Blog & Inspiration

A watch never runs completely accurately. It is absolutely normal that even the mechanical timepieces with reliable Swiss clockwork have a deviation of a few seconds per day. This is not a bad thing, we won’t miss our plane due to a small deviation of a few seconds, for example. This looks completely different in the software area. This is where the smallest mistake or deviation can cause problems and possibly cost the company a lot of money.

Jewelry Television (JTV) is one of the largest multi-channel retailers of jewellery and gemstones in the world.  To more effectively sell and manage over 1.6 million products and 50,000 new product introductions per year, JTV is implementing Riversand’s PIM solution.

On 16^th January, a man was elected HORIZONT “Agency Man of the Year” at the Alte Oper Frankfurt. He stands for a new era in the marketing sector. For years, Matthias Schrader has been one of the leading figures in the German digital scene. In the last financial year, the listed agency group SinnerSchrader, which he founded in 1996, increased its revenue to over 50 million Euros. With a stronger focus on platforms of IT, commerce and services, and less on communication, the group’s offer is exemplary of the reorientation many digital providers are striving to achieve.

What do Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, the fashion model Twiggy and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari have in common? They were all big fans of a small car. When the ”classic Mini“ was introduced in 1959, the compact car was supposed to have three main properties. It was to be affordable yet economical and, above all, offer lots of space in the smallest of areas. To this day, no other car maker has enjoyed a community like the one that has taken shape around the MINI over the years. We spoke with Oliver Heilmer, Head of Design at MINI, about brand development, brand management and the automotive design of the future.

Smooth, robust, timeless and individual – that’s how the products from Meindl are supposed to be. Like a second skin. Alpine and urban ideology dictate the design language of the company. Owner and CEO Markus Meindl lives for this subject and for his brand - which has been producing the finest clothing for 11 generations - and so a design language which links both worlds together has developed over the past few decades. The look of a modern mountain-city dweller, so to speak. He doesn’t just dress the alpine folk in high-class trousers and jackets – celebrities throughout the world love his products too.

What would Italy be without its renowned Lavazza coffee? The company founded in 1895 with its headquarters in Turin has been in ownership of the family for four generations. As one of the most significant coffee roasters in the world, it owns a market share of almost 45 percent of Italian retail. A success which Francesca Lavazza‘s grandfather can be thanked for. With hard work, courage and the right sense of taste, he laid the cornerstone for the worldwide thirst for this brown gold. Today, Giuseppe, Marco, Antonella, Manuela and Francesca make up the fourth generation of the traditional company. Aware of its history, the company management is influenced by future orientation in view of continuity. We spoke to Francesca about her role and the responsibility connected with this.

The wait for the first Karl Lagerfeld online shop has come to an end: since the beginning of November it has been possible to buy the new ladies’ clothing collections as well as accessories, watches, fragrances, glasses and other novelties around the clock on the website of the fashion designer – in 97 countries and five different languages. In order to duly celebrate the long-awaited launch, the new capsule collection ‘Karl around the world’, which is now available at all Lagerfeld stores worldwide as well as at selected luxury department stores and online shops has been released. CEO Pier Paolo Righi spoke to us about the realisation of the project.

I often ask myself how online trade can grow so rapidly without losing the appeal of the physical shopping experience for the consumer. On single's day in China on 11 November, Alibaba, the biggest internet platform in the country, reached a sales volume of $10 billion by midday!  The advantages of purchasing online are quite obvious: you can research quickly and extensively, independent of time and place, and get your items delivered where you want at a time to suit you.

In 1950, the 14-year-old Åke Nordin from north Swedish Örnsköldsvik set off on a tour into the mountains. As he was not happy with the comfort of his rucksack, in the basement of his parents’ house he constructed his own model with an innovative wooden frame for better weight distribution. In doing so, he laid the cornerstone for his company, Fjällräven, which he founded officially in 1960 and which became one of the leading suppliers of outdoor equipment and clothing in Europe.

Bogner has represented passion for sports and fashion for 80 years now. What began so modestly and with dedication by Willy Bogner senior and his wife Maria, developed into an international brand with the characteristic B zip over the course of the decades. With his success as skier, director and cameraman, who also produced racy skiing action scenes in four of the James Bond films, Willy Bogner junior and his Sônia have given the brand Bogner a face for many years. We met him in Munich for an interview and to review the history of the company.

