Peter Fisk

The Japanese business Fujifilm was founded in 1934 originally as a photographic film maker.

In the 1960s, the company was a regional presence just starting to widen its focus globally and playing a distant catch-up to photographic film leader Eastman Kodak Co. But today, Kodak went bankrupt (filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012, ended in 2013), and on the other hand Fujifilm could overcome the industry crisis attributed from digitisation, and is now continuing to grow by shifting the focus of the management resources from its traditional business to new areas.

Fujifilm has transformed from a narrow photographic film supplier into a diversified company with significant health care and electronic operations.

The traditional photographic film-related business accounted for almost 60% of operating profit in the entire business of Fujifilm in 2000. However, since then, demand for camera film dropped 90% in 10 years as the digital revolution swept the world, and eventually the sales of the photographic film business fell to 1% of the total sales of Fujifilm in 2011; It actually happened only within a decade.

The first digital moment of the photographic film industry was in 1975 when Kodak invented the world’s first digital camera. Ironically, the technology they introduced was the initial cause of the huge market shrink in the photographic film business starting from 2000, which ultimately led Kodak to bankruptcy.

Fujifilm’s business segments include Imaging Solutions, Information Solutions, and Document Solutions. In 2000 at a peak time of the photographic film business, 54% of their total sales was from photographic Imaging Solutions business (which include analog film related business) and 46% was from information Solutions business such as medical equipment/electronic materials.

In 2015, the business structure in sales with three core businesses has been largely changed to 14.5% for Imaging Solutions category, 38.3% for Information Solutions segment, and 47.3% for Document Solutions mainly operated by the affiliated company Fuji Xerox.

So how did Fujifilm transform its business so dramatically?

The rapid growing Information Solutions segment, currently includes products used in medical systems, pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine, life sciences, cosmetics, flat panel display (FPD) materials, industrial products, electronic materials, recording media and graphic systems.

In this segment, the cosmetics category started from 2006 can be described as an instance of how structural reform occurred; Fujifilm entered the cosmetics field, launching its Astalift series of skin-care products in 2007. Since then the company has extended its product lineup beyond the skin-care series to also include base makeup. Astalift continues to grow as a global brand, sold in China, Southeast Asia, and European countries as well as in Fujifilm’s home market of Japan.

It seems that there is nothing in common between photographic film and cosmetics at a glance, but the company set its eyes on similarity in analog film manufacturing technology. Thickness of color photographic film is approximately 0.2mm (the same thickness of human hair).

Collagen used in this 0.2mm analog film requires several functionalities as capability to maintain a long-term/stable quality, retain moisture at the time of development, prevent from losing shape by aging degradation and impact in addition to a capability to hold elasticity; the company held a huge accumulation of collagen technology and also unique technology to manufacture various types of collagen.

Control of collagen is one of the key technologies required in the skincare cosmetics manufacturing process since collagen is one of the main constituents of cosmetic products. Therefore, the company could successfully enter into the cosmetic industry by implementing their knowhow they had on collagen due to a technical similarity between films and cosmetics manufacturing process.

Fujifilm introduced medical diagnostic imaging system with the application of digital camera technology, and also places the system as a core in business development for healthcare field. Since the wave of digitization recently becomes a significant influence in healthcare field, this also can be a field where the company can apply its image processing technology most efficiently as an advantage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQBNx0g-O-o

 

 

In 2012, then known as DONG, Danish Oil and Natural Gas, it found itself in a financial predicament as global overproduction sent gas prices plunging. S&P downgraded the 6,000-employee firm’s credit rating to negative, raising the cost of its considerable debt. The board hired a former leader of the transformation at Lego, Henrik Poulsen, as the new CEO. Whereas some leaders might have gone into crisis management mode, laying off workers until prices recovered, Poulsen recognised the moment as an opportunity for fundamental change.

“We saw the need to build an entirely new company,” Poulsen says. “It had to be a radical transformation; we needed to build a new core business and find new areas of sustainable growth. We looked at the mandate to combat climate change, and we became one of the few companies to wholeheartedly make this profound decision, to be one of the first to go from black to green energy.”

Poulsen emphasized both the short-term and long-term nature of the change. “We looked at the 12 different lines of business we were in and went through them asset by asset, to see where we saw competitive strength. Coal, oil and gas were rapidly eroding as businesses, so we decided to divest eight of our twelve divisions and use the proceeds to reduce our debt.”

The had also started looking beyond its core, and had invested in offshore wind power, but the technology was still too expensive, producing energy that was more than double the price of onshore wind. Under Poulsen, the company embarked on a systematic “cost-out” program to reduce the expense of every aspect of building and running offshore wind farms while achieving scale in this emerging market.

Poulsen renamed the company Ørsted, after the legendary Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted, who discovered the principles of electromagnetism. This helped infuse a sense of purpose into the organization that drove it to cut the cost of offshore wind power by 60% while building three major new ocean-based wind farms in the UK and acquiring a leading company in the USA to pioneer North American offshore waters.

Previously 80% owned by the Danish government, Orsted’s IPO in 2016 was one the year’s largest. Net Profits have surged more than $3 billion since 2013, and Orsted is now the world’s largest offshore wind company, with a 30% share of a booming global market.

