Blint n° 75 - Enero 2016

BLINT
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
INTERNATIONAL
AL HILO DE…/THREADING IT TOGETHER
CIRCULAR DISTRIBUTION
New players, modalities and skill sets are transforming
the world of retail. The annual workshop sponsored by
Future Concept Lab analyzed the changes in this sector
The four days of the 2015 workshop series are dedicated to
the scenarios of growth. Each day focuses on a dimension
that will facilitate growth in the coming years.
“During April we presented generativity in aesthetics, in
June specificity in consumption and in October magnetism
in communications. Today we close the circle with circularity
in retail – explained Francesco Morace, Future Concept Lab
- These contributions will be assessed as a whole and in an
integrated manner: the challenge that companies have to
face is in fact marked by the ability to reconstruct an overall
scenario of knowledge and action that the economic crisis
has fragmented, dispersed and reduced to a minimum. This
occurred at the exact moment in which the need for a broader
vision of the future emerged, forward-looking, but also
able to face the issues and the needs put forward by each
of us, activating an ability to close the circle. To achieve this
goal Future Concept Lab mobilized itself with the project
Festival della Crescita (www.festivalcrescita.it) – which was
held between October 15th and 18th in Milan at the Palazzo
delle Stelline – intelligence in all disciplines, intercepting
the innovators of many dimensions, through different vital
worlds all collected under six main themes: educate, cultivate,
create, engage, invest and communicate. The Future
Vision Workshops represent the professional side of this vision
and want to accompany and support the courage of entrepreneurs
and educators, students and professionals who
desire to face the enterprise of Growth. In the next edition
this convergence between Festival and Future Vision Workshops
will further consolidate. During todays workshop we
will face the possible declinations of the Sharing Economy
which in recent years has gathered very different expressions
of circularity under its umbrella: from a first dimension
of solidarity between gift giving and reward, of which
Banco Alimentare represents one of the most recognized,
up to a new strategic vision that will guide the activities of
major companies as in the case of Intesa Sanpaolo that has
launched the project Circular Economy. In this dimension, as
in the others that we introduce over the course of the day,
the role of credibility and reputation emerges, epitomized
in the book The Reputation Economy by Michael Fertik and
David Thompson that has an emblematic indication as a
subtitle: How to Optimize Your Digital Footprint in a World
Where Your Reputation Is Your Most Valuable Asset. As we
pointed out in the relative paradigm there is no Sharing that
functions without a new capital of Trust. A second dimension
that relates to the circularity of new business models
made possible by the web including those of the new players
in transport and tourism (of which Uber and Airbnb are
emblematic examples) use resources already in the field in a
circular way: with the cars or homes of the same customers.
In this case it is all a question of thinking of the consumer/
client as an active protagonist of this virtuous circle according
to the classic win-win logic, where everyone seemingly
wins, but that implies criticality in the relationship with
the classic rules of the market and the regulatory and tax
system. A third dimension is instead linked to the virtuous
circle of local/global territories that are now forced to compete
with global competition, accepting the rule of comparison
with other countries. Expo Milan 2015 has been a great
example in which the Italian regions along the Cardo were
able to coordinate in a circular way, on the basis of a joint
project of great potential. The scenario of Retail Growth will
then close with an appeal for the incessant exploration of
new to be invented services, starting from the technological
challenges that still lie ahead and that mark a unimaginable
border only a few years ago, moving to define a still to be
defined Trade Incubators logic. In this way the importance of
values will be accomplished through forms of Mindful Business,
which provide a strong alignment between the Profit
and No-Profit sectors, while the orientation to new business
will lead to the disintermediation and circular deconstruction
of retail creating true Evolutionary Hubs, real and virtual
places in which cooperation and new collaborative protocols
will bring about the new rules of business. Finally, the rediscovery
of Genius Loci will bring about a reinforcement
of territories and their talents and qualities, according to the
logic of Amplified Territories”.
MINDFUL BUSINESS
For some time now in the retail sector we observe an experimentation
with new business proposals in line with the logic
of gift giving, that enrich with new values the relationship
between the company, products, services and the retailer
with customers who – involved by these new forms – are
considered and recognized as people. If Value Oriented, the
traditional two-way movement of commercial exchange is
transformed, approaching the theory set out in the past by
Marcel Mauss in his Essay on Gifting, in giving one – receives
– in exchange. To receive a gift presupposes the freedom
for the consumer to accept, but also the possibility to
reciprocate the trust with equal liberty. Retail displaces the
coded rules of business, creating new value for the individual
or the community and strengthening a bond, which is also
of knowledge and depth because gift giving speaks explicitly
of those who do it. In the gratuitousness of the experience
there is the recognition of the other. In the trend Mindful
Business, retail underlines its vocation for values, strengthening
the role of spokesperson for social issues and the promoter
of “best practices”. This interests the part of companies
and retailers that proactively fit into planetary debates
on the most discussed social issues, considering both on
and offline as effective tools to promote greater awareness.
The starting point for retailers that activate according to the
logic of this trend, underpins of an existential project (of the
individual entrepreneur or the brand itself) that – through different
modes – try to transform into a new business model,
where the value is not purely economic but follows circular
directions of growth, that if successful, are amplified like
circles in water. Therefore the products and services offered
become vehicles of values, inseparable from their economic
value. The consumers mainly involved on the basis of affinity
of values and choices, act as a sounding board for the products/services
offered and the related project. In this trend,
retail takes on a formative role, ranging from the broader
areas of development –above all interesting at a social level
– to everyday projects for growth, individual or family. The
issue of wasted resources is central to this trend where, on
the one hand we are witnessing the creation of networks of