The Entrepreneurs

Upwardly mobile

Creative types crave space. That’s what automotive designer Lowie Vermeersch was after when, in 2011, he came across a sprawling factory space sitting idle in Turin. In need of a headquarters for his new creative consultancy, the Belgian had considered his options – among them a move to Milan, with its formidable reputation as a design hub. The choice came down to two factors: affordability and, more importantly, quality of life.

“A space of this size would have cost me double in Milan,” says Vermeersch of his decision to base his start-up Granstudio in a huge structure once home to a business making brakes for the Fiat 500. “Then you have to consider how you want to spend your free time. Here you have a beautiful city centre and in five minutes you are in the hills surrounded by countryside; skiing is just over an hour away.”

Though Italy’s version of the Motor City had been in decline, with layoffs at Fiat in the 1980s and factory closures in the 1990s, other possibilities arose as industrial activity ceded ground. Hosting the 2006 Winter Olympics spurred a flurry of construction, including the building of Turin’s first metro line. In 2007 businessman Oscar Farinetti inaugurated the first Eataly supermarket selling high-quality Italian food in an abandoned vermouth factory in front of Fiat’s former base.

The move to a post-industrial economy is best seen in neighbourhoods such as Barriera di Milano, which is home to Vermeersch’s Granstudio. The area is less frenetic than Milan: street parking is easier to find here and the telltale signs of gentrification are less of a concern. That’s what makes Turin appealing, says Barbara Villanova, art director at creative agency Bellissimo. “There’s still a feeling of something incomplete about the city. For creatives, that’s a great draw,” she says. Villanova and her colleagues also enjoy the collection of rivers that flow in Turin: rowers, joggers and cyclists can get a spot of exercise by day and venture out for a waterfront aperitivo at night. There is also easy access to some of the country’s most fêted vintners. “We have the [wine regions] Langhe and Monferrato on our doorstep and the sea in Liguria is within easy reach.”

Some might consider Italy’s first capital more provincial than Milan but quality-of-life metrics published by financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore show Turin gaining ground on its Lombard rival. It’s no surprise to Milanese native Stefano Testa, architect and co-founder of Leap Factory, a firm that sells prefabricated modular homes, including for mountains and extreme climates. “You have more greenery around you,” he says. “And if you need to go for a meeting, the high-speed train is a convenient 50-minute trip.”

At Cingomma, which makes belts, shoes, bags and other accessories using recycled bicycle tyres, co-founders Maurizio Sacco enjoys a large office and workshop within Docks Dora, a century-old warehouse. Inside, Sacco has built a makeshift climbing wall, which he uses to unwind when not sewing the soles of the brand’s popular Friulane slippers. “We have room to grow here, which for a young brand is vital,” adds Sacco’s colleague Monica Rofa. “That’s what Turin can offer. It gives you oxygen to grow.”

Sunny outlook

Italy’s Istituto Marangoni has a deep history within the world of global fashion and interior design. Founded in 1935, it has outposts in Milan, Florence, London, Paris, Shanghai, Mumbai and Shenzhen. So when the time came to establish a US branch in 2019, its choice of Miami was notable. “We could have gone to New York or Los Angeles but I knew after visiting Miami that it was the place for us,” says Hakan Baykam, CEO of Istituto Marangoni Miami. “It’s a creative hub full of opportunity, which offers inspiring connections and easy access to Latin America.” Under academic director Massimo Casagrande, the school opened in 2018 and, after a challenging 2020, expects to be up and running again this year as international students return.

Entrepreneurs have been flocking to Florida’s biggest city this past year, drawn by a relaxed approach to lockdowns and, of course, sunshine. First came the prominent business leaders who decamped from larger cities like New York – where higher taxes than in Florida have prompted hedge funds and other Wall Street firms to consider moving south – and San Francisco; even Elon Musk has discussed building car tunnels under the city. But there’s also a larger trend of hospitality, design and fashion entrepreneurs moving to south Florida. Miami is already among the world’s more prominent start-up hubs but over the past year it has shifted into another gear. Half the population is foreign-born and Miami’s inclusive, collaborative atmosphere has encouraged newcomers. And it’s not just the usual technology and finance start-ups. While Miami was already a staple on the cultural calendar with Art Basel Miami and Design Miami, it has been taken to the next level with the creation of the Design District.

Geane Brito, a Brazilian real-estate agent, moved to the city in 2000. After living in Miami Beach for 18 years she recently moved to an industrial loft in Midtown Miami, the residential neighbourhood that borders the Design District. “It’s no longer the holiday house or vacationer; it’s shifted to permanent residents,” she says. “And because of that, the real estate market, both commercial and residential, is booming more than ever.” She estimates that sales of residential properties in the Design District have risen 30 to 40 per cent in the past year. “It’s crazy what’s happening here now.”

One of Brito’s recent clients was Lisa Walsh, who along with her daughter Lauren, “packed up our house, our business and our family” in New York and moved south. They opened Tighemi, a clothing and homeware shop with a Moroccan theme. Smaller boutiques like hers are flanked by larger brand stores, such as Alexander McQueen and Stone Island, that have moved into the district. Chanel is building a flagship here.

Restaurants with New York flagships, such as Carbone and the Michelin-starred South Korean steakhouse Cote, are also choosing to open outposts in Miami over other coastal cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. “I fell in love with Miami,” says Cote owner Simon Kim. “It was transforming from a vacation town to a prominent metropolis and I knew that Cote had to be part of that renaissance.”

Craig Robins, founder of Design Miami and a key developer of the Design District, says that the arrival of escapees from larger cities is a familiar story, even as tourism dropped off during the pandemic. “Our Design District is enjoying robust leasing and an exceptionally busy season with the openings of amazing brands,” says Robins, who’s also the CEO of real-estate company Dacra. “We’re excited to blend culture and commerce in innovative ways.”

The Design District is now at the heart of the city’s design, fashion and arts scene. Franklin Sirmans, who moved to Miami in 2015 to take over as director of the Pérez Art Museum, says that the area has a positivity that helped to hold the community together over the past year. “It proclaimed the feeling in Miami now, especially in light of coronavirus and the US’s ongoing history with racism,” says Sirmans. “It was celebratory, constructive and filled with mutual aid. It feels as though we’re at another important moment in the city’s story, one that’s inviting change.”

Industrial revolution

Tour & Taxis has been billed as Brussels’ up-and-coming district – but that wasn’t always the case. The industrial area around the city’s docks was built in the early 20th century and has been neglected for much of its recent existence. But a surge in development means that the area by Brussels’ canal is now on the up.

Tourists think of Brussels for its Grand Place, cobbled streets and formidable EU buildings but the historical old docks have become the canvas for new apartments and modern workspaces. The area was primarily composed of vast warehouses surrounding iconic buildings such as the Hôtel de la Poste and the Gare Maritime. The first wave of redevelopment was completed in 2004 but the latest phase has seen the Gare Maritime, a former freight station, converted into a year-round mixed-use “covered neighbourhood” with offices, a food hall, shops, gardens and an events space. “The most outstanding value of the site is the sheer size and quality of the buildings there,” says Kris Verhellen, CEO of Extensa, the property company developing the area. Offices are already in use with the more public areas set to open in September.

The latest phase of development aims to make it feel “psychologically and physically” closer to the city centre, says Verhellen. “This has to become a metropolitan corner with its own identity. It should be a neighbourhood where people live and work.” Verhellen is inviting everyone from law firms to high-value start-ups to move here. While rental prices match the city’s other high-end spaces, part of the development has been earmarked for affordable housing.

Businesses have been given a helping hand by the city, which realised that Tour & Taxis needed to be integrated with the rest of Brussels. In mid-April, the new 60 metre-long Suzan Daniel Bridge was manoeuvred into place. Secondary boardwalks at the Quai de Willebroeck and Avenue du Port have still to be built. The project, costing about €9.4m, will be open exclusively to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. “The canal was a dividing line in our city for too long,” says Brussels’ minister for public works, Elke van den Brandt.

In Belgium, beer has been added to the Unesco-recognised intangible cultural heritage list. It’s fitting then that Brasserie de la Senne, founded in 2003, recently moved to a space at Tour & Taxis. “Soon hundreds of new homes should attract a cool mix of people,” says the brewery’s co-founder Yvan de Baets. “It’s a new neighbourhood in the heart of the capital. We saw it as an opportunity.” Sam van Coillie, owner of Obsidian Gallery, says that he chose Tour & Taxis because “it has high ceilings and a great New York-style industrial look”.