On its ranking as “the world’s most sustainable company” for 2020 by Corporate Knights’ Global 100 Index, Poulsen says “As the global leader in offshore wind, we’ve substantially grown our business while significantly reducing our carbon emissions. We have reduced our carbon emissions by 86%, and by 2025, we’ll be carbon neutral in our energy generation and operations. We also have a target of achieving a carbon neutral footprint by 2040.”

When Inc. Magazine called Zingerman’s “the coolest small company in America,” they said that the “grand plan” the Zingerman’s founding partners came up with for the future of their business was “far better than anything a management-consulting firm could have devised for them.”

At Zingerman’s they call the “grand plan” a Vision. They’ve been visioning for nearly 20 years now. They use it all the time and at every scale – for really small ideas like moving the office copy machine to really large ones like where the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses will be in the year 2020. Just about every one of our staff members and partners would tell you that Visioning is the key to our unique and uniquely successful community.

Ari Weinzweig, co-founding partner of Zingerman’s and author of several books, even has a Vision for Visioning: “10 years from now, visioning is an intrinsic part of the way that thousands of progressive organizations around the world do their work … And my vision is that Ann Arbor is one of the capitals of visioning work.”

Some of the best businesses in the world have come to ZingTrain to learn about and adopt (or adapt) Zingerman’s approach to customer service.  Held in Saveur magazine’s highest regard for its service, Zingerman’s has taken its national accolades into the world of training and consulting with ZingTrain.

Great service is a cornerstone of Zingerman’s success. Zingerman’s has earned its reputation for great service by intentionally creating an organizational culture that nurtures great service and by teaching each and every one of its employees the recipes that the organization has developed for great service – namely the 3 steps to giving great service and the 5 steps to effectively handling customer complaints.

Read the Zingerman’s 2020 Vision

Open Book Management is a radical approach to running a business, Open Book management is about empowering every single employee in your business with the tools, education and data they need to act (and take responsibility) like owners.

The Denison’s 2010 survey said that:

• Companies that use Open Book Management consistently rank in the top 10% of all companies surveyed.
• Zingerman’s was in the top 10% amongst companies that practiced Open Book.

Open Book is not a spectator sport – it’s not just about showing people all the numbers.

Transparency is great but this is about actually taking charge, not just taking time to look at some financial spreadsheets that management was nice enough to share with you. Open Book is about everyone participating in running the business – it’s about people understanding how the whole organization works and their role in it, it’s about accountability, collaboration, and taking initiative. It’s about looking forward and working together to win.

It’s more fun, it’s more interesting, and the bottom line is it just plain works.

You get 494 million hits when you Google the phrase “Leadership.” It drops to a significantly more manageable 128 million when you change the phrase to “Leadership Development.” A good few of them probably have something worth learning or adopting.

Ultimately though, you become aware that what you choose to adopt and disregard is based on your answer to the question: What kind of leader do I want to be? What kind of leaders do we want in our organization?

At Zingerman’s, over the course of over 30 years of growing and thriving, they’ve created a clear vision of what our idea of great Leadership is. It’s based on Robert Greenleaf’s idea of Servant Leadership. The basic belief of Servant Leadership is that we, as leaders, are here – first and foremost – to serve our organizations. We’ve also developed a teachable and effective system for it. And we think it works. Here’s why:

Elaine Steig, Zingerman’s Service Steward, 2012 says this: “It is a true gift to be a leader within Zingerman’s Community of Businesses; to have the freedom to be a true leader and be true to yourself. Not that there isn’t pressure, but the pressure is largely self-imposed to live up to the expectations we have set for ourselves and our organization. In my 25-plus-year career, I have never felt more appreciated, engaged, challenged, and rewarded.”

Training and systems: Great performance through clear expectations and training

Zingerman’s are big believers in systems. Consequently, and not surprisingly, they’re also big believers in training, because effective training is how we teach all of our staff what our systems are. Being a food business, we sometimes call our systems recipes. They have recipes for giving great service, recipes for creating organizational change, recipes for great performance reviews, recipes for effective on-shift training, we even have a recipe for how to create a great recipe! They call it Bottom-Line Training and they believe in it deeply enough to have trademarked the phrase!

Here’s an excerpt from the Zingerman’s Staff Guide:

Systems: Our systems are set up in order to help deliver the most effective bottom line results possible while staying true to our Guiding Principles. In choosing to work here, we make a commitment to work according to those systems, or to work constructively to change and improve them.

The 2-day seminars they teach are a distillation of some of our most effective systems from Service to the entire Employment Experience. And in the Bottom-Line Training seminar they teach you how to design effective systems of your own, that serve your bottom lines.

An Anarchist’s Refreshing Approach to Running a Business

Here’s an extract from a recent Forbes article on Ari:

Ari Weinzweig believes aspiring leaders should never sacrifice their core beliefs in order to achieve success. On the contrary, they should embrace and celebrate these beliefs, then use them to ignite their organizations.

After all, how can entrepreneurs expect to make an impact if they simply trudge down the same path blazed many times before? Not only has it already been done—it’s also missing authenticity. Ari believes there’s a better way to do business, and that’s by being yourself—completely.

The co-owner and co-founder of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, Ari is also the author of books including the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading series and the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating, a contributor to magazines like Fine Cooking and Food and Wine, a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit, a mentor, a noted speaker and so much more.