We are in the year 1890. At this time, Mannheim only has 80,000 inhabitants. It is during this year that the cornerstone for a company over a century old is laid. With ‘engelhorn’, businessman Georg Engelhorn and the tailor Adam Sturm opened a shop for men’s and boy’s ready-to-wear clothing. In times where anyone who took pride in himself wore tailor-made, this plan was bold. But success proved him right. 125 years later, the fashion house has arrived in the digital age but also has remained what it always was: a regionally anchored traditional company. Together with Managing Director Fabian Engelhorn and Michael Stolte, Head of E-Commerce, we take a glance into the past and experience how its future is being shaped.

Markets are changing rapidly. Companies have always had just one chance: they have to face these processes of change actively. Otherwise they will disappear. However, this is not achieved merely with one creative idea. Customers have to be focussed, technology has to be implemented and employees have to be integrated.

The dynamics of a globalised and technological world requires maximum flexibility from organisations and companies. Consequentially, change management has lost its project character and has become an essential companion of trade and economy instead.

Alan Rusbridger has been the Guardian’s editor-in-chief for 20 years. Under his leadership, the British paper covered the Wikileaks and Edward Snowden affair as well as the hacking scandal, which ultimately led to the closing of the News of the World newspaper. His last campaign helped put climate change on top of the agenda. Described as brave by many and as too influential by some, Alan Rusbridger talked to our London Bureau about courageous story-telling, disruptive challenges journalism is facing today, and his personal challenges after leaving office.

Realising dreams of mobility, that is the credo of Continental. As a company acting globally, it creates, develops, produces and markets indispensable technological solutions. Continental was founded as a public limited company in 1871 in Hannover under the name Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie. In the main plant in Hannover, soft rubber products, rubberised fabrics and solid tires for carriages and bicycles were manufactured. The first successes in development and production were celebrated: production of ‘pneumatic tyres’ without profile for cars began in 1898. Six years later, Continental was the first company in the world to develop ‘profile tyres’ for cars.

The light metal aluminium is a reusable material which uses much less energy when it is recycled than it does when it is first extracted. In addition it can be re and upcycled as often as necessary without any loss of quality. With the initiative ‘R’cycle!’, the drugstore dm and Unilever raise awareness of the sustainable use of recyclable materials: hundreds of children’s bicycles are being made from empty deodorant cans. Peter Dekkers, Vice President, Customer Development at Unilever and Christoph Werner, dm Managing Director, responsible for the marketing and procurement department and Erich Harsch, Chairman of the dm Executive Board told us more about the social project.

Whoever wants to create fashion has to understand it – and above all has to understand life. As a teenager, designer Tommy Hilfiger already knew where his professional journey was going to take him. Even back then, a creative spirit was waiting inside him – a spirit whose absolute desire it was to design cool clothing. In 1969, he opened his first shop with two school friends in his home town Elmira near New York. There, he also sold flared trousers and fringed jackets of the sort he himself had purchased on his many shopping trips in the past. From then on, his success story ran its course. In 1992, Tommy Hilfiger finally became the first fashion company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. 

In marketing, research, or product development, data science is a fixed component in various aspects of our economy. While a couple of years ago, the creation of insights by using data led to a competitive advantage, it has become a requirement to stay competitive, and most companies apply it. However, only a few make use of the powerful combination of psychology and data science.

A professional website forms the foundation stone for the successful future presence of stationary furniture stores. In addition to the opportunity to present goods in interiors stores, sooner or later there must also be the possibility to order goods online. The internet offers the way of showcasing products and is today the first port of call for potential customers.

Who isn’t familiar with the imposing stag featured on the green bottle? While the herbal liqueur was deemed suited for celebrating a successful day of hunting or as a nightcap in the 1990s, Jägermeister has become one of the most popular herbal liqueurs today, and the only German premium spirit beverage to have achieved worldwide fame. The long-standing German distillery has grown into a global brand, becoming one of the greatest brand management successes in history.

Light is culture. Light supports architecture and sharpens perception. With the appropriate lighting solutions, Swiss lighting specialist RIBAG is creating moods in which people feel comfortable, work more efficiently and can relax in peace. The new brand presence with an online shop is not only appealing for its design, but also and particularly for its sophisticated functionality.