit the opportunities it offers — a must read for every business leader!
— Jan Pacas, Managing Director, Hilti Australia
The digital evolution has transformed the way in which we bank — who would have thought 20 years ago, customers would be able to communicate with their bank online or more radically, purchase a banking product online? The traditional analogue branch experience is now a convergence of the customer’s journey in the digilogue world. The best time to develop your strategic response to the digital disruption was yesterday. The next best time is today — ignore at your peril!
— Matt Janssen, Head of Retail Lending, Bank of SA, Westpac Group
Digilogue shows us that there is not a stark dichotomy when it comes to choosing either a digital (clicks) or analogue (bricks) strategy. Instead, those brands that are able to create an authentic and masterful blend of the two will be the ones to survive over the long term. Anders Sörman-Nilsson helps us upgrade our thinking to ride the wave of digital disruption while paying homage to the analogue past that continues to engage the customer’s heart.
— Richard Ruth, Consultant — HR, Eli Lilly & Company
At Hong Kong Broadbank Network, when we look into the digital future, we turn to Anders as our guide. Anders’ global perspectives, as articulated in this book, allow us to learn from other people’s experiences without having to go through the ups and downs ourselves.
— Niq Lai, Head of Talent Engagement & CFO, Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited
We all want to be part of the customer engagement revolution through the digital world but many of us still want to retain the relationships we have so carefully developed. So how do we integrate the heart and minds of the physical with the seemingly expedient digital world? Digilogue gives us a platform on how to consider this confronting and disrupting challenge. We at People’s Choice Credit Union have embraced this thinking and are evolving our business to ensure we embrace both the past and the future into a seamless digital analogue relationship with our customers.
— Peter Evers, Managing Director, People’s Choice Credit Union
Anders Sörman-Nilsson links the past with the future to show how business models continue to be disrupted. His magic is to personalise and embroider insights into the business recommendations using his own family history and personal stories. The reality of how technology, speed of interactions and relationships are rapidly evolving and driving innovation is softened and brought to life in an engaging way through the writer’s genuine, personal and heartfelt touch.
— Petrina Conventry, Chief Human Resources Officer and Director at Santos
In the great tradition of Swedish diplomats, Anders has shown us a middle path in which atoms and bits stand united and where we can compromise between the heritage of the past and the promises of the future. Digilogue is an inspiring, insightful manifest for everyone who claims to be a 21st-century business leader.
— Magnus Lindkvist, Futurologist
There is a palpable panic present in the business world as the digital revolution transforms how we connect, transact and share ideas and ideals. As a futurist, Anders Sörman-Nilsson understands the impact of this change and where it is taking us from and to, but more importantly, he understands the need for high touch in a high tech world. If you want to remain relevant and impactful in the economy of the future, Anders’ thinking is priceless.
— Dan Gregory, CEO, The Impossible Institute
While new innovation drives the growth of our company, the way we communicate with our customers remains predominantly analogue . . . The Digilogue strategy map provides the catalyst to transform how we now operate in our everyday lives, into our everyday business. At the same time, Anders reminded me that we need to leverage our analogue touch-points to also forge emotional connections through these new digital channels.
— Marketing Executive, Fortune 500, Pharmaceutical Company
Digilogue neatly lays out the need for an enhanced sense of urgency amongst senior executive ranks when it comes to corporate strategy development . . . If you’re a senior executive and haven’t tooled up on disruption then you’d best get busy — start with Digilogue. Anders once again does a great job in bringing these critical corporate insights into focus in a manner which is both easy reading and full of practical roadmaps for the application of Digilogue’s key messages into the reader’s organisation post haste.
— Peter Lang, Group Executive, McMillan Shakespeare Group
First published in 2013 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064
Office also in Melbourne
Typeset in 10/13 pt DIN Light
© Thinque Pty Ltd
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Sörman-Nilsson, Anders (author)
Title: Digilogue : how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customers / Anders Sörman-Nilsson.
ISBN: 9781118647936 (hbk.)
9781118641385 (pbk.)