However, a quick conversation proves Ari’s success has never gone to his head. Casually peppering his words with profound insights from his favorite anarchist authors or leadership lessons, Ari’s perspective is refreshingly honest, down to earth and transparent. He’s also proof that running a business your own way can work—we just need to be courageous enough to defy the status quo.

“Most of us continue to do every day what we’ve been trained to do,” Ari says, “until one day, we realize there’s another way to do it.”

Ari didn’t always have entrepreneurial ambition. In fact, after graduating from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Ari just wanted to pay the bills so he could avoid moving home to Chicago. That’s what led him to take a job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.

As he learned the inner-workings of the food industry, Ari started making his way up the ladder, eventually landing a managerial position. He also met Paul Saginaw, who would later become Ari’s partner at Zingerman’s.

For several years, Paul and Ari traded ideas about someday opening up a place of their own. Then, after space in a historic building opened up, they decided to grasp the opportunity.

In 1982, Ari and Paul opened the doors of Zingerman’s Deli with two employees. With a steadfast commitment to extraordinary ingredients, a strong tie to the local community and a creative-minded culture, Zingerman’s was instantly a resounding success.

Since then, Zingerman’s expanded not by replicating the deli, but by integrating their mission and guiding principles into entirely new local businesses including a coffee house, bake shop, catering company, training center, creamery and more. They named it the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.

Over 35 years and 700 employees later, the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses continues to thrive and currently boasts over $65 million in annual revenue.

Ari Weinzweig loves anarchy. He’s spent countless hours browsing the University of Michigan’s Joseph A. Labadie Collection of anarchist literature—one of the nation’s largest—and applies his gained wisdom to his life and his business practices.

But don’t confuse his brand of anarchic ideology with any preconceived notions involving chaos, destruction or tearing down the government. Instead, his brand of anarchy is about all about equality, community and refusing to “follow the rule because it’s the rule … I don’t think anybody really likes being told what to do,” says Ari.

Still, when it comes to the corporate world, aspiring entrepreneurs often conform quickly to expectations, as if giving up their past ideals is the necessary price of achieving success. Ari wholeheartedly rejects this mindset for himself, for others and for his organization.

“[There’s] this weird incongruity between like, it’s good to be a free thinker and you should make your own decisions—but not that one,” says Ari. “It’s no different [at Zingerman’s]. We want people to develop, grow and pursue their dreams.”

He supports his employees’ individual freedom, even if that means openly discussing a future path that leads away from the company. “Sometimes their dream is to leave, which I’m okay with,” he says. “It’s not necessarily what I wanted—but ultimately it is what I wanted.”

“What you believe alters what you see or experience,” says Ari. From personal relationships to corporate leadership, our beliefs influence everything in our lives. What we believe not only affects our own choices, but the actions and emotions of everyone around us. Positive beliefs create positive outcomes, while negative beliefs create the exact opposite.

For example, if an anxious new hire believes their manager dislikes her—and the manager’s neutral or negative attitude does little to convince her otherwise—the new hire will assume the lack of positive feedback means those assumptions are correct.

Maybe there’s validity behind the new hire’s concerns. Maybe there’s none. Either way, she’s going to internalize those feelings. Those feelings will manifest as action. As the stress mounts, her demeanor flounders and work suffers. Whether or not the manager actually had negative feelings becomes irrelevant, since the new hire’s reaction hinders her performance regardless.

Ari calls this a self-fulfilling belief cycle.

“The self-fulfilling belief cycle is just what it sounds like,” Ari says. “We self-fulfill into creating much of our reality. I’m not saying we create all the problems, but a lot of the things that are going on in our lives start with our own beliefs, not with other people’s behaviors.

“Part of that is realizing that we all filter information based on what we believe. We filter out all the information that doesn’t support our beliefs … or you actually go seek out information that supports our beliefs.”

Sure, positive thinking on the new hire’s part could’ve changed the cycle. But if the manager instilled more positivity, everything would’ve changed as well. After all, isn’t it the leader’s role to inspire?

Let’s be the leaders that set our people up for success. By confidently believing in them, they’ll believe in themselves as well.

The Creativity of Better Businesses

“If people looked at their lives and their organizations like they were creating art, they would start to notice a lot more. They would probably be a lot more mindful of what they do.”  

There’s a divide between the arts and the corporate world. Many leaders believe in the already defined structures that keep companies running, and think that creativity is a skill best reserved for the weekends.

But what if thinking so rigidly keeps us from seeing the whole picture? By following the same rules and same routines, are we too hyper-focused on getting things done instead of doing them better? What if creativity is what makes a good business great?

Ari believes all business leaders can learn from artists. That’s not to say all CEOs should necessarily sign up for painting classes. Instead, think about your organization as an elaborate song with countless tiny, yet essential, parts. If one note is flat, the piece falters. If every note is flat, the song turns into a disaster.

“A painting isn’t this instantaneous creation. It’s an enormous amount of work over an extended period of time. A song doesn’t just doesn’t emerge finished … they’re still paying enormous attention to what all of those little things are.”

“People who go into [business] only for the money rarely create great art,” says Ari, and it’s usually true. Leaders need to tap into the joy of building something for the love of it—not just for status or wealth. And wouldn’t leadership be more interesting—and more fun—if tasks were treated as creative exercises, rather than just obligations waiting to be checked off a list?