The most recognisable building at Tour & Taxis is the Royal Depot, an enormous warehouse along the canal that has been converted into offices and as been at full capacity since 2004. The Gare Maritime building, meanwhile, already counts Universal Music, Accenture and Publicis as tenants. Currently there’s only about 15 per cent of office space left, which Verhellen is confident about filling. “In September we open the food hall and that will mark the beginning of more retail and commercial activity, which we’re blending with cultural pastimes,” he says.

According to Verhellen, a vibrant business location “is a state of mind”. “You don’t go to Tour & Taxis because you need more space,” he says. “You go to change the mindset of your people. You take people out of their environment, shake them up, get them out of the 20th century and throw them into the 21st.”

Brussels is renowned for its eccentric artists, quirky charm and European institutions. The development of Tour & Taxis could mean that it will also be on the map as a business innovation hub.

Put down a marker

For decades, Seongsu was the furthest thing from cool or convenient. Disused factories lay empty next to car repairers after the 1997 Asian financial crisis drove businesses to bankruptcy. Sandwiched between two rivers, the 5 sq km peninsula has no major roads leading to it and its narrow streets are hard to navigate. Today, however, these wrinkles are making Seongsu one of the world’s most exciting commercial centres, a magnet for entrepreneurs and an enclave for artists.

Take a walk through Seongsu on a sunny Saturday and you’ll see young couples sipping lattes in one of its ubiquitous cafés. There will also be throngs of pedestrians – an anomaly for famously car-loving South Koreans. And you’re likely to discover new shop openings and small construction sites. What you’re unlikely to see is a Starbucks on every corner, as the community board and district office often bar major chains from moving into the area in order to prevent it becoming a bland high street.

As most parts of Seoul – a city of 10 million – have been transformed into high-rise apartment complexes and big malls, Seongsu’s low-rise neighbourhood, with its meandering alleyways, has become a novelty. Though a handful of multi-million-dollar apartment blocks have been built within its borders, Seongsu is viewed as a collection of converted houses and factories. It plays host to the likes of an artisanal gelateria, a streetwear boutique and a vintage furniture shop. Young people are flocking here seeking unique offline experiences, and retailers who want a piece of the action have popped up throughout the area.

“I opened my shop in Seongsu because it’s a neighbourhood that gives a nod to the past generations’ heritage,” says Jiyoon Yun, creative director of eyewear maker Yun. The brand opened a flagship store here early last year, with a mission of providing high-quality lenses and timeless designs at affordable prices. “It’s an area where old and new are co-existing in symbiosis.” While she admits that growth has slowed due to the pandemic, the company has found inspiration by breathing life into new collections. Late last year, it launched a bio-acetate frame line, targeting more eco-conscious customers.

Steps away from Yun’s Seoul shop is Samuel Smalls, a vintage furniture trader, which cites a different reason for setting up in Seongsu: its burgeoning retail scene. Samuel Smalls ran multiple pop-up stints – one inside a café – before settling in an underground converted storage area. “Vintage furniture shops are often located in Nonhyeon [an upscale Gangnam district] or outside the city. It’s important for us to stay close to this clientele,” says owner Sukju Ryu.

This is because young people who flock to Seongsu value and seek out authentic products and experiences that are unlikely to be found elsewhere. Pakkookii – a vintage and contemporary home décor concept store that sells items such as David Hockney prints and Bornn enamelware – is a case in point. The shop is hidden on the fourth floor of a nondescript building, with just a tiny sign on ground level – but it sees healthy footfall, according to its owner, Pak Kookii.

“I don’t do promotion; I just buy goods you can’t find anywhere else,” says Pak, crediting word of mouth as key. Pakkookii’s original location was in downtown Seoul but it was later squeezed out by high rent prices. Earlier this year it moved to the picturesque current site in Seongsu, where gingko trees line the street. “It’s a lush neighbourhood and it sort of feels like Brooklyn,” says Pak.

NDD, a highly rated hole-in-the-wall gelateria, is another relative newcomer that is gaining attention. The parlour is accessible only through a narrow staircase up to the second floor. But the weekend crowd visiting the nearby Seoul Forest – one of the South Korean capital’s largest inner-city parks – forms a queue that reaches all the way down to street level.

“There are so many people here,” says Jeonghun Kim, NDD’s owner, who learned the gelato craft in Milan and opened the shop early last year. Kim used to frequent the space when it was a sleepy bookshop. Now the area teems with people and retailers. As she says, “Even homes around here are being converted into retail space.”

Stay sharp

To the skies
Denmark’s Nordic Seaplanes flies against the headwinds.

There is little that 57-year-old seaplane captain Lasse Rungholm enjoys more than takeoff at sunrise from Copenhagen’s harbour. Sporting a black suit with golden epaulettes, he flies the 16-seat Canadian Twin Otter for 45 minutes above Denmark’s winding coastline before landing in its second city, Aarhus. “Flying is my time off,” he says.

When not in the air, Rungholm is busy handling a 20-strong staff of captains, co-pilots and ground crew who make up Nordic Seaplanes, the company he co-founded in 2016. As northern Europe’s only seaplane operator, the airline offers daily commuter flights between Denmark’s two largest cities. And it’s expanding.

Since its launch, Nordic Seaplanes has experienced steady growth, operating nearly full flights and offering sold-out sightseeing tours over the summer months. Though the pandemic hit the industry hard, the company recently put dkk200,000 (€27,000) into renovating its Aarhus terminal-cum-lounge, where passengers can enjoy coffee and snacks before boarding. On top of that, Rungholm and his team invested in a second dkk30m (€4m) seaplane in a bid to double the daily service and introduce routes to neighbouring Sweden. “We’ve been busy,” he says with pride.

Rungholm’s venture into seaplanes was all about following his passions. A trained pilot and lawyer, he had spent more than a decade at a law firm in Aarhus before rediscovering his calling on a family trip to the Caribbean. “I knew I didn’t want to fly regular jets,” he says. “So I found out exactly what to pursue.”

He relocated to the Maldives after learning that it was home to the world’s largest seaplane fleet, with more than 60 aircraft across the archipelago. There he met the operator’s founder Lars Erik Nielsen, a fellow Dane, who had been in the business for decades. Six years later, the two set out to introduce seaplanes to the Danish market. “It has always been a problem getting from here to Copenhagen,” says Rungholm (pictured) in the Aarhus lounge. “So we knew from the start that we’d have a reliable customer base.” The alternatives are a three-hour train journey or jet services that take over two hours. Boarding a Nordic Seaplanes service is free from security checks and requires passengers to check in just 10 minutes before departure, a short ride from either city centre.

“We’ve come up with ideas to differentiate ourselves from ordinary airlines,” adds Rungholm. Wine tasting is on offer every Friday and hybrid Audis and electric bikes are available outside each terminal, free to loyal customers. What’s more, low-altitude flying (an average of 900 metres) allows full-strength mobile connectivity throughout the flight.

Rungholm is thrilled to be back in the air after months of reduced services. His advice to those seeking to break into the industry? Be well-informed on the regulations. “It can be a tough business,” he says. “But flying is beautiful.”

Special delivery
Finland’s state postal service is leading the e-com package boom.

A side-effect of retail’s shift online is that all those packages need innovative delivery solutions from postal services more used to bringing you letters and cards. Finland’s state-owned Posti wants to be at the forefront of this changing postal landscape. Its Box by Posti service in downtown Helsinki is a radical rethink of what the post office should be in the 21st century.

Designed by Finnish studio Fyra in co-operation with creative consultancy Motley, Box by Posti offers parcel lockers, spaces where customers can open packages and dispose of the cardboard, and a fitting room in which to try on clothes orders. Moreover, the space is being made available for emerging online retailers who need a temporary physical showroom in a prime location.

The company has opened more than 2,000 lockers across Finland and launched a smartphone app that has more than a million users – one in every five Finns

“Picking up parcels should be smooth and fun,” says Posti’s head of retail partnerships Heiko Laubach. He believes that online retail doesn’t have to feel cold and faceless, which is why Posti celebrates human interaction by offering personal service on-site. “Finns from all ages and all walks of life send and receive parcels,” says Laubach. “Our people are there to show them how the lockers and smartphone apps work.” Part of the reason for launching Box by Posti was, says Laubach, the urge to support small brands by offering them a space in which to test a bricks-and-mortar shop.