9781118641392 (ebook)
Subjects: Product management.
Business planning.
Success in business.
Thought and thinking.
Digital communications.
Dewey Number: 658.827
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
Cover design by Hema Patel, Grey NYC
Figure 8.1: © Bettmann/CORBIS
Printed in Singapore by C.O.S Printers Pte Ltd
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Disclaimer
The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
To mum, for your enduring energy, passion, dedication, motherly affection, sharing and chutzpah.
To dad, for your continuous encouragement, global inspiration, sense of history, taste, culture, humanity and gentlemanly nouse.
To my brother, for your presence, accountability, quirky challenges, groundedness, BS radar, patience and being my best friend since the day you were born.
About the author
Anders Sörman-Nilsson (LLB MBA) is the founder of Thinque — a strategy think tank that helps executives and leaders convert disruptive questions into proactive, future strategies. As an Australian-Swedish futurist and innovation strategist, he has helped executives and leaders on four continents map, prepare for and strategise for foreseeable and unpredictable futures. Since founding Thinque in 2005, he has worked with and spoken to clients like Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Eli Lilly, SAP, IBM, Xerox, ABN AMRO Bank, Commonwealth Bank, McCann Erickson, BAE Systems and Young Presidents’ Organisation, across diverse cultural and geographic contexts.
Anders is an active member of TEDGlobal (Oxford 2009 and Edinburgh 2011), has keynoted at TEDx, and has spoken at the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table. He has a Global Executive MBA from the University of Sydney Business School and has completed executive education at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, London School of Economics and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Anders divides his time between Sydney, Stockholm and New York City.
Acknowledgements
This book is the result of a family affair. I really appreciate the input of Britt Sörman, Karin Fimmerstad and Lucie Fairweather for linking me back to facts, photos and figures. Thank you to Dad for objectively remembering the story of your adopted family, and your sense of historical dates and events. Mum, I appreciate you sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the family’s skeletons in the closet, and the transparency you provided me in my business intelligence gathering, and putting your store and the brand on the line in this book — for the world to see. Gustaf, bro, big shout out for proofreading and challenging the contents of this book, and for spurring me to have some much-required writing breaks during our holidays together. To Emma Harpham, yes I know we are not technically family, but you are adopted family, and your energy, passion, centredness, cool, and incredible engagement at Thinque enabled me enough space to bring this book to reality during a time of intense work pressures (and by extension to Aaron, Max and India for lending your wife and mum to represent Thinque around the world). Ware, bro, thanks for your research insights, and spot-on futurist mind — we love having you at Thinque.
To the team at Wiley. Kristen for seeing the merit in this book, for partnering in a strategic and humane way, and for believing in both the concept and in me as a human being. Charlotte, for incredible editing, and proactively optimising the content and ideas. Elizabeth, for keeping up with my precise nature, managing my time on time and packaging the book to something I am truly proud of. Alice, for polishing and tweaking everything from big concepts to Swedish typos and Keira for her attention to legal detail, scouring the world for permissions and triple checking our sources. To Gretta and Katie for communicating the essence of the book and representing its digilogue soul in an age of flux. To Hema Patel at Grey NYC for conceiving an amazing cover and executing an awesome design and for proving, yet again, that a great book deserves to be judged by a great cover (and for being a continued, and treasured, part of my life).
To the Global Executive MBA cohort at the Sydney University Business School. Big shout outs for challenging, supporting, and confirming the commercial need for this book, and helping me shape it globally with your input over 18 months. Particular thanks go out to Jan Pacas, Adam Holloway, Matt Tapper, Peter Lang, Dan Beecham, Petrina Coventry, Ron McCalman, Michael McGee and Charlotte Park — you all know why in your individual ways.