The best creatives trust their instincts and they trust themselves. “My strong belief is that everybody in their hearts [knows what] what they want,” says Ari. It’s a mentality he holds as dearly today as he did as a young anarchist in 1982, and it’s not going anywhere.

 

“Together, we’re transforming the global food system by creating better ways to make meat, dairy and fish without using animals – delicious, good for people, and good for the planet. Our approach: understand what people love about meat dairy, and fish, and then explore the plant world for specific ingredients that recreate those experiences.

In 2016, we launched the Impossible™ Burger: meat made from plants, for people who love to meat. Founded in 2011 by Pat Brown and backed by top-tier VCs and visionaries, we’re looking for the very best scientists, engineers, food developers, and business professionals in the world to join our creative, diverse, multi-talented and mission-driven team. We’re here to secure a sustainable future (and have fun while doing it). Come work with us to change the course of history.”

Pat Brown is a geneticist on a mission to rid the world of animal foods. In 2009 he took a sabbatical from his academic career to reflect on how he could make a bigger difference to the world. He decided that the environmental change was most profound, and he could add more value by focusing on the use of animals to make food. Beef farming, more than any other type, has caused huge destruction to rainforests, and the animals themselves significantly add to the world’s carbon emissions. He organised a conference on “the role of animals in a sustainable global food system” and resolved that the best strategy would be to create a product that competed against animal foods commercially.

“The mission of Impossible Foods is very simple. It’s to completely replace animals in the food system by 2035.”

“Why does meat smell, feel, cook and taste like meat?” he challenged his small team of scientists. He believed that the answer lay in heme, the iron-containing molecule in blood, a component of haemoglobin. He started exploring how he could source the molecule in alternative ways from nature. The answer lay in the roots of clover. And from that moment in 2011 he set about launching Impossible Foods. 5 years later they launched the Impossible Burger, a burger that looked, smelt, sizzled and tasted just as good as a traditional beef version. Even better when you consider its wider impact on the world.

In 2016, the World Economic Forum named Brown a Technology Pioneer for his design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations “poised to have a significant impact on business and society.

The company has three main sources of revenue: grocery stores, restaurants, and online. Impossible is in over 25K grocery stores including Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Costco. Impossible Foods also has distribution deals with 40Krestaurants in three different continents to sell Impossible products.

Additionally, Impossible Foods has entered into the private labeling business represented by their partnership with Krogers. The company also offers the sale of its products via the internet, but it is not a classic direct-to-consumer model. Consumers can buy the products via the Impossible Foods website and receive delivery via Instacart. The company also does sell products on Amazon. The price of the products vary based on the location and distribution methods. Specifically, for grocery stores, Impossible Foods cut prices on multiple occasions, in 2020 and 2021, taking the minimum price of sale to $6.80. This still represents a premium to classic ground meat, but over time, the company expects to become cheaper than classic beef.

Brown led Impossible Foods to becoming one of the industry leaders and a $10 billion enterprise. In March 2022, Brown stepped down from the CEO position and moved into the position of Chief Visionary Officer to focus on longer-term strategic initiatives. Brown was replaced as CEO by Peter McGuinness , previously President and COO of the Chobani yogurt company.

As consumers begin to recognize climate change as a major issue, they are becoming more aware of the role that beef production plays in climate change. A 2022 survey of 1K consumers found that over 80% were willing to replace beef purchases with lower carbon footprint meats and meat alternative. However, only 5% of consumers in the US and UK are willing to become vegetarians, signaling a widening demand for plant-based meat alternatives, which emit up to 90% less greenhouse gasses compared to meat.

As a result, funding has flooded into the plant-based meat market in recent years, and it has become a $7.5 billion market as of 2021. When compared to the $280 billion global meat market, it’s clear there’s considerable room to grow. However, in the face of deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, the faux meat market cooled down significantly starting in 2021, and saw a decrease in sales for 22 consecutive months leading up to November 2022.

Despite this, plant-based meat producer Impossible Foods has retained momentum even amidst a broader downturn, having grown sales to $137 million in 2022 which represented 70%year-over-year growth.

Read more.

 

Everything Adidas does is rooted in sport.”The good news is that sport plays an increasingly important role in more and more people’s lives, on and off the field of play, so we operate in a highly attractive industry.

We push the boundaries of products, experiences and services to drive brand desire and capitalize on the growth opportunities in sport as well as in sports-inspired casual and activewear. However, the importance of sport goes far beyond that.

Sport is central to every culture and society and is core to an individual’s health and happiness. Therefore, we believe that, through sport, we have the power to change lives. And we work every day to inspire and enable people to harness the power of sport in their lives.”

Dreaming about sports

Although urban legend has it that the word “Adidas” is an anagram of the phrase “all day I dream about sports,” the athletic wear company gets its name from its founder, Adolph “Adi” Dassler. He and his brother founded the company that would become a worldwide brand, but their history as members of the Nazi Party isn’t as well known.

In 1920, at the age of 20, avid soccer player Adolph (Adi) Dassler, son of a cobbler, invented spiked shoes for track and field. Four years later Adi and his brother Rudolph (Rudi) founded the German sports shoe company Gebrüder Dassler OHG—later known as Adidas.  By 1925 the Dasslers were making leather shoes with nailed studs and track shoes with hand-forged spikes.