The model enhances Posti’s recent growth; its parcel services alone have increased by 146 per cent in the past 12 years. The company has also launched fully automated postal kiosks in which customers can send and receive goods, opened more than 2,000 parcel lockers across Finland, and launched a smartphone app for tracking post that has more than a million users – one in every five Finns. Posti’s offering is a reminder that innovation doesn’t just rest with private companies. Instead, typically red-taped government-owned agencies can be industry-wide pioneers too.

Three more package deals

The irresistible rise of online retail means that time spent waiting for a delivery has become part and parcel of daily life. Miss the postman and there’s every chance that packages will be lost or parcels left strewn across building entrance halls. To counter this, a host of entrepreneurial companies are offering ingenious secure storage lockers for deliveries that can’t be met in person. We unpack three of our favourites.

Swipbox
Danish manufacturer Swipbox’s Infinity parcel lockers take less than two minutes to install as they need no electric wiring. It means that the only shock you’ll get is that the postman can finally leave your packages in a safe place.

Luxer One
California-based Luxer One offers fully customisable lockers. It has a range of sizes to cater for small and large boxes, and refrigerated options for perishables, so you won’t have to fear missing the driver again. Perish the thought.

Parcel Hive
Spain-based Parcel Hive offers temperature and humidity-controlled lockers perfect for home-delivered food items.

Piping hot
A Japanese plumber is flushing doubts with a smart clothing line.

Yuzo Sekiya is one of the most unorthodox entrepreneurial stars in Japan. Starting as a plumber, the 43-year-old has since made waves in fashion.

It began in 2001 when he graduated from university. “My father runs a small plumbing company in Tochigi,” says Sekiya. “He got sick, so I went back to support.” Following a stint at the family firm, he started his own plumbing business in 2006, alone from his small apartment in Tokyo – and experience was key. “Rebuilding my family business was hard. It was neither what I wanted to do, nor was I skilled at it, so doing it successfully gave me confidence. Now I feel like I could do anything I love to do.”

In 2016 a eureka moment came when Sekiya was struggling to recruit young talent. “We thought we might attract them if our uniform was more stylish,” he says. In order to fill the gap between fashionable suits and sweaty workwear, Sekiya’s team scoured the globe for the perfect fabric that struck the balance of durability and comfort. “We couldn’t find any, so we developed our own,” he says. It was a big hit: the new, versatile uniform not only attracted young employees but also created a new market. Today his brand Work Wear Suit has 850 clients in plumbing, taxi, gardening and hotel industries, to name a few. Fashion-conscious consumers responded too, buying the basic jackets, trousers and coats at United Arrows and Isetan. The brand’s worth grew from ¥60m (€460,000) to nearly ¥1bn (€7.7m) in three years.

“We have one material for basic, all-season staples,” says Sekiya. “We don’t end up with unsold seasonal collections.” In 2019 he received a hefty seal of approval. Osamu Shigematsu, founder and honorary chairman of United Arrows joined to advise his company on seeking expansion.

Today, Sekiya’s Oasys Lifestyle Group employs 200 staff, whose average age is 28. “If anything, my strength is soft power,” he says. “I can gather people. I want my company to be the best place in the world for my colleagues.”

Sekiya has many irons in the fire but keeps his focus sharp. “Whatever it is, I give it my all once I’m in,” he says. “I aim at number one in the world.”

Economy of scales
Abu Dhabi’s Pure Salmon is fixing a flailing industry by moving inland.

Fish farming is often seen as the reserve of buccaneering business players who have little regard for the planet’s ecosystem, with horror stories of sea-lice infestations and algae blooms, long-distance exports freighted with astronomical costs and a hefty carbon footprint. This salty issue is set against a backdrop of overfishing and cresting fish consumption among a growing middle class. But one Abu Dhabi-based company is taking this in an altogether different direction.

Pure Salmon will chart new waters by raising its fish inland, creating a controlled environment devoid of chemicals, antibiotics and hormones, while curtailing traces of poisonous mercury (a common problem) and microplastics. Buoyed by a belief in sustainability, it reinstates 98 per cent of the water used through a filtration and oxygenation system, keeping it fresh. And in contrast to open net-pen farming, growing inland minimises the effect on the oceans.

The visionary behind this landlubber’s approach is co-founder and chairman Stephane Farouze who, after spending decades in the banking industry, saw an opportunity. “In the global food industry, supply for protein cannot match consumer demand,” he says.

As part of his push for social and environmental responsibility, Farouze has conceived an audacious goal. “Our ambition from the outset is to grow Atlantic salmon locally on a global scale, with an annual production target of 260,000 tonnes by 2030.” The company currently has just one operational farm in Poland but Pure Salmon has lined up a rollout that spans the continents, taking in Japan, France, the US, uae, Brunei and China. It has worked closely with governments to secure funds and land required, in turn meeting their desires to be self-reliant in terms of food security.

One of the biggest hurdles in responsible aquaculture is using sustainable ingredients for fish feed. Pure Salmon is currently collaborating with numerous organisations such as Nutreco, a Dutch aquafeed firm – to innovate and create fish feed by sustainable means, such as experimenting with insects or through fermentation. Beyond thinking about the industry’s future, it also takes a considerable amount of time to raise salmon for harvest (22 to 24 months, to be exact). Pure Salmon is in it for the long haul.

Creative thinking
How to run a design studio.

It’s fair to say that designers aren’t always known for their business savvy. Perhaps due to the idea that design should be about passion and not payment, architects, artists and other creatives often need help when it comes to selling their skills. Here are three of our favourite books that shed light on what it takes to run a financially viable studio or practice.

‘How to Win Work’
You’re a great designer but how do you let people know? That’s the question Jan Knikker answers in this new book. A partner at mvrdv, the German architect provides advice on writing press releases, making fee proposals and preparing for presentations. We’re sure that Knikker always has his elevator pitch ready to go.

‘Run Studio Run’
Eli Altman of creative agency A Hundred Monkeys explains how to manage and grow a small creative studio, encouraging designers to look at their work critically as a business and not just an artistic endeavour.

‘The Haptic Way’
London and Oslo-based Haptic Architects’ book is part monograph, part manual for setting up a creative business. Featuring the writing of entrepreneur John Brown, the book investigates the studio’s work, giving currency to the idea that truly good design is worth paying for.

Best medicine
Rome’s pharmacies are among the city’s healthiest businesses.

According to the Italian Federation of Pharmacies, there are just shy of 1,200 chemists in Rome’s metropolitan area alone. Their flashing green neon signs are a ubiquitous urban symbol; often several are found on one street. In a city whose small shops close for lunch, there is always a pharmacy open nearby at any time, catering to Italians’ hypochondriacal tendencies, the city’s large population of silver-haired signore and all of those who establish special, personal relationships with these trusted outposts of healthcare. Over the past year, these businesses have re-established their fundamental role in the community.

Sitting on the small Tiberina Island in the river at the heart of the city, the Farmacia Fatebenefratelli has serviced the nearby hospital, residents and pilgrims for at least 500 years. “I don’t like to use the word customers,” says head pharmacist Fernando Suez, with a constant flow of people walking in and out. “These are our patients.” And the list of services they provide is seemingly endless. There’s advice and prescriptions, of course, but the pharmacy also supports homelessness charities, staffs a helpline for domestic-violence victims and runs a service for missing persons. Brother Angelo, who came to Rome from Colombia five years ago, highlights a more prosaic service too: first aid for countless twisted ankles – Rome’s cobbles are notoriously treacherous.

At the more opulent surroundings of the Farmacia Reale, despite the chandeliers, pharmacy services are just as accessible. “We’ve been doing coronavirus testing and now we are waiting to start vaccinating,” says head pharmacist Fiorenza Madeo. In the basement, more traditional activities take place – including the preparation of so-called “galenic formulations”. Madeo makes pomades, capsules and tonics to order. “We can create things that have gone out of production but that a doctor might insist are just the ticket for a patient,” she says.

Nearby, and so close to the Trevi Fountain that gushing water drowns out most conversation, Alessandra Ciotti runs the beautifully preserved Farmacia Pesci, which has been in the family since 1900. “An uncle had it, then my father,” says Ciotti at the vast polished mahogany counter, which dates from the 16th century. “Now my son is doing a degree in pharmacy.” She specialises in those tourist services you don’t think about until you need them. “Maybe the airline lost your luggage and you need to replace your medication?” says Ciotti. “And you probably need a toothbrush too.”

