-
1 week ago | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
Machines and automation are essential to the smooth running of our complex societies but there is a danger in all their logic and efficiency that they get between us humans, creating barriers to our deeply embedded and often subtle social behaviours. Brands hunger for deeper connections with their consumers but they are guilty as any for unintentionally putting up these barriers to the people they look to serve.
-
1 month ago | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
Phygital – what a horrid word, but I don’t have anything better to describe the new interface relationship brands have with their consumers. Brand identities have a difficult job to get noticed and connect to consumers in this complex world, but the basics of branding still apply. Your brand still needs to be recognisable and relatable whatever the interaction. It used to be quite straight forward.
-
2 months ago | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
The elevator pitch is one of the most important assets your business will ever have, but one of the most difficult to define. You need to explain who you are, what you offer and why it’s good, all while going from the ground floor to the 20th (executive suite if you are lucky) – hence the elevator pitch. When starting a business, it’s one of the first things you will need, particularly if you are looking for backers.
-
Jan 12, 2025 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
Two important and related events have happened in the latter part of 2024 – the Jaguar rebrand and the merger of Omnicom and Interpublic to form the world’s largest ad agency group. They are both signifiers of the way branding is faltering. Ad agencies traditionally create advertising – it’s in the name. Their job was to raise salience and appeal of the products their clients wanted to sell. Along the way they often dominated the control of branding and identity.
-
Dec 16, 2024 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
I was recently reading an internal Unilever newsletter about the development of their Prestige brand portfolio. The CEO, Vasiliki Petrou, talked about the types of acquisitions they were looking for to build their €1 billion brand portfolio. She is quoted as saying “I always look for strong brands with authentic, differentiated stories. A strong brand, for me, is one that has its own unique concept and is globally relevant in a high-growth space”.
-
Nov 21, 2024 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
I was excited about the prospect of a government delivering on its promise to be pro-business. However, I saw little sign of this. We seem wholly consumed in trying to fix what we have with not nearly enough focus on finding a better way for the future. We clearly have problems to fix, exemplified by Northern rail admitting that it still uses fax machines to communicate vital messages to its crews, but we need to balance our investment. As in government the same is true in big business.
-
Oct 10, 2024 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
As a designer, I and my co-designers must, in part, take responsibility for making the unsustainable, single-use, consumable economy a massive success. Fashion designers created exciting collections for every season. Car designers created stylish facelifts to make last year’s model an embarrassment on the driveway. Product designers created convenient and cheap Bic pens that got lost long before the ink had run out. Identified and communicated benefits drove the consumer economy.
-
Sep 19, 2024 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
My father worked for the same company for his entire career. He started out as a junior, did his exams at night school and ended up as a director. His progression through the business was carefully managed by his betters, taking time in each department to learn the broad skills and people networks needed to advance in an orderly and timely manner. It was all laid out for him and he worked hard – he was a company man and part of a community. When I started work it was already quite different.
-
Aug 22, 2024 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
I was never taught how to manage a business and its people. I just got on with it, making mistakes and learning along the way. I did consider going to the London Business School to learn how, but one of the professors I knew there said I’d learn more on the job. She was right, but it was tough going at times especially the people bit.
-
Jul 14, 2024 | 
elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk | Nick Dormon
Generations of men and women were defined by their roles – fitters, machinists, putters (the people who assembled scissors). It was like their identity was stolen when Thatcher shut the factories in the 80s in favour of the city and North Sea oil. Whole communities in places such as Sheffield and Birmingham cast adrift wondering how they were going to make a living in this brave new world.