Beginning with the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, Adi’s uniquely designed shoes began to gain a worldwide reputation. Jesse Owens was wearing a pair of Dassler’s track shoes when he won four gold medals for the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

At the time of his death in 1959, Dassler held over 700 patents related to sports shoes and other athletic equipment. In 1978, he was inducted into the American Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame as one of the founders of the modern sporting goods industry.

In the 1970s, Adidas was the top athletic shoe brand sold in the US. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were both wearing Adidas boxing shoes in their “Fight of the Century” in 1971. Adidas was named the official supplier for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Although still a strong, well-known brand today, Adidas’ share of the world sports shoe market dropped over the years, and what began as a German family business is now a corporation (Adidas-Salomon AG) combined with the French global concern Salomon.

In 2004 Adidas bought Valley Apparel Company, a U.S. company that held licenses for outfitting more than 140 U.S. college athletic teams. In 2005 Adidas announced that it was purchasing the American shoemaker Reebok, which allowed it to compete more directly with Nike in the U.S. But the Adidas world headquarters are still located in Adi Dassler’s hometown of Herzogenaurach. They also have an ownership stake in German soccer club 1. FC Bayern München.

Here is a extract from its published business strategy:

Mission

We want to be the best sports company in the world. What does that mean? Well, to us ‘best’ means that we design, build and sell the best sports products in the world, with the best service and experience, and that we do so in a sustainable way. But ‘best’ is also what our consumers, athletes, teams, partners, media and shareholders say about us.

Plan

‘Creating the New’ is not only the attitude that leads us into the future, it is also the name of our strategic business plan until the year 2020 to accomplish our mission. At the core of Creating the New stands our ambition to further drive top- and bottom-line growth by significantly increasing brand desirability. We therefore focus on our brands like Adidas and Reebok as they connect and engage with our consumers.

We know that, in order to be successful, we need to get closer to our consumers than ever before. To achieve that, our plan is based on three strategic choices: Speed, Cities and Open Source. For more information around these three choices, please scroll further down.

But ultimately, Creating the New has its powerful foundation in our unique corporate culture. We have great talents in our organization who work with passion for sports and our brands. It is our people that bring our strategy to life and make the difference in achieving our long-term goals.

Strategic choices

Our business plan is built around three strategic choices that will enable us to focus even more on our consumers:

• Speed – How we deliver: Putting our consumers at the heart of everything we do and serving them in the best possible way means that we need to ensure that they always find fresh and desirable products where and when they want them. We will become the first true fast sports company.
• Cities – Where we deliver: Urbanization continues to be a global megatrend. Most of the global population lives in cities. Cities are shaping global trends and consumers’ perception, perspectives and buying decisions. We have identified six key cities in which we want to over-proportionally grow share of mind, share of market and share of trend: London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo.
• Open Source – How we create: This is all about collaboration and innovation. About learning and sharing. We are opening the doors of our brands inviting athletes, consumers and partners to co-create the future of sport and sports culture with us.

Acceleration Plan

To foster our brand momentum and accelerate sales and earnings growth, we introduced a number of initiatives that we will focus on in addition to the three strategic choices and our corporate culture – Portfolio, North America, Digital and ONE adidas.

• Portfolio: This is all about more focus and less complexity. We are constantly revisiting and sharpening the focus of our brand portfolio, fully concentrating on adidas and Reebok and on our core competencies in footwear and apparel. This will allow us to reduce complexity and pursue our consumer in a more targeted and consequent way.
• adidas North America: North America represents the biggest market in the sporting goods industry with a total share of approximately 40%. It is the single biggest growth opportunity for the adidas brand. That is why we have made North America a strategic priority and started to significantly increase our investments into our US business – people, infrastructure, marketing and point-of-sale – in order to be more relevant and always visible to the consumer.
• Digital: The digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way our consumers behave and the way we work. Technology has enabled us to build more direct relationships with our consumers. With our relatively young workforce we are in the unique position to continuously improve our digital capabilities – not only to interact with the consumer, but also to become faster, better and more efficient in every part of the organization.
• ONE adidas: We continuously strive for operational excellence. ONE adidas encompasses a set of initiatives that will enable us to work smarter, more efficiently and in a more aligned way. Because we know that when we act as one global company instead of 20 smaller ones, we can only get better.

Other companies are also developing innovative ways to cut global emissions. Massachusetts-based Cambrian Innovation turns contaminated wastewater into renewable energy, and Canadian firm Enerkem extracts carbon from trash and converts turns it into a gas, which can be used to make biofuels.

Buurtzorg, which translates as “neighbourhood care”, is seen by its many enthusiasts as a key part of the solution to challenges facing healthcare systems across the world.

From Aberdeen to Shanghai, the Buurtzorg approach is being seized on by policy-makers as a means of enabling people with care needs to live independently with much less formal support. Potential cost savings of up to 40% have been calculated. At the same time, the model is said to be hugely popular with the nursing teams who run it because it frees them from management control and unleashes their entrepreneurial creativity. And it is very simple.

Buurtzorg was founded 10 years ago by a 56-year-old nurse, Jos de Blok, and started with an initial team of four. The system that evolved deploys teams of up to 12 nurses, who are responsible for between 40 and 60 people within a particular area. There are now around 900 teams in the Netherlands, supported by no more than 50 administrators and 20 trainers.