A stone’s throw away, Farmacia Santi has been run by the diminutive Anna Laura Santi since 1974. Her pharmacy is an immaculate time capsule. “I have respect for what came before, and if I’ve decided to do this in life, I should do it properly,” she says. “I was born in 1939,” she adds unprompted, before lowering her mask to reveal a youthful smile. “Not bad, wouldn’t you say?” We’ll take whatever she’s prescribing.

Knowing the spore
One Californian start-up dreams of a world made of mushrooms.

Among the warehouses of Emeryville, near San Francisco, California, Sophia Wang brushes her hand across what appears to be a sheet of supple leather. But appearances can be deceiving.

Wang is in the production facility of Mycoworks, a start-up she co-founded that has been developing a raft of biomaterials from mycelium – the fine, threadlike substance you can find branching out below mushroom stalks. Of the company’s various ventures, its trademarked leather alternatives have gained much commercial attention. These consist of layers of mycelium (or Fine Mycelium, as the company’s patented version is called) and include Reishi, the sheets laid out in front of Wang, and Sylvania, the material used to create the first mushroom-based bag, produced in collaboration with Hermès. This follows Mycoworks receiving $45m (€37m) in its second round of financing with investors ranging from celebrity figures, including Natalie Portman and John Legend, to venture-capital funds.

The roots of the company run deep. While studying for a phd in English Literature at Berkeley in the 1990s, Wang was also working part-time as a multimedia artist in San Francisco. There she came across Phil Ross, a fellow artist, with whom she collaborated on a number of projects and who introduced her to his decades-long experiments with mushrooms (no, not like that).

“It’s easy to get people on board when they feel the material. It provides opportunities that wouldn’t exisit with animal hide”

More than just an eccentric hobbyist, Ross was beginning to see huge potential in how mushroom roots might be used as a material for sculpture and design. By growing mycelium in the right conditions, the substance could be used to create all manner of things. Ross worked to make tough mycelium bricks, which went on to be displayed in museums around the world for their architectural potential. As interest picked up, the duo officially launched the company in 2013.

Ross focuses on the long-term vision for the technology and its applications, while Wang steers the company’s culture and values. This is no small matter. Mycoworks has mushroomed from its two-person spore, with some 100 employees now working in its facilities across California, producing mycelium in huge quantities and researching the new possibilities it brings.

“It’s easy to get people on board when they feel the material,” says Wang, explaining that while designers are often initially drawn to the material for its sustainability, they stick with it for other reasons. Fine Mycelium allows them to customise production in order to match the material to their needs – it can be made tougher, softer, thicker, thinner. “It provides opportunities that wouldn’t exist with animal hide,” says Wang. And as the fungal matter can grow just about anywhere in the world, it’s easy for production sites to sprout in new locations, meaning that supply-chain waste and transport costs can be avoided.

Though choosing to remain tight-lipped about future plans, Wang confirms that more fashion and design projects are on the horizon. As for what else the company is cultivating in its labs, it could be anything. “It’s exciting to think about what else we might discover,” says Wang. Mushroom shoes? Mushroom planes? Mushroom everything. The idea is growing on us.

Capital assets
Will creative Londoners stick or twist?

We asked three London-based creative entrepreneurs whether they’re keen to stay in the UK capital or move on after a period marked by Brexit and the pandemic.

Tarik Fontenelle
Chief research officer and co-founder at strategic insight agency On Road.

Twist: “I will leave London at some stage if the UK can’t deliver on its post-Brexit promises. I’d probably go to New York, where we plan to set up our next office, although with the Olympics going to Los Angeles perhaps I should be looking at the West Coast. I’m optimistic for London because new ideas, businesses and ways of solving problems will emerge but it’s hard to feel totally positive about the decisions that have made it tricky to be an entrepreneur. I’m most concerned about the effect [of Brexit] on the UK’s standing as a nation and the glut of talent that we’ll lose. This is a time for innovative thinking that can take the country forward – more should be done to support this new wave of entrepreneurs.”
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Myvanwy Evans
Founding director of creative agency Louder Than Words.

Stick: “The pandemic has taught us that almost anything is possible and it’s a real challenge to assume what the next few years will look like. London has been a leading cultural capital for hundreds of years and always will be. The rate at which we have adapted is testament to our creative endurance. Alternative solutions will continue to plug the gaps of the old and the defunct, and I believe there’s an exciting new era ahead. London might need an immigration drive quite soon, which has always been its creative life force. The UK capital could bounce back even stronger – if it rejoined the EU.”
ltwltd.com

Kathlene Fox-Davies
Founding director of Black Box Projects, specialising in contemporary photography and art.

Stick: “The past year has been brutal for the creative industries and the self-employed. As a gallery we specialise in work that must be experienced in-person. We don’t have a permanent bricks-and-mortar gallery, which was a godsend during lockdown, but we never intended ours to be a web-based gallery and it’s been a crash course in technology. We will only know the true effects of this past year once galleries and museums reopen – sadly, we might see some remaining closed. London has always been an attractive place for art dealers because of the business opportunities and diversity of individuals and interests within the city. I see an opportunity for UK-based artists among collectors here and abroad. Brits are famous for keeping calm and carrying on and I believe that this is what we will see from the creative industries as we navigate this strange new territory.”
blackboxprojects.art

Hard wearing
An entrepreneur with his finger on the pulse is causing shockwaves.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to get shot without actually getting shot, allow me to shed some light: it hurts. But, thankfully, there’s less bleeding involved. It’s one of the experiences flawlessly simulated by the Dipulse full-body Smartsuit, which uses neuromuscular electrical stimulation technology (that’s nmes, for short) to encourage any number of physical responses through targeted electric pulses, controlled through a smart app.

The suit is supposedly the first of its kind and is intended to enhance physical performance for athletes of all stripes. But founder Richard Statham is in talks with industry leaders of a range of sectors and the possibilities, he stresses, are endless. The suit might prepare astronauts for zero gravity, simulate pain in video-gaming (hence the gunshot), train military personnel or even help to treat muscle ailments and injuries.

The suit might prepare astronauts for zero gravity, simulate pain in video-gaming, train military personnel or even help to treat muscle injuries

A former jiu-jitsu fighter with a decade of experience working at Volvo behind him and charisma to spare, Statham didn’t struggle to bring the right people on board when he devised the idea five years ago; the product development team includes a London-based programmer and Swiss engineer. Some $3m (€2.5m) in funding and 13 test versions later, Dipulse launched its Smartsuit in December, which retails at €1,090 and is produced in Taiwan.

Statham has recently set about developing new software that will allow tailored fitness programmes to seamlessly synchronise with the Dipulse technology. No doubt it will enhance its appeal for those hi-tech gym bunnies out there. But one word of advice: leave the hand grenade function alone.

Marque difference
Car-maker logos

Buying a new set of wheels in the coming months? Chances are it will be adorned with a badge that you’ve never seen before. Nine leading car-makers, including Audi, bmw and Peugeot, have all given their logos – the public’s crucial first point of visual contact with brands – a new look. And, to use the graphic designer’s lexicon, all nine are “flat”. Monochrome and simple in form, the designs can be easily replicated across a range of media. They also represent a targeted backlash against efforts in the 1980s and 1990s to create more intricate and embellished logos, which aimed to replicate the glossy effect of a metal car badge wherever they sat. Our pick of the bunch is Peugeot’s roaring lion, whose new linework evokes a sense of depth without faux-realistic textures and shadows; proof that the simplest of ideas don’t always fall, well, flat.

Up cell
Inmates start up to start over.

Finding an employer isn’t easy if you have a criminal record. But since 1992, Brian Hamilton and Robert Harris’s non-profit Inmates to Entrepreneurs (ITE) has educated the formerly incarcerated in how to launch a profitable company on a shoestring in the US. “In the past year our graduates have started about 300 businesses,” he says. Here are three that caught our eye.

Queen Coffee Bean
After 10 months at a prison camp in North Carolina, Claudia Shivers knew that she wanted to start a coffee roastery. “ite made my plan realistic,” she says. In place of a $25,000 roaster, a $39 popcorn popper did the job. “We’ve now sold coffee to almost every state.”

Sweet Angels Pastries
Susan Ruhe had just finished serving 15 months for fraud. As she was previously self-employed, she wouldn’t have a job to return to. So she set out to start her own bakery. “You can rebuild your life on a 40 cent cookie,” she says. “Now we make 5,000 cookies a week!”

