Digilogue: How to Win the Digital Minds and Analogue Hearts of Tomorrow's Customer

10: Going digilogue

We sometimes reminisce about the good old days. Sometimes we pretend that things will go back to normal. Occasionally, our nostalgia blurs how hard things used to be. We remember margins, resources and the seasons in which we reaped the rewards. But when I look at the history of my mum’s, Per’s and Georg’s business, it has always been tough. And adaptation, innovation and creativity have always been the answers to external change. The store was started during the First World War, survived the Great Depression, the Second World War, two inter-generational buy-outs, and new market entrants. It’s been standing the test of time until now. Where to from here?

This chapter looks at how we are applying digilogue at Georg Sörman to help it reinvent, rejuvenate and rebirth, and prove that bricks and mortar retail can survive in a world of digital disruption. And in the process, we’re hoping to ensure that another generation of Swedish men and foreign clients can continue to transition from boyhood to adulthood, to manhood and, ultimately, to gentlemanhood — in style.

Strategising for future success

I speak digital. My mum speaks analogue. During that fateful conversation in Stockholm in May 2012, we couldn’t seem to understand each other. The last time we had spoken about the business, the conversation had ended with me saying, ‘So your clients only know how not to buy from you online’. Hardly a constructive conversation. But with time, perhaps, we get wiser. What ...