The principle underpinning the model is that the nurse acts as a “health coach” for the individual and their family, emphasising preventive health measures but also delivering necessary care themselves or calling on others to do so. The golden rule is that nurses must spend 61% of their time in direct contact with the people they support. An evaluation by consultancy KPMG in 2012 found that although the care might be costlier per hour than under a traditional approach, it was of higher quality and better appreciated by those in receipt. Crucially, only half as much care was typically required.

“What I see in a lot of countries is that systems are increasingly complicated and frustrations are becoming worse and worse,” said de Blok when I met him recently at the Thinkers50 Global Summit in London, where he walked away with the Ideas into Practice Award. “I want to show that it’s easy to change.”

However its not necessarily so easy to translate the model into other country’s healthcare systems. One issue is funding: the Dutch model is tailored to payments by health insurance companies, not a state healthcare system like the NHS or means-tested social care. Another is the scrapping of hierarchies and specialisms within the nursing teams: a Buurtzorg nurse might administer wound care, but may also help someone to wash or get dressed. A third challenge is that the model requires management to back off and allow their teams considerable latitude, with much less performance monitoring than has become the norm in, for instance, the UK. Bureaucracy is reduced to a minimum.

“We have tried to prevent it becoming a meetings structure,” says de Blok, describing how his teams are encouraged to think freely in finding answers to people’s care needs, drawing on other professionals and volunteers. “The autonomy is better when [the teams] build their own networks to solve problems.”

The Buurtzorg approach has even been extended to what in the UK would be recognised as home help, after the organisation stepped in to rescue a failing Dutch provider two years ago. By cutting its overheads dramatically, the provider has not only been saved but has expanded by more than 60% to 4,000 employees.

The model has been taken up by the Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS foundation trust in south London as well as integrated health and care services in Tower Hamlets, east London, and in west Suffolk. Active interest has come from Kent and Cheshire West, among others, and 300 people recently attended the first presentation in Wales by Public World, a consultancy working with Buurtzorg.

De Blok insists he is relaxed about the model being adapted to suit local circumstances. Buurtzorg is a non-profit organisation – though it makes a surplus for reinvestment – and it does not seek to franchise the model under licence. “I’m not interested in money,” de Blok says. “I see so many people searching for a new way of doing things in all the places I visit. It’s all about creating something different from the bottom up.”

Fatih Konukoğlu says that three words best describe ISKO™’s philosophy:

Performance: ISKO™ is the denim specialist, all fabrics are characterized by an advanced technology and the deeply-rooted care for quality, during all the integrated production from yarn to finishing processes.

Innovation: ISKO™‘ mission is to always keep in touch with the latest trends and also to anticipate times. ISKO™’s research centre is certified by the Turkish government and it consists of more than 25 textile engineers, specialists in creating new denim products.

Green: ISKO™ has a strong eco-commitment, backed by sustainable production. 10% of new ISKO™ fabrics are produced from recycled materials, a filtration and treatment plant to clean water is used in the manufacturing process, to redirect the water for other industrial and household purposes.

ISKO™ is part of the SANKO group, a multinational holding company characterized by a solid and well-established presence in the textile industry, which has invested much in cutting edge technology for its textile division. SANKO holding is strongly committed to research in the renewable energy field and to environment-friendly procedures.

Here is an extract from a recent article by Fashion Network:

Turkish denim manufacturer ISKO doesn’t stint on resources, and it isn’t shy in promoting its extensive denim expertise while highlighting responsible production: sometimes it goes for glamour, teaming up for its latest collaboration with Ukrainian designer Ksenia Schnaider; other times for innovation and inspiration, as with the interactive Denim Sound Textures exhibition it presented at Milan Design Week in mid-April. FashionNetwork.com recently had the opportunity of travelling to Turkey to learn about the know-how of what is one of the world’s largest denim producers.

The Uludağ mountain, ancient Bithynia’s Mount Olympus, sketched its soft snowy contours on the horizon. Our van climbed to the top of a low-lying mountain pass, then the two-lane road plunged down to the small Anatolian town of Inegol. Isko’s headquarters are located in the town’s industrial area.

Inegol is a far cry from Bursa, the ancient capital of the first Ottoman sultans with its spas and historic old town, an hour’s drive away. And even further from chaotic Istanbul, with its history and futuristic buildings. After the 2.6 km-long Osmangazi suspension bridge across the gulf of Izmit was inaugurated a few months ago, Turkey’s economic capital is no more than a few hours’ motorway drive away, but Inegol still seems very distant from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul.

With its enormous warehouses, industrial chimneys and HGV parking lots, the town’s industrial area doesn’t seem to have joined in Turkey’s race for modernity. And yet, it is in Inegol that Isko recently opened its new, entirely automated warehouse.

An ultra-mechanised site where the air is hard to breathe

The 40-metre-tall building doesn’t have a single window. Inside, it looks like a spaceship. There is no lighting except for blue neon, as a silent, seven-armed automated picking machine navigates amidst the vertiginous rows of shelves occupying the 80-metre-long and 45-metre-wide warehouse. There are no people here. Everything is automated and digitalised.