Mafanikio African Goods Store
After prison, Edward Wallace found himself homeless. But on the ite course, the former clothing-business owner learnt how far $800 (€666) could go. He bought a new computer system and designing tools, and now, thanks to targeted outreach to models and celebrities, his African-styled garments are popular throughout the US.

Seattle’s perfect blend
Vietnamese-Americans have created a vibrant business hub.

On a Sunday afternoon in Seattle, a queue of sharply dressed Vietnamese-Americans is snaking down a block framed by warehouses. They are waiting to enter a modern two-storey building and emerge clutching coffee flavoured with kumquat, and banh mi sandwiches.

Inside, restaurateur Yenvy Pham is running from counter to roaster to keep up with demand on the opening day of Hello Em, a café anchoring the new retail, office and community hub known as Little Saigon Creative. The building, home to three businesses and rotating pop-ups, opened in November 2020 as a bricks-and-mortar home for the Friends of Little Saigon, an association founded in 2011 that advocates for small businesses in this immigrant enclave amid a property boom reshaping the city centre.

“Little Saigon Creative is about identity,” says the group’s executive director Quynh Pham (no relation to Yenvy). “Vietnamese immigrants have lived and owned businesses here for more than 45 years but we’ve never established a community centre.” The aim is to offer a multi-disciplinary space, with café customers mingling with the creatives working elsewhere in the building.

“Vietnamese immigrants have lived and owned businesses here for more than 45 years but we’ve never established a community centre”

As second-generation immigrants, entrepreneurs like Yenvy straddle the best of both worlds: their parents’ culinary influences coupled with a savvy awareness of contemporary trends. That mindset launched Hello Em, Yenvy’s joint venture with childhood friend and business partner Nghia Bui, whose family works in the coffee business in Vietnam, the world’s second-largest producer of beans. It brings the café scene of Hanoi to one of the cradles of global coffee culture.

New offices will pad out the building. Upstairs, a property firm is preparing to move in to a workspace with a full kitchen to entertain and inspire clients. “I want to pour them a drink and make them a snack, so they feel comfortable doing a deal with us,” says owner Ly Tran. Despite a glut of prestige office space, he chose this location amid tofu factories and seafood vendors. “I want to build strength in our community.” It seems the way to do it, at least for Little Saigon, is to strengthen the neighbourhood’s businesses first.

Our editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, on how resilience can make a business

When we sent last year’s spring outing of The Entrepreneurs to press, the world was experiencing the full effect of the pandemic’s first wave. At Monocle, as everywhere during that unprecedented time, we had been forced in a matter of days to rethink how our business could work – how we could get magazines made and radio shows produced, how we could stay in touch with our readers and listeners. The rapidly altered landscape of work resulted in us designing, writing and editing pages from kitchen tables and home offices, and spending way too much time on video calls.

A year on and we are all still living with the pandemic but the business world is far from shuttered (and I am pleased to say that the Monocle team is back at its Midori House HQ). Indeed, many companies have taken some hits yet managed to dust themselves off, regroup and come back stronger. Of course, too many lives have been lost in the past year. But for businesses in all sectors, and of all scales, this often sobering experience has ultimately been an empowering one. Again and again, company owners have told us about pivots that allowed them to flourish, how they brought to fruition projects that had been allowed to stay dormant for far too long and how they finally knew what mattered.

So as we headed out to talk to entrepreneurs this time, we wondered what the mood would be and how everyone’s confidence levels were faring. The responses that we received have been unequivocal: it has been tough but we have big plans and we are making them happen.

Take one of the hardest-hit sectors: hospitality. In Uruguay we headed to the resort of José Ignacio and discovered hotel owners who are thriving by refocusing on their home market. It’s a similar story in Japan where the fourth-generation owner of the prestigious Hoshino Resorts minimised losses by bringing in domestic travellers and is now back in expansion mode. Or how about players in the cultural sector? Well, in Paris the new Hotel Paradiso has flourished thanks to its concept of offering rooms with film screens as big as the beds. Or property? In Brussels we headed over to the repurposed dock district of Tour & Taxis to discover new offices and headquarters for growing brands. It’s another project that has stayed on track.

So how will the world of work have changed when the pandemic eventually fades? Well, frankly, it’s still too hard to say what will be permanent and what will stick. In the US there has definitely been an exodus from big northern cities to warmer, more southerly bases – our report on Miami shows how that city is luring people in, although its low taxes also help. And in Europe nomadic technology entrepreneurs have headed to Portugal’s Ericeira, where they can surf and work with ease. Does that mean that traditional business cities and offices are doomed? Far from it. Nora Fehlbaum, CEO at key office-furniture player Vitra, points to something more fascinating: an immediate future where staff use offices in different ways, according to their roles (the digital crew might spend less time in the workplace than the teams for whom collaboration is key).

And you? As always, we want this magazine to introduce you to role models, show some benchmarks for success and encourage you to start, grow and adapt your businesses. The next few months could be an exciting time of possibility and reconnection. Isn’t it time you made your move?

That’s settled then

85 /100
Best to court a VC in DC
Riggs, Washington DC

A new chapter has begun for the building that once housed Washington’s Riggs Bank in the Penn Quarter neighbourhood, a short walk from the Capitol. Hospitality brand Lore Group restored the building to its former decadence with a 181-room hotel that revived architectural flourishes such as Corinthian pillars and marble staircases.

Everything about the fitout is grand, from the plush lounge with its dangling art deco chandeliers to the guest rooms, many of which feature Versailles-esque chairs on faded floral rugs. On the ground floor is the Café Riggs, a colourful dining room with high ceilings, and on the terrace, Rooftop at Riggs serves Mediterranean dishes best enjoyed alfresco.
riggsdc.com

86 /100
Best to escape the city
The Ritz-Carlton Nikko

The latest Japanese offering from The Ritz-Carlton in Japan is nestled in the Nikko National Park, two-and-a-half hours’ drive north from Tokyo. The US hotel brand’s fifth outpost in the country sits on Lake Chuzenji, with a view of Mount Nantai.

If you need to recharge, the 94-room stopover has you covered, with large onsens inside and out, a hinoki cypress-wood sauna, zazen meditation sessions led by a monk from nearby Chuzen-ji temple and, of course, a spa. The interior is on the right side of homely, with Japanese artwork curated by Tokyo’s Art Front Gallery. And don’t forget to get out into the surrounding landscape, which is dotted with waterfalls, temples and shrines.
ritzcarlton.com

87 /100
Watch this space

In September, Marriott International is opening another hotel, the Tokyo Edition, in the capital’s Toranomon area. The 206-room hotel has 22 suites, a vast terrace and, hopefully, a few of the hallmarks that made the Ian Schrager- founded brand a place to be seen as well as to see. Stay tuned.

88 /100
Best for honing your holiday pitch
Soho Roc House, Mykonos

Mykonos’s livelier hotspots seem a world away from Paraga Beach, where the latest addition to the Soho House portfolio opened its doors in July. “It’s great to see that members and guests still connect with each other in an organic way as they would in our city houses,” says house manager Nikitas Toulias.

The decor is inspired by laid-back beach life, with a muted colour palette, kilim floor cushions, wicker lampshades and reclaimed wooden furniture. A restored Cycladic chapel sits in the olive-tree-shaded courtyard and, of the 45 bedrooms, many offer balconies with rattan loungers for afternoon siestas.

Executive chef Athinagoras Kostakos has dreamt up a sunny dinner menu, featuring dishes from across Southern Europe. Yet the poolside breakfast is a surprisingly non-Mediterranean affair, with Shoreditch Grind coffee, porridge and bacon sandwiches hinting at the group’s UK origins.
sohohouse.com

89 /100
Best for a business lunch
Hotel Barrière Le Majestic, Cannes

It would take an awfully long time to compile the names of all the film-industry A-listers who have walked through the grand entrance hall of Cannes’ Le Majestic. For 12 days in May, the hotel hosts the opening and closing festivities of the Cannes Film Festival, making it the pied-à-terre of choice for attendees. That’s in a normal year, of course; not in 2020, when the festival was cancelled.