To my agency, Ode Management — for representing me globally, and sending me on speaking assignments in every nook and cranny around the world. To Jules for seeing the alignment, partnering, and growing together, to Leanne for your directness and mentoring, to Heidi for starting the journey with me and being an unsung hero, to Reggie and Lauren for helping me partner with the best bureaux around the world, to Rachel and Steph for keeping my travel i’s and t’s dotted and crossed, to Tanja for your gentle gung-ho mindset and peak performance, and to Becs for being the boomerang marketing guru who keeps me strategic. Finally, last but certainly not least — to Jay, for believing in me 100%, your authenticity, your dedication, and advice, and bringing Anders to the USA in a big way.
To my mentors: Jonas Ridderstrale, Matt Church, Mark Veyret — kudos and respect. To John Naisbitt, thank you for providing me the shoulders to stand on, and revolve and evolve your futurist insights. To Mike Walsh, thank you for setting a new standard for a new generation of futurists and for challenging my thinking around digital.
On a personal front — thanks for the stories, laughs and inspiration: Aaron and Kaitlin, Luke, Joel. For sharing my challenge of the status quo and engaging in risky global travel: Mattias. For challenging absolutely everything: Simon. The depth and longevity: Fredrik, Therese, Lars, Julia, Shire, Carl-Patrick and Ben G. The friendship, travel, emotional advice and design execution: Miki. The constant challenge, check-in, and being there when it matters: Dave and Megan. For allowing me to care, step in, and take a stand: Noddy. The brand focus and fascination with food and great conversations: Daniel. The global appreciation and cognitive exchange: Dave Cummings. The man-dates: Rasmus. Learning about connection: Nicole. Totally grounded: Julia. Being there and always picking up where we left off: David Brightling. Adrian for being Adrian. To the world’s best flatmate, an inspiration, and a genuinely lovely human being, and a person I miss deeply from a distance: Hala Razian. To authenticity, quirkiness and genuinely brilliant eccentricity: Charlie H. And finally, Zhenya, for connecting with me before, during and after my writing of this book — a wonderful surprise, and a digilogue adventure. To my cat Finnegan and my dog Cicero — thank you for being in the moment, and reminding me to connect with sleep, fun, food and snuggles.
Finally to my clients who make all of this possible, and who have shared generously for the inspiration of this book. Richard R, Matt J, Melanie M, Jennie L, John A, Libby D, Jan P, Sam M, Angie T — you mean more than you know and I truly appreciate our friendships and your support.
Prologue
The fight is on, and it’s personal. It’s about family. It’s about history. Legacy. Survival. It’s about psychological warfare. It’s about fighting digital disruption.
In the red corner: old-school analogue. High-touch, face to face, personal and human. In the blue corner: new-school digital. High-tech, interface to interface, public and computer. At stake — the future of how business connects with clients. This is timeless wisdom versus youthful fitness. This is experience versus fresh perspectives. This is street-smarts versus school-smarts.
The pre-match talk has been all about technical knockouts. In its last bouts, Digital Disruption knocked out Kodak, Blockbuster and Borders. On form and match fitness, Analogue Anachronism is the underdog. But never underestimate a wounded animal, backed up in a corner. It’s picking this fight for a reason. This fight is personal. More than prize money is at stake. This time Analogue Anachronism represents the displaced — the outsourced, the computerised, the disenfranchised, the laid-off, the defunct, the bankrupt, the unemployed. An old, faded, almost indecipherable tortoise tattoo marks Analogue Anachronism’s proud, leathery chest, wisely contemplating its opponent’s fresh and fit hare-emblazoned biceps, bursting with energy and flexing for the paparazzi. This is a gladiatorial combat, and at the end, one will get the thumbs up, and one will get the thumbs down. And not in the Facebook way. This fight, it seems, is about life and death. Who is your money on?
This battle is also about my family, which makes this scene deeply personal. In the red corner, Analogue Anachronism is my mum’s old-school champion. If it wins, her third-generation family business might have a chance. If not, the writing is on the wall. As a digital native — born, bred and inspired by the fit fighter in the blue — I feel torn, and somewhat guilty. Does my mum’s storefront even stand a chance? Is death by digital a fait accompli — a fate she must endure? Will clicks kill bricks and mortar? My strategic, pro bono advice to my mum is on the line, and the stakes are high. Her life’s legacy and work is at risk.