Depending on the order, specific rolls of denim weighing several hundred kilos each are machine-picked from one of the 128,000 locations in the warehouse, and shifted to a conveyor belt which places them, through one of four bays, directly onto a lorry. Humans can enter the building, of course, but they cannot stay inside for long. Oxygen content is limited to 16.4%, to minimise the risk of fire.

“It is a major investment, which enables us to improve our reaction time, responding to the expectations of brands that want to react quickly to market trends, and to the needs of e-tail players too,” said Rosey Cortazzi, Isko’s global marketing director.

Isko was founded in 1983 and is part of the giant Turkish conglomerate Sanko, owned by the Konokoğlu family and based in Gaziantep, eastern Turkey. The company wants to become a benchmark player on the world of denim. Besides catering to established jeans brands, it is keen to appeal to more generalist fashion labels. Isko’s general manager Fatih Konukoğlu and his staff invited about 50 designers and sourcing managers from brands across Europe and America to their ‘360’ workshop. A visit to the brand-new logistics hub was one of the workshop’s high points.

Centralised production

Isko’s entire manufacturing operations are based in Inegol, in two huge plants where the company says it works eco-responsibly and ethically with its 2,500 employees. It recently joined the international Textile Exchange organisation, adopting the latter’s recommendations in terms of ethical manufacturing, and is now keen to showcase its know-how, from textile engineering to washing advice.

Baris Ozden, in charge of product development, gave an introductory presentation on the denim industry, notably explaining the main technical ‘trends’. “It depends on the end-product you’re looking for. Vintage-style and baggy jeans sparked a renewed interest in open-end cotton thread, which was widely utilised in the 1970s. Nowadays, 95% of the thread is of the ring-spun type, though in the last two years we have seen an increase in demand for open-end thread,” he said.

The thread is dyed before weaving. Ozden provided a little more history to explain the process. “When Levi Strauss first developed its denim fabric for miners’ clothes, it used right-hand 3/1 cotton twill. Lee used its signature left-hand twill, which gives a fluffier feel. Then Wranglerintroduced its own technical innovation, the broken twill. Nowadays, 3/1 right-hand twill is the most widely used.”

We were then able to follow denim’s progress along the production line. In the first step, the cotton, whose provenance is certified, is transformed into yarn. A vast room houses rows of roll-stands on which spools are installed. The cotton fibre forms a yarn which is stretched for a length of several metres before giant machines roll it onto huge spools.

The spools are then moved to a second room. We had to negotiate an air-lock and pass under a panel stating that the factory has been incident-free for nearly two months, before getting a glimpse of the monumental machinery that ‘swallows up’ the yarn. The dyeing process takes place along two production lines, more than 10 metres high and some 40 metres long.

“We prepare the yarn for dyeing,” said a production manager ensconced in a control room where two operators were monitoring an array of sensors. “Here, we verify the yarn’s speed, as well as the dye baths’ temperature and their pH,” he added. Up to fifteen 500 kg rolls can be dyed at the same time. At full operating capacity, the machines function 24 hours a day. An operator is tasked with regular checks on the process, which is otherwise entirely automated. The untreated yarn darts off at a speed of 24 metres per minute, plunging into eight indigo baths.

In order to fix the colour, the yarn is immersed in a bath for 19 seconds, then exposed to the air for another 19 seconds. As the yarn emerges from each successive bath, the colour becomes increasingly intense.

“Quality is regulated and yet, despite everything and with the same yarn measurements, we don’t obtain exactly the same end result in winter and summer,” said Ozden. “To achieve a specific result, the yarn can be immersed in a sulphur bath. Depending on whether the bath comes before or after dyeing, the result is different.”

As the yarn comes out of the machine, it continues its progress and, having assumed a blue colour, it is then deposited into huge baskets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AICiksnjBww

An array of over 1,500 weaving looms

Human intervention begins from the next step of the process.  About 20 workers, each at their own machine, introduce the dyed yarn into a contraption that looks like a huge comb, which cleans and rolls up the yarn at a speed of 300 metres per minute. The rolls are then sorted and prepared for weaving.

The operation takes place in the production unit’s second building, a two-floor plant about 10 metres away from the first. As you climb to the first floor, up a spiral staircase, it is advisable to wear ear plugs.

The noise was infernal inside the clean, open-plan space, where 30 weaving looms were transforming the yarn into blue fabric. To communicate with the production specialists, you needed to use gestures, though when we visited, only a very small number of the 1,500 looms housed in the building were operating. Despite the fact that during our visit at a quiet period Isko was exploiting only about 60% of its denim production capacity, more machines are due to be installed, as the company has approved an investment for 500 additional looms.

They will enable Isko to produce other types of textiles, like Arquas, a fabric used by activewear brands, and the Isko Vital fabric. It relies on government funding for part of its technology investments.

We then moved to the lower floor, somewhat similar to a place of worship. The ceiling is very tall, supported by huge concrete pillars and with skylights through which natural light streams in. It is the area where quality controls are carried out. The operators scrutinise the fabric, which is stretched out and rolls upwards, looking at sections of it under spotlights, while the rest of it is in semi-darkness. They check for imperfections in the denim, classifying the batches according to a four-point assessment system.

Any 100 m2 fabric batch scoring less than 18 points is classified as premium quality. Speaking to the ready-to-wear labels’ representatives visiting on the day, Isko emphasised its focus on quality, alongside the ability to handle both small and large order volumes.