Although Le Majestic is back in business since the easing of lockdown measures, it has had to shift its focus from champagne events to domestic holidaymakers and business visitors, whom the hotel can accommodate for small workshops and client gatherings in its 17 meeting rooms. The reach might not be as big as during the annual Mipim property fair or tfwa travel retail summit but the Majestic is primed for when more glamorous times return – and international business sails back into town.
hotelsbarriere.com

Images: Jennifer Hughes, Soho Roc House Mykonos, Fabián Martínez

Make a meal of it

Lunch? Perfect. The business lunch will endure because it’s the second-best bit of doing business and lunch happily serves purposes oh-so-far beyond sating the belly. The restaurant is the boardroom for grown-ups and lunch is the real meeting. In fact, lunch is where you find out just who you’re doing business with. Lunch tells. What does he order? How does she treat the staff? How’s the chat? Are their eyes attentive or intent on something behind you, someone maybe, bending over to pick up a fork?

Lunch isn’t a date or a hand of poker but it reveals character, candour, sense and sensibility, humour and humility. But somehow, easily. Pick a place where buzz beats clamour and the laughter belongs to both sexes alike. Suits sweating over steaks is the pits. Share a bottle, raise a toast, prepare to treat or be treated. Take a chance and shake on it over a lazy susan and a nice Meursault.

90/100
Best for a belt-loosening feed
Tony’s, Houston

There’s a certain deal-clinching confidence in naming your restaurant after yourself. I mean, just imagine the welcome you get from Tony when you’re a bit of a regular at Tony’s and Tony himself is in the house. There’s a lot of “you look great” and “what are we celebrating?” In a good way. Tony Vallone has served quality northern Italian and Mediterranean classics for decades, tweaking them just a little for a Texan appetite. You’ll still look great after three courses, though, whatever you’re celebrating. Oh, and the thick carpet helps muffle the inflated figures you’re talking about.
tonyshouston.com

91/100
Excellent for pasta alfresco
La Matricianella, Rome

In a winding lane off Piazza di Spagna, La Matricianella has been serving classic Roman cuisine since 1957, alongside a biblically long wine list. Its umbrella-sheltered street-side tables have become the city’s open-air dining room for deal-sealing businessfolk and post-work get-togethers for the neighbourhood’s smartly dressed denizens to enjoy forkfuls of pecorino-rich cacio e pepe and guanciale-flecked spaghetti carbonara. The hallmarks of this genre of Italian restaurant are everywhere from the red-chequered tablecloths to the jovial bow-tied waitstaff. It also doles out the best pasta in town despite the city’s stiff competition in that area. Italy’s had a tough time but business in the Bel Paese is still customarily sealed over the dining table with a glass of red in hand.
matricianella.it

92/100
For unapologetic power lunchers
Knoblauch, Frankfurt

Well, for some stupid reason that we won’t mention, Frankfurt’s few-and- far-between power-lunch spots are about to get just as uproarously busy as those in the City of London are going to get quiet. Your best bet by the Main is this charming old stager, well-loved for ferrying French-ish classics to small-ish tables of diners for whom time is literally money. Expect speedy service, good Gewürtzraminer and to wonder if you’ve accidentally gone to St Moritz – the wood-panelling is intense. The tables are a little close together for spilling secrets but who knows who else’s you’ll hear?
Staufenstrasse 39

93/100
New spin on a classic
Maximo Bistrot, Mexico City

Chef Eduardo Garcia of Maximo Bistrot has opened this second restaurant with the chops to become a classic in the same Roma Norte neighbourhood. The new space is a lot grander than the original, with soaring brick walls, an arched ceiling and wooden booths – more for quieter meetings. The addition of chequered lampshades and wicker couches in the lounge area ensure that the homey feel (for which the original restaurant is known) wins out. The food, naturally, remains superb, with familiar dishes including octopus ceviche and a highly recommended mushroom risotto.
maximobistrot.com.mx

94/100
Best time-tested table
Roberto, Geneva

Roberto – named for the senior Carugati who started small before inviting most of the family to join the venture – is a lesson in serving exquisite Italian in an elegant room. Roberto’s grandson is now head chef, sending out saltimbocca, osso buco and ravioli di manzo to an intriguing crowd of classy folk: ladies lunching, deals toasted with nodded congratulations, long- lunchers reminiscing over grappa. In a courtly land of chandeliers, well-spaced tables and the sort of starched napkins that put most freshly-pressed suits to shame, few things can go wrong.
Rue Pierre Fatio 10

95/100
Try Greece’s best French fare
L’Abreuvoir, Athens

L’Abreuvoir takes the title as the oldest French restaurant in Athens rather seriously. After working as a chef in France, Marseille-raised Alexis Kotsis decided to return to his hometown and open a restaurant of his own in Kolonaki, downtown Athens. “We’re a short walk from many embassies and offices, so we [still] get reservations for business lunches and dinners,” says Kotsis, explaining that many diplomats and shipowners often dine here. With its smart white tablecloths and formal silverware, the space has remained virtually unchanged since opening in 1965. “The majority of our ingredients and wine list are sourced from France and there’s never been a time when coq au vin or steak tartare have been missing from the menu,” says Kotsis, who is now passing the baton to his son and daughter, the former of which trained as a chef in Lyon under late chef Paul Bocuse. Don’t miss the leafy garden, which is open year- round but best enjoyed in the summer.
Xenokratous 51, Kolonaki

96/100
For Floridian flair
Mandolin, Miami

Under the trellises and vines and amid the white-painted walls at Mandolin, oh – squint and you’re in Santorini for a sweet second! This “Aegean” restaurant hedges its geopolitical bets by serving both Greek and Turkish food beautifully and quickly – but then allowing you to take your time over that second bottle you didn’t know you wanted.

This was the first great restaurant in Miami’s Design District and remains the best. Unless you happen to be an octopus, in which case, you should be heavily disguised or very afraid.
4132 NE 2nd Ave

97/100
For a riverside reviver
Jua, Bangkok

Bangkok’s Japanese bars and restaurants cater first and foremost to Japanese business travellers and trade in providing old-country excellence with a nod to the exotic. The best izakaya-style food in town is at Jua, Charoen Krung’s most poised take on yakitori-and-more. The blurring of Japanese food and drink (you’ll have Suntory highballs coming out of your ears) and Thai service is beguiling. And blurry. Jua is next to the River Chao Praya, so be careful how you go, Joe.
672/49 Charoen Krung 28

Work in progress

1.
Take the gentle approach to business
By Sophie Grove

In our adrenaline-fuelled world, it’s easy to get swept up in the race. But it pays to be the tortoise rather than the hare.

Why go into business? Is it to secure a global brand, brave the slings and arrows of venture capitalism and create a market monopoly? Or is it based on a quite different impulse entirely: a yearning to create something that will propel you out of bed in the morning; to build something that does good, that will give you purpose and fulfilment – and even a palpable sense of joy?

There will always be that business archetype, the suited CEO who’s hellbent on chasing unicorns. Or the sleek, single-minded leader intent on flipping a profit. And there’s no doubt that cutting corners can offer quick rewards. Yet many entrepreneurs are choosing to nurture close-knit businesses and expand them at a more gentle pace. They are creating projects that are anchored in communities, with the aim of restoring pride in neighbourhoods. Rather than voracious growth, these enterprises are a slow-burn, happy to do one thing well. Whether it’s retail, hospitality or design, they’re led by a robust set of values rather than complex consumer research and spreadsheet projections.

A sense of altruism is no barrier to profitable success – quite the reverse. Rather than clouding business acumen, a clear sense of ethics brings a galvanising clarity to a new venture. “If you have a really strong set of corporate values, then strategic decision-making actually becomes very simple,” says Celia Moore, professor of organisational behaviour at London’s Imperial College Business School. “That efficiency drives sustainability and profitability. There’s a lot of waffling that happens when you want to look ethical but you really want to cut corners. You end up doing this wiggle – trying to thread a needle that really doesn’t exist.”

Circumventing the waffle is easier then it appears to be; a clear mission can be as good as any complicated business plan. “I set out to revive a factory,” says Corinne Jourdain Gros, who gave up her job as a publicist in 2014 to buy Digoin ceramics, a sprawling factory complex in rural Burgundy. The company’s brown, glazed stoneware was once a firm fixture in many French kitchens. Digoin employed hundreds of locals to produce the vessels that are used for making cassoulet and commercial mustard. They’re also utilised by butchers when cooking terrines. Plastic resulted in the demise of Digoin’s fortunes and the company had been shuttered when Jourdain Gros stepped in.