Will digital or analogue get up? Who will win the hearts and minds of the audience? Does the underdog even stand a chance against Digital Disruption? What is the future of business? How will we interact with our clients tomorrow? How do we protect historical brand equity? Can a computer interface really replace a human face? Should we focus on digital bling, or remember the analogue thing? Is there scope to reconnect with humans by disconnecting from technology? How can analogue businesses, large and small, stay relevant in the digital future? And how can digital businesses, large and small, create a human, personal, analogue brand?
Before I start answering these questions, have a look at figure 1, where I outline the contrastive definitions of analogue and digital. These definitions form the basis of this book, as I use the broader terms (analogue and digital) to describe technologies, brands, marketing strategies and customer interactions.
Figure 1: analogue versus digital
This is what the Oxford Dictionary has to say about our fighters:
analogue |'anl'Ôg, -'äg| (also analog)
adjective
relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage. Often contrasted with digital (sense 1) — analogue signals: “the information on a gramophone record is analogue”
(of a clock or watch) showing the time by means of hands rather than displayed digits.
Origin: early 19th century: from French, from Greek analogon, neuter of analogos ‘proportionate’
digital |'dijitl|
adjective
1 (of signals or data) expressed as series of the digits 0 and 1, typically represented by values of a physical quantity such as voltage or magnetic polarization. Often contrasted with analogue.
relating to, using, or storing data or information in the form of digital signals: digital TV, “a digital recording”
involving or relating to the use of computer technology: the digital revolution.
2 (of a clock or watch) showing the time by means of displayed digits rather than hands or a pointer.
Origin: late 15th century: from Latin digitalis, from digitus ‘finger, toe’
So, using the Oxford Dictionary's definitions, the analogue–digital divide could be portrayed as shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: analogue versus digital clocks
So, who will be defeated (or throw in the towel)? And who will win the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s customer? Or, can the analogue and digital somehow co-exist?
The answers may not lie in either the digital or the analogue. At a time when we are LinkedIn, hyperconnected and online 24/7/365, our minds have become largely digital. But our hearts have remained analogue. Digital minds. Analogue hearts. Thus, the answer spells digilogue (see figure 3). Digilogue is the translational sweet spot, the convergence of the digital and the analogue.
Figure 3: digilogue — the convergence of the digital and the analogue
Digilogue is what enables your business to provide value to digital minds, and connect with analogue hearts. Let the fight begin.
Introduction
Think about the future of your business and ask yourself the following:
• Is your business being digitally disrupted?
• Is your analogue business model fit enough for a digitised future?
• How do you plan to adapt in a way that is mindful of your brand’s history, yet focused on its continued, profitable future?
• Which communication touch points in your business can be digitised, and which ones must never be digitised?
• How do you stay smart and timely in a way that simultaneously oozes timeless wisdom?
• How do you ensure that you win the analogue hearts and digital minds of tomorrow’s customer?
As a global futurist and strategist at the think tank Thinque, I get to tackle these disruptive questions with executives and leaders every day and turn them into proactive, bespoke, future strategies. While my work in Sydney, Shanghai, Stockholm, San Francisco and Singapore is diverse, it always focuses on co-creating better futures for brands and the organisations they symbolise.
We’re asked to provide positional advice and coordinates for a constantly shifting digital landscape, yet frequently are also asked to disregard the historical journeys that led the brands to the present. But this is a mistake. We cannot disregard the strategic moves, the organisational culture, the personal stories and the evolution that got us to now. Timeliness must co-exist with timeless wisdom. High-tech must be balanced by high-touch. Interface to interface must be offset by face to face. The new school must collaborate with the old school. Innovation must recognise heritage. And the digital must blend with the analogue. This book recognises that we cannot throw the analogue baby out with the bathwater.
To this effect, Digilogue: How to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow’s customer will provide you with:
• a one-page strategy map so you can chart your brand’s future course
• concrete tips to win digital minds and analogue hearts today and tomorrow
• global case studies that showcase how to go digilogue in your business.
