Blog & Inspiration

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.

At the beginning of November the most well-known secret agent once again reported to her Majesty for duty. In ‘Spectre’, James Bond is on the hunt for criminals again. This time in a very special service vehicle: the Aston Martin DB10. Aston Martin and James Bond have been coming together for more than 50 years. 007 drives an Aston Martin in 12 of the 24 Bond films to date. In 1964 Sean Connery climbed into the British sports car for the first time in ‘Goldfinger’, driving curves at breakneck speed through the Swiss Alps.  In the novel which inspired the film ‘Goldfinger’, author Ian Fleming had his protagonist drive an Aston Martin DB mark III, but as the company had introduced the DB5 in 1963, the new model was chosen and the DB5 became an automobile legend. 

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. 

Alban Michon feels at home in a world of rugged, sharp-edged ice floes, glittering mountains of snow and endless, blue deep sea waters. The French adventurer and explorer has passionately devoted himself to the polar region and to diving underneath the ice. He has swum under the geographical North Pole and travelled over 1,000 kilometres along the coast of Greenland with a kayak.

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.

When things do not work, it frustrates every one of us – as design engineers, we do something about it – it’s all about inventing and improving products,” said James Dyson, inventor and founder of the iconic home appliances company Dyson from England. Whether it be vacuum cleaners, fans or hair dryers – Dyson products have cult status.

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.

At Cape Lindesnes, on the southernmost mainland point of Norway, where the rough waves of the North Sea break on the rocks, a huge concrete monolith slides into the sea and sinks below the surface. It is a building that fits perfectly into the rocky archipelago landscape. Here, “Under” is being built, the first underwater restaurant in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

Ein Kriterienkatalog mit über einhundert Seiten Fragen. In Folge über einhundert Seiten Konzept und ein höchst anspruchsvoller Prüfungs- und Zertifizierungsprozess. Am Ende wurde der Consultix GmbH bereits zum zweiten Mal das Europäische Datenschutz-Gütesiegel European Privacy Seal (EuroPriSe) für ihre Digital Marketing-Software ProCampaign verliehen.

Tiefgreifende Beziehungen zu den eigenen Kunden aufzubauen muss heute mehr denn je im Mittelpunkt der Unternehmenskommunikation stehen. Vielen Unternehmen ist dies bewusst, und die meisten sehen im Content Marketing das Mittel, um aus dem Kunden nicht nur einen Transaktionspartner, sondern einen Gesprächspartner auf Augenhöhe zu machen.

Der Dalai Lama sagte einmal, dass wir, wenn wir sprechen, nur das wiederholen, was wir schon wissen. Wenn wir aber zuhören, kann man unter Umständen etwas Neues lernen. Zuhören an erster Stelle des Software-Entwicklungsprozesses hört sich zunächst eher seltsam an, lohnt sich aber für alle Beteiligten. Denn das Zuhören spielt gerade bei der erfolgreichen Abwicklung von Projekten eine wichtige Rolle.

In 15 March 1948, Migros in Zurich opened the first self-service shop in Switzerland. Its founder: Gottlieb Duttweiler. He had a sales organisation without the middle man in mind - a direct ‘bridge from the manufacturer to the consumer’. Today, the company is the largest retailer in Switzerland and is one of the 500 largest companies in the world. But what will our consumer behaviour look like in the future? What requirements do retail businesses - particularly in the food industry - have to meet? We spoke to Herbert Bolliger, President of the executive board Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund about the topic of food delivery in the digital era.