Her vision for the business began with an urge to save skilled jobs in the regional community and preserve a way of life that she feared might disappear. “In France there used to be a specific dish for every regional speciality,” she says, adding that her reimagined Digoin stoneware is now stocked by everyone from The Conran Shop in London to Merci in Paris. “There’s a new generation that wants to use our vinegar-making urns or our pots for preserving cornichons. This is part of a movement.”

A strong mission statement is a steady steer for expansion when a business starts to grow. “It’s about doing things that feed the mission, and that mission feeds the business,” says Lucie Basch, who co-founded the anti-food waste app Too Good To Go in 2015, and now runs 15 offices with 600 employees across the world. Basch admits that she never planned to run a global company. When her platform took off, the company fell back on the strength of its conviction as a guide. “A lot of people think and then do,” she says. “We went for it.”

Now that the brand’s teenage growth spurt is behind it, Basch says that the team have spent time defining their philosophy and integrating it into every strategic decision. “Now, because we’re growing so fast, it’s particularly important for us to work on our values,” she says.

There’s a growing sense that a strong, benevolent philosophy, which puts a premium on employee wellbeing, can reap many rewards for businesses. “Working somewhere that does good and is good feels good,” says Imperial College’s Moore. “Research shows that if you have an organisation with a strong social mission, you can get excellent employees who’ll stay for longer and have higher levels of commitment. Leaders who are courageous recognise what a powerful force this can be.”

Clever business owners also realise that the wellbeing of their staff is key. Companies are investing in space and resources to give their employees room for contemplation away from the clatter of keyboards. These range from rooftop vegetable gardens to in-house yoga facilities. This isn’t just about designing a base that offers beanbags, or even architectural talking points. It’s a question of liberating employees from their desks and allowing them to talk, sit outside and feel good about work.

Umberto Napolitano, who co-founded the Paris-based lan architecture studio, believes that there is value in encouraging staff to contemplate in beautiful surroundings. He opened a new Paris headquarters in 2018 and designed two thirds of the space to feel like a home. Although there are desks in rows on one floor, above them is a sitting room with indigo sofas, a kitchen, a refectory, a lush courtyard and some big sunny rooms with no stated purpose. Above that, there’s a flat roof that’s furnished with outdoor seating. “You have to invent the way that you use the space and that freedom brings creativity,” says Napolitano, who admits that unshackling the staff from their desks took some time to reap rewards. “In the first period there was a lack of concentration. It’s a bit like a Montessori education: we have this freedom, now what do we do with it? But step by step, people have become very reactive. After a year, I can see the results.”

Napolitano has created a way of life for himself and his 34 employees. His Parisian practice, like many offices, workshops and factories, is a cause, a calling and a reflection of his and his partner’s ideals. With some iconic projects under his belt, he feels that now is the time to consolidate rather than expand. “Society has been driven by the idea of progress and capital gain but now we’re thinking about an alternative kind of life,” he says. “How much time do you want to spend with your family? How do you want to live?”

The challenge for him, as for many successful business owners, is how to preserve the practice’s size and unique dynamic. It’s a philosophy that’s not about growth but the quality of every working moment. “Now there are deep and complex questions: ‘How do we experience this level of architecture without becoming a machine? How do we keep in context with the world without being in our own prison of results and economy?’”

Napolitano’s answer? To open a Sicilian restaurant, Pianoterra, on the ground floor of his practice. Rather than adding more staff, this project is about widening scope and engaging with the neighbourhood. “It’s the idea of creating an ecosystem that allows us to eat well or meet over a coffee in a public space,” he says. “It will also be an art gallery.”

Preserving the humanity, joie de vivre and authentic essence of a business is as challenging as rolling out a global franchise. So perhaps it’s time to raise a glass to those gentle, perfectly balanced businesses that have plotted a careful path to expansion. And perhaps it’s time to join them.

2.
It’s time to disperse
By Deborah Talbot

The age of the metropolis has not yet passed but sharing out the big-city resources would be to everyone’s benefit.

Are we about to face a mass exodus from cities? The rise of flexible and remote working has left many observers predicting that our future might not be urban after all. Yet they might be speaking too soon: perhaps this moment is more about the dispersal of urban life than about its actual disappearance.

It’s true that there is nothing that’s inevitable about concentration in urban areas. The modern Western city came about fairly recently, driven by the industrial revolution and, later, the development of banking centres. In the global south, according to urban economics academic Alexandra Panman, urbanisation is a consequence of poor conditions in rural areas and inadequate transport links. “Only a very small minority have the option of working from home,” she says.

Most of all, urbanisation has been driven by the economic power of cities. Figures from the UN suggest that 68 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. The number of megacities (places with populations of more than 10 million) has grown from three to 31 in just over 40 years.

Today it seems as though the changing nature of work, technology, climate change and the likelihood of novel viruses causing disruptions to ecosystems are all conspiring to push us in another direction. But whereas remote working might be popular for those with the right jobs, it has the downside of isolation and stress – hardly conducive to productivity and innovation. Is there a middle ground?

Naji Makarem, a lecturer in the political economy of development at Bartlett, University College London, says that we aren’t necessarily looking at a reduction in the economic power of all cities. Instead, we’re looking at the “urbanisation of more places”; a decentralisation that is still connected to – and feeds off – larger cities. Technology can support this, he says, by allowing “people and firms outside the urban core greater access to urban interaction and consequently productivity and innovation”.

It’s a concept that should be supported by the corporate world. Companies are rushing to find new configurations for collective working, such as flexible workspaces, suburban satellite offices and co-working. Workplace app developer Desana, which recently launched Cityworks – pairing office-less workers with desk space – says that the time for suburban and rural co-working has come.

New ways of working have opened up opportunities for groups such as the disabled, carers and parents, particularly women. Yet even for those who prefer to work remotely, creativity requires a community nearby. Suburban phenomena, from punk to community shopping malls – or the reorientation of the creative consciousness to nature and the green economy – all show that different environments can inspire innovation. Employers could be freed from the geographical boundaries of the talent search, while highly skilled people living in smaller cities and rural locations can enhance the wealth of their localities (what academic Andrés Rodríguez-Pose calls the “places that don’t matter”).

We’ve always thought of the city, suburb and village as distinct places. But with our workspaces dispersing from city-centre offices into rural hubs, our ways of working, and our understanding of urbanism, is about to become much more fluid.

3.
Should I stay or should I go?
By James Chambers

Hong Kong’s harsh new security law won’t drive away the entrepreneurs enticed by mainland opportunities.

One of my first proper conversations about Hong Kong’s national security law was discussing a small-business owner’s contingency plans. To protect his identity – an indicator of where things stand right now – let’s call him Robert. His chief concern, as co-owner of a content-marketing company, was what would happen if mainland China’s great firewall were to be extended to Hong Kong, cutting off access to Google, Whatsapp, Dropbox and all of the other US software that he and his two business partners rely on to run their company.

Back then, in early July, the possibility of this happening sounded ludicrous. “That’ll be the end of Hong Kong,” I remember declaring. A few months later, internet censorship has become a genuine concern. Robert’s short-term solution has been to invest in a virtual private network but the business is also building up a parachute office in Singapore; part of the company had already been registered there last year before the pro-democracy protests began, to serve its client base on the island.

The next major business decision that Robert will have to make will be which one of the founders has to leave Hong Kong for the Lion City. As it turns out, there are plenty of reasons why Hong Kong is an Asian business hub, beyond its low tax rates, language skills and free port (it doesn’t levy customs tariffs and has limited excise duties). What’s more, the upsides to living in this city have become even more apparent and appreciated during the pandemic, including the waterfront backdrop to our discussion over a Friday post-work beer as we watched the sunset over Victoria Harbour.

Robert’s debate about whether to stay or leave is one of many being had in this city of 7.5 million. I’ve spoken with a dozen or so entrepreneurs about the security law and their opinions vary. For every founder who is waiting to see, there is another who’s not the slightest bit fussed. Digital firms are sending their data storage overseas, whereas traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses see the security law as a good thing: a return to stability and safety.

Those with firm plans to leave tend to be doing so for family reasons – so their children can attend a certain school or grow up with a garden. Entrepreneurs with long memories view the security law as the latest chapter in the city’s colourful history. “Hong Kongers have never been in charge of their own destiny, so this doesn’t change anything,” said a property professional. “Once there is a resolution, it’s usually back to business as usual.”