Part I
The fighters size each other up
The gloves are (nearly) off. Part I is a veritable street fight between two amped fighters: Digital Disruption and Analogue Anachronism. Both tap into their core strengths, dig deep for control and come out swinging. This part of the book analyses the tensions, dynamics and backstage antics of both sides, and explores their comparative strengths. It also highlights and investigates the seeming evolution of sophistication in the fighters’ behaviours.
Chapter 1 takes a global view of digital disruption, and how it is decimating businesses, big and small, around the world. It zooms in on a menswear retailer in Stockholm, Sweden, and does a deep dive on what survival lessons business leaders more broadly can extrapolate from this family business’s battle with the digitisation of everything. The chapter tracks and decodes digital as the key wave of change affecting business today and for the foreseeable future, and provides you with a way out if you are under the false impression that you can stem the tide of change that digital disruption personifies.
chapter 2 bears surprising news as it investigates what the customer of tomorrow is looking for. Curiously, we’ll find out that decision-making and consumer patterns are shifting in a way that is as focused on the past as it is on the future. We’ll reach an understanding that to win the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s savvy customer, business leaders need to provide value to the rational, digital minds, and connect profoundly with the emotional, analogue hearts of those customers.
After two rounds of fighting and counter-punches by the contestants, chapter 3 explores the convergence of the digital and the analogue — that translational sweet spot where tomorrow’s customers expect you to be. The chapter strategically examines how the lines between the digital and the analogue are increasingly blurring, as customers are taking technology and their futures into their own hands — literally. The chapter takes a macro view of how tradition and technology can combine to make both lederhosen and laptops sexy and economically viable at the same time, and we take a trip down under to New Zealand and look at how a forward-looking sports apparel company managed to make supply chain management attractive by converging the digital with the analogue, and more. It’s an ambitious chapter, and hopefully it will hold up a nice self-reflective mirror for you as you contemplate both your personal and professional life in an era of a digital paradigm shift.
This leads to chapter 4, the final chapter in the part, which will prepare you to get down and dirty with the strategic message in this book. It provides you with a one-page Digilogue Strategy Map, which you can use to find the convergence between the digital and the analogue — the digilogue — in your business. The chapter examines how digital businesses that at face value seem to lack an analogue heart are able to reach out through their screens and connect deeply with customers’ analogue hearts, and how analogue businesses, at face value ill-suited to the digital world, are able to provide value to customers’ digital minds. The chapter also provides you with the first part of your strategic mapping exercise, and will (kindly) provoke you to think and write deeply about the future of your own business.
1: Digital disruption
Round 1. The crowd goes berserk. The skimpily clad Las Vegas glamour girl is strutting the perimeter of the ring holding a big #1 above her head. The announcer amplifies the electric atmosphere. Motivational words by coaches blended with saliva get spat in the faces of the combatants. It’s a prologue of punches to come. The boxers size each other up. Total focus. The battle is about to begin.
In this round you will learn what an entrepreneurial Swedish farm boy born in 1885 in West Gothland can teach us about today’s changing retail landscape, how a Chicago-designed barber’s chair from the 1920s ended up as an antique in my Sydney living room, and why disruption isn’t a new phenomenon. I will illustrate the difference between the old, linear paradigm of disruption and the new, exponential paradigm of digital disruption, and the impact this increase in the speed of disruption is having on business today and into the future. Through this analysis you’ll see that digital disruption is a disintermediation force that threatens businesses, big and small, and that it is causing a wave of change throughout the entire global economy. We will discuss whether the coveted customer has reached a digital point of no return, before looking at what Alcoholics Anonymous can teach us about self-reflection, insight and adaptation to the external environment. Go.