More than simply an expert denim manufacturer, Isko wants to come across as a fully fledged denim specialist. For example, its staff are available to advise and support clients on styling issues. It has a ‘creative room’ offering a range of new designs and, as emphasised by Moreno De Angelis, in charge of Iskoteca, the department which oversees its denim and washing archives, it also has a thorough knowledge of the washing process.

Speaking to an audience of interested professionals, De Angelis presented the range of washings and finishings offered by the firm. And it told the audience about new developments heralded as ‘ecological’. “Each denim manufacturer has its own machinery and its specific expertise. I recommend you analyse various solutions based on your needs. For example, laser processing requires a large amount of electricity to create small wear streaks, which a worker can make by hand in just a few minutes. Is it interesting then?” said De Angelis, who also encouraged brand representatives to brief their designers on the possibilities offered by denim: “Don’t buy a fabric to process it and then wait for the end result. Select the fabric based on the final look you’re aiming for. You will save on chemicals, and save money.”

Suggestions that will resonate with a number of labels, and which should enable Isko to keep its Turkish site busy, producing 300 million metres of finished material per year, about six times the Earth’s circumference.

Whether you’re a digital nomad, family on vacation, adventurous backpacker, or surfer looking for paradise, you’ve come to the right place. Participate in the complete ecosystem of Selina: stay, eat, work, surf, explore, and find a deeper connection with the world.

Selina is not just accommodation. Yes, it offers (gorgeous, beautifully-designed) places to stay. More than that, it offers a place to connect with others. Be inspired by stunning beaches and lush jungles. Fuel your creativity in energetic urban centers. Catch a wave, dance until dawn, or tap into a new level of productivity with surfing, activities, co-working, and community by Selina. If you’re looking for a unique, immersive, purpose-filled experience, you’re looking for Selina.

In 2007 Rafael Museri and Daniel Rudasevski were living in Pedasí, a small fishing town in Panama. They ran real estate projects and while developing the town, they began to build a tight-knit social circle with locals and travelers.

The two friends had a project in mind. After traveling the world and staying in many places, they believed they could begin to change the world of hospitality and share this community with other travelers. This is how the first Selina was born in Venao, a surf town near Pedasí in 2014.

Once the model was proven to be a success in Venao, the expansion began. Selina is growing quickly in Central America, South America, North America and Europe.

Every Selina aims to be a contributing member of the communities in which we operate. Selina Gives Back is our holistic volunteering program for staff, guests and “Amigos de Selina” (friends from the neighborhood) who want to volunteer with us. Selina commits 2% of labor time so our staff can volunteer in Selina Gives Back activities. Whether it’s promoting arts and culture, or taking care of the environment, SGB offers the chance to give back.

The SGB activities we promote at locations are all free and include:

​Sharing your Talent:

• Assisting future “Chef Kids”
• English instruction for locals
• Painting, building, and improving local infrastructure
• Teaching arts & crafts
• Inclusive surf classes
• Yoga lessons for locals

​Protecting the Environment:

• Reforestation
• Beach Cleanup
• Town Cleanup
• Environmental Education

​Open SGB activities:

• To support local initiatives that contribute to building the identity and culture of local communities

Selina has raised $225 million in funding since its 2015 launch by co-founders who came from outside of the hospitality sector. The startup said it had separately secured more than $300 million from regional partners to acquire real estate and fund its conversion costs for ongoing projects.

Historically, hotel companies rarely received investment from venture capitalists. Selina’s executives believe it’s unlike traditional players. They argue that most offerings today feel commoditized and inflexible to a few segments of millennial travelers, including so-called digital nomads.

“We provide an offering that’s relevant to these customers who want a surprise in their experience,” said co-founder and CEO Rafael Museri. “We tap the local artists and workshops and let them create an aesthetic. The community decides what kind of wellness programming we’re going to have, what kind of music. Selina is the platform that lets them do it efficiently. We can now convert a property in about two months.”

Intriguingly the company has grown mostly through word of mouth. So far Museri has been skeptical of traditional customer acquisition methods.

“Personally, I never consume a product because I’ve seen a billboard or someone pushed me through the internet,” said Museri. “I’m not a big believer in traditional branding efforts. It’s Selina’s offline content — and how well it helps guests socialize and work and feel fulfilled — that will drive occupancy and repeat business.”

Selina plans to open 35 properties by the end of this year.

Things haven’t entirely gone according to plan. Selina first intended its U.S. premiere to take place in September 2018 in Florida. It later pushed that back to February 2019. Now it says its first three properties in Florida will open sometime in 2019.

In the U.S., the company has signed nine deals, said Yoav Gery, Selina’s president. “We have a strong pipeline beyond that in the U.S. in particular.”

Tel Aviv and Greece are among its upcoming outposts.

Critics said the company has so far not been as fleet of foot when it comes to some operational aspects. Separately, it competes for deal flow with traditional professional services firms that specialize in real estate and investment management and have well-practiced playbooks.

Selina aims to “redefine the way millennials live, work, play, learn, and give back,” said Lincoln Benet of investor Access Industries.

It typically provides dedicated coworking spaces rather than merely encouraging people to work in its lobbies. It usually coordinates wellness or art-related activities for guests to participate in rather than install a gym.