Everything that can be digitised will be digitised
For many, 1902 was a year of opportunity, modernisation and a break with the past. In the United States, Electric Theatre — the first ever cinema — opened its doors in Los Angeles on 2 April, and President Roosevelt became the first President to be seen riding in an automobile on 22 August. In Australia, British female subjects won the vote on 16 June. Over in Europe, the Carnegie Institute for Science launched on 28 January, on 15 February the Berlin U-Bahn (underground) was opened, on 29 May Lord Rosebery inaugurated the London School of Economics, King Edward VII was crowned in London on 9 August, and in Egypt on 10 December the first Aswan Dam on the Nile was completed.
To a 17-year-old Swedish boy on the farm Sörboda in the West Gothland countryside by the name of Georg Johansson, none of this mattered greatly. For him, 1902 was the year when he decided to break his ties with his rural past, and made entrepreneurial plans to take the canal boat to Stockholm to embrace opportunity, modernisation and an urban future for himself. On 20 October, Georg and his older brother Gottfrid, in a gesture to provenance, changed their surname to Sörman, indicating their origins on the farm of Sörboda. Young Georg’s compass pointed east to Stockholm while his elder Gottfrid’s pointed west toward America.
In 1903, the two brothers departed in separate directions. A few days after the first west–east Atlantic radio broadcast connected America with Europe, Gottfrid followed in the footsteps of one million Swedish farmers who had left the Old World for the New World during a century of emigration, embarking on a ship to the Atlantic, while Georg followed in his father’s footsteps and got on a canal boat to Stockholm. Georg arrived at the quay on the island of Riddarholmen in a city still dominated by the horse and buggy, and untouched by Henry Ford’s 1908 Model T. To a place where a camera lens attracted child-like curiosity and spontaneous poses, and where Charlie Chaplin (‘The Tramp’) would feature in the short film Kid Auto Races at Venice in cinemas a decade of modernisation later. Georg’s arrival happened two years before the birth of the eventual Swedish femme fatale Greta Garbo, and nine years prior to Stockholm coming of age in its successful curation of the 1912 Olympic Games. This was a Stockholm still shaped by the late-industrial era, a place where urban and rural commingled and collided, and a city on the verge of a more international, more sophisticated, more elegant future. Georg was there to seize this opportunity.
The east–west connection shaped Georg from an early age. Sörboda, Georg’s place of birth, was near the Swedish engineering miracle Göta Canal (Göta kanal in Swedish), constructed in the early 19th century. Göta Canal was built to connect the capital Stockholm in the east on the Baltic Sea with the harbour city of Gothenburg in the west on the Atlantic. (The 614-kilometre canal stretches from an inlet of the Baltic near Söderköping to Gothenburg.) When the canal was completed, it became the central artery for east–west commerce and trade, because of the way it connected Stockholm to Gothenburg — and from Gothenburg the rest of the world. Like the Caledonian Canal in Scotland, also designed by Thomas Telford, Göta Canal consists of a series of locks, and uses natural waterways as strategic connectors, and Georg grew up near one of these locks. The canal was a cornerstone in the modernisation efforts by the new Swedish king, King Karl the 13th, with the chief project manager, Baltzar von Platen, proclaiming the virtues of the innovation by saying that mining, agriculture and other industries would benefit from ‘a navigation way through the country’.
During young Georg’s childhood and adolescent summers, he would watch the goods from Europe, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom on their way up from the Atlantic to Stockholm, and see the Stockholm-designed products on their way back the other way into global commerce. Georg’s dad was a captain on one of the canal boats, and young Georg was mesmerised by the goods, products, exotic wares and textures being transported between east and west, and the things he would see when he ran down to watch his father tie the marine knots at the local lock. Inspired by what he witnessed during his adolescence, Georg had an entrepreneurial epiphany and it was decided that his and Gottfrid’s sister Anna would take over Sörboda, while Georg took the canal boat east to Stockholm. Georg’s father, the canal boat captain, had facilitated an introduction in Stockholm for Georg, and according to the county records of Ekeskog in West Gothland, the 17 year old assumed the title of handelsbiträde — retail assistant — at a shop in Stockholm. As he transitioned from his boyhood agricultural roots to the urban landscape of his manly future, Georg Johansson, the rural Johan’s son, became the urban man from Sör, Georg Sörman.
Georg’s first business visit to Stockholm was in the good old days, when a blackberry was just a fruit, a tweet was a sound a bird made, and a phone still had a rotary dial — if you even had a phone. It was a time of community and of high-touch connection. A time when the word disruption referred not to your smart phone but to supply lines in the Boer War. From 1903 to 1917, young Georg was biding his time, learning the urban ropes of retail and observing the changing tastes of Stockholmers as the city came of age. During this time, he started courting his future wife, Ethel, a woman who was to prove critical to Georg’s eventual business success. And over these years, Georg spawned the entrepreneurial dream to dress the men and women of Stockholm at his future fashion boutique on Stora Nygatan, in historic Gamla Stan (the Old City).
Doors to Georg’s bricks and mortar boutique opened on 25 October 1917 in the midst of a tough economic climate during First World War, only a few months after the Battle of Passchendaele on the Western Front, where the horrors of war were playing out for many young men in Europe and around the globe. Thankfully for Georg and a generation of Swedish men (and women) Sweden was outside the conflict because of its neutrality. Sweden tried as best it could to get on with business, despite the economic impacts from the south. Always mindful of the hardships others were enduring, Stockholmers got on with their affairs as best they could. The start-up enabled the men and women of Stockholm to browse his collection of clothes by analogue window-shopping or physically talking about their needs to a human sales professional.
Unlike business today, Georg did not have to think about digital bling — he could focus purely on the analogue thing in his business, and the analogue thing was great customer service, attention to detail, artisanship and knowledgeable staff. The sound kaching was associated with the cash register and not a mobile banking app. And the sound echoed enough for Georg, who diligently went about his business and eventually established himself as part of Stockholm’s business guild, and could afford a family expansion. In 1919 he had married Ethel, and in 1920, 1924 and 1925, young Per, Sven and Karin were respectively born into a retailer’s family. Business in the Old City was good, partly as a result of the boat traffic and commerce from Lake Mälaren and from the Stockholm archipelago, which tended to congregate and be transacted on the island where the store was located. Georg had his driver’s licence, but after an early encounter with a lilac hedge, he decided that a driver would be responsible for him getting from A to B. The company driver, immaculately dressed in a uniform, became the store’s delivery man and paid personal visits to the store’s remote customers with deliveries.
But nothing stays the same. Ever. For good and for bad. Because of technological change, demographic shifts and evolution in consumer behaviour, commercial boat traffic on Stockholm harbour slumped, in favour of rail and cars, and, combined with the impact of the Great Depression, business in the Old City suffered at the beginning of the 1930s. The whole family had to dig in and ensure ends were met, meaning Per, Sven and Karin had to help out in the store. Meanwhile, Ethel showed particular creative flair by taking the tram and looking around Stockholm through 1935 and 1936 for a new locale that would be buoyed by the redirection of traffic flows and demography, finding that locale on the island of Kungsholmen, near the transportation hub of Fridhemsplan. Here the business might take advantage of the convergence of rail and car traffic, while benefiting from the westward expansion of central Stockholm.
By 1937 Georg had invested in a new location on the island of Kungsholmen in Stockholm. Twenty years after its establishment, it was Ethel who had become the driving force for rejuvenation, reinvention and rebirth of the brand Georg Sörman. To make a mark on the new locale at 41 St Eriksgatan, together Ethel and Georg changed the facade of Stockholm by commissioning the design of a neon logo by Graham Brothers Neon Co for the store’s signage (see figure 1.1). The logo — including a gentleman with a walking stick and a top hat — communicated stature, sophistication, class and style, and had good equity with the people of Stockholm. The logo design would later became the statuette — the Oscar-equivalent — for the retail signage awards in Stockholm, and in 1998, during Stockholm’s year as the cultural capital of Europe, was named as the best sign in all of Stockholm. In the judging panel’s published motivation behind its decision, they argued, ‘The Sörman man — for generations of Stockholmers — has for 60 years enriched the nocturnal urban space. In his austere elegance he appears as the Oscar of signs’. There was analogue trust that the shop and its professionals would deliver on the promise that the brand communicated.
Figure 1.1: Georg’s neon logo
Georg’s interest in the retail clothing business proved genetic, and the family legacy of commerce, professionalism and connecting people with goods continued with Georg and Ethel’s son Per (born 1920), the oldest of their three children. Per had grown up in the business and worked alongside his father from a young age, and so it was he who was slated to take over custody of the family brand, and to guard its legacy. Per was dyslexic but had learnt from practical experience the tools of the trade, and made up for his impairment with street-smart entrepreneurialism and an attention to financial affairs learnt during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
One year prior to Georg’s death in 1968, Per graduated from his apprenticeship and stepped up as the managing director of the company. Change had become a part of the business ethos at the store and the brand had evolved from a fashion retailer, to a family clothing shop, to having a sole focus on gentlemen’s clothing by the time Per took custody of the brand. Per, like his father, was a hard worker but also an entrepreneur, and was constantly on the lookout for new niches and growth opportunities. He realised that the tailors in the shop presented a latent opportunity for more bespoke services, including customised service for the ‘large and tall’ client segment, who weren’t catered for in Stockholm, or around Sweden for that matter. Catering for these people could open up the brand’s allure and customer-centricity to a new client segment. By offering unique sizes and bespoke alterations, the brand built up a reputation around Sweden, and ensured that it could service a broader market, including using postal delivery to reach a geographically diverse clientele. Business was good, and client service ensured continued profitability, and positive analogue good will.
Per, like his father, was determined to pass on his legacy, and to see the brand live on for another generation. Client service, value for money, generous client size options, and a personal and familial touch were business lessons that he passed on to his daughter, Birgitta (born 1954), the youngest of his three children, (Margareta, Katarina and Birgitta). Like her father before her, Birgitta had grown up in the business and, when Per passed away at age 83 in 2003, she graduated from her 30-year apprenticeship and took over the reins from her father. By 2003, the business landscape had changed. While the business had reached the maturity stage of its life cycle (see chapter 9 for more on this) and had been coasting comfortably for years, the world around it had changed. And the people (and their offspring) who used to frequent the family-owned store during the time of Birgitta’s father, and his father before that, had changed with it. Fashions had changed, retail had shifted, the demographics of the neighbourhood were different, and clients’ analogue shopping habits had been upended with the rise of the internet. The only thing that wasn’t different was the store.
In the blue corner: Digital Disruption. In the red corner: Birgitta. A lot can change in a century — or between three generations of retailers. Birgitta faces a very different set of challenges from Georg back in 1917.
But Birgitta loves history and the customer service lessons she inherited by cultural osmosis. The shop, every antique lover’s dream, is testament to this respect for the family business’s history (see figure 1.2). But today, her prospective clients enter the analogue store after they have digitally window-shopped her offering, and they share their needs with her personnel — who unsuspectingly measure them up for a potential sale of tailored services. The supposed clients pay attention to these measurements, carefully memorising the digits of their sleeve lengths before exiting the store to the sound of a lonely door bell. If they have the human courtesy to Birgitta, they then sneak around the corner and place a digital order on their smart phones with their digital dealer. Birgitta’s store has become a showroom for eBay, and she is doing eBay’s front-end analogue marketing for them. Hence, cornered like a wounded animal, Birgitta’s business/life-defining moment lies in how she fights on. Or, more accurately, where she should position her business on the continuum between the analogue, high-touch, tradition at one end — the thing she has grown up with — and the digital, high-tech at the other end — the thing that is threatening her very presence. Birgitta — my mother — and her store Georg Sörman have become digitally disrupted. Is it time to throw in the towel?
Figure 1.2: Georg Sörman storefront
Digital is an omnipresent force for change
Birgitta is not alone. Retailers around the Western world are struggling to cope with digital disruption. They need a support group. Digital natives and, increasingly, digital immigrants1 have questioned the very need for analogue physicality — in more ways than one. (A digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technologies and, through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts. A digital immigrant