Deep connections with Hong Kong are one unifying factor. Entrepreneurs are entwined with their businesses and often embedded in a city, so upping sticks and leaving is not as simple as a multinational moving a regional head around Asia or a laptop-carrying freelancer floating away on the wind. Most founders worth their salt will have invested heavily in Hong Kong and all are loath to suddenly throw their life’s work away at a steep discount.

Businesses in Hong Kong have been hit harder than most. Politics has been playing tag with the pandemic and, for the time being, it is impossible to separate the two disrupters. An event company I called in on said that a promising 2020 pipeline had been killed, wrecking years of hard work. The founder had actively supported the protests but the commercial realities of dealing with Chinese sponsors had brought his advocacy to an abrupt end. As a result, they had just finished a shareholder meeting with only one thing on the agenda: why are we continuing? The answer: to keep fighting for business survival, if not for democracy.

To get the full answer to this question from entrepreneurs, we will likely have to wait for a coronavirus vaccine. Unlike much of Europe, Asian borders remain closed, providing convenient cover for collective can-kicking. “Where would I even go?” is a popular refrain. It’s both a comment on Asia’s worsening record on freedom of speech and the deterioration of Western governance. The pandemic has highlighted a laundry list of problems in other parts of the world, dampening any mass exit.

Salaried workers (and some outspoken political activists) are among the first to leave. They are a mix of locals who fear losing freedoms and foreigners who have lost fat expat packages during the downturn. But many entrepreneurs are here to make money from Hong Kong’s close ties to the mainland. It serves as a conduit to China and the security law is seen as an added cost of doing business with the continent-sized country of 1.4bn people that’s not going anywhere this century.

There is a feeling that, after a rough few months, even years, Hong Kong’s reward will be a return of mainland money. That’s why this city went on a bull run after the Sars epidemic in 2003 and made a lot of entrepreneurs – who took big risks and bet on this city during its darkest hour – very rich. It helps, of course, that your average founder is politically cold-blooded and blessed with natural optimism.

Even entrepreneurs in Hong Kong’s hard-hit hospitality industry are prone to positivity. Several view a mooted influx of mainland talent and an outpouring of white-collar expats with rose-tinted glasses. Modern Chinese are growing in sophistication, they say, demonstrating a greater appreciation for design and sustainability than their Hong Kong counterparts. Word-of-mouth reviews via WeChat can help a brand expand on the mainland.

Would banning Google and Facebook change this? It depends on the industry. My own concerns in the media are not the same as those of someone working in property or coffee. Rule of law – or trust in an independent and international standard judiciary – is often cited as the biggest red line. Lose it and Hong Kong is just another Chinese city, so you might as well be in Shanghai. But while the legal system will be tested to the limit as judges begin to hear criminal charges under the security law, the commercial courts and arbitration centres will continue to operate for all of the foreign companies that want to do business with China. Those with Chinese experience are less likely to be put off.

The real cost is likely to be the countless new overseas investors and curious entrepreneurs that never decide to touch down in this city in the first place. Can Hong Kong attract new talent? We will have to wait and see. People have short memories and Beijing has made noises about extending the “one country, two systems” arrangement beyond 2047. So Hong Kong’s special status – or whatever is left of it – might even get a new lease of life.

In reality, most of the founders I spoke to have yet to draw up any definitive plans. “The spread of local-government corruption would be a red line for us,” said one brewery founder. “That’s why we didn’t set up in China in the first place. I don’t want to have a good ‘relationship’ with a politician to be able to run my business free from harassment.”

I had a follow-up chat with Robert in mid-August. He was meant to have a contingency-planning meeting just before we spoke but it had been postponed because the founders were all too busy with new work. Hong Kong’s political framework might have fundamentally changed this year but the business of making money still goes on.

4.
Retrofitting for ‘the new normal’
By Chris Smith

Coronavirus is going nowhere fast so our workplaces must be adapted to minimise its impact. Here’s how.

“This is definitely the weirdest virus I’ve ever had to deal with,” my colleague informs me. At least I think that’s what she said behind her obligatory nhs employee’s surgical mask, and I nod my agreement. But it’s hard to understand each other, especially when you’re two metres apart. There’s background noise and you can’t pick up the usual prompts from someone’s face. We’re waiting in the queue for the coffee shop at the hospital where we work. The layout is, of course, a legacy of the old normal and is totally unfit for the new. The line, marked out with black-and-yellow tape, snakes through what used to be the seating area. I find myself wondering how we’re supposed to have those “water-cooler conversations” that once spawned world-changing scientific and medical insights when we can’t even chat properly over coffee?

Let’s face it, we all hate this and we’re desperately hoping it’ll soon end. But the bad news is that it’s not going to. All the evidence points to Covid-19 remaining a thorn in our social sides for many years to come. It took 15 years of concerted global effort to declare smallpox finally eradicated. Polio is taking even longer. And, perhaps most damning, in 2018 there were 10 million cases – and 150,000 deaths (that we know of) – from measles, for which there has been a very effective vaccine available for decades. What this adds up to is the conclusion that the much-anticipated arrival of a coronavirus vaccine is not guaranteed to deliver the panacea – and a return to the “old normal” – that we all crave, and certainly not instantly. The best guess I’ve heard is that the disruption is set to last for years yet, and the “new coronavirus” is destined to become “the old coronavirus” and circulate forever.

What this means in practical terms is that, for now, the only weapons we have at our disposal are the age-old but nevertheless tried-and-tested techniques of public-health medicine, which is what we’re calling “physical distancing”. This intervention works by breaking the chain of transmission of the virus. But the realisation that we’ve created toxic working, commuting and shopping environments has come as a shock to many, especially if, like Google, you’re putting the finishing touches to a new huge London HQ that was almost certainly designed with the normal we used to know in mind rather than the present reality. The recent trend had been towards designing buildings that subconsciously usher you into the lift (by making the stairs impossible to find) forcing you to share air with the other occupants for as long as it takes to reach the 15th floor. Often there are no windows you can open, while open-plan working packs in as many employees as possible. All of this means that many offices are perfect crucibles from which to forge infectious outbreaks – and not just of coronavirus.

But this sombre wake-up call does have a silver lining: it is prompting researchers and architects to rethink the way that we “do” airflow in buildings, in order to minimise the spread of disease. Take a hospital ward, for example. With better control over how air moves around the patients’ bed spaces, you can create currents that carry away most of the infectious particles that a person coughs or sneezes and guide them safely into floor ducts. Coupled with air-purifying systems that filter and disinfect the air they eject, patients can be cocooned inside “bubbles” of clean air that keep infection away.

A similar approach can be applied in the office or even to the train that gets us there, to minimise the transmission of infections between workers. This is good news for industry because, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, more than 140 million working days are lost to ill-health in the country every year. It’s tempting to speculate that a significant proportion of those illnesses are picked up at work. So if we make the workplace healthier, we can look forward to better productivity and fewer sick notes.

Other bright ideas include installing ultraviolet light sources in ceilings to blitz bugs that drift past on air currents. Although the prospect of an array of UV lamps overhead sounds alarming and might conjure images of an office staffed by workers that look as though they live permanently on the Costa del Sol, it’s quite safe. Researchers have found that one very short wavelength of UV, called far-uvc, does not travel any appreciable distance through air and cannot penetrate human skin. But it deals a deadly blow to the genetic material inside viruses, bacteria and fungi, instantly disabling them.

For surfaces and places that people tend to touch frequently, building designers are also switching to alternative materials that are easier to clean or, thanks to in-built tricks of chemistry, are automatically anti-microbial in their own right. Copper door handles, for instance, originally ditched in favour of cheaper plastics, are making a comeback since scientists discovered that the metal has powerful microbe-killing powers. There are also spray-on chemical treatments that self-assemble into anti-microbial coatings when they land on a surface. Some of these even claim to work for weeks at a time and even on human skin, although the evidence is still quite sketchy.

The really good news is that all of these interventions don’t just work for coronaviruses. The same strategies will also protect us from outbreaks of flu, winter vomiting bugs and even the common cold. So coronavirus could be the catalyst that we need to clean up our act across the board.

Ultimately, as uncomfortable as it is, this all adds up to the fact that, because the new coronavirus will be with us for a long while yet, we are all going to have to change the way we do business. Some buildings will need a refit and certain industries just won’t be viable – but opportunities will burgeon for some sectors that couldn’t compete previously. Personally, I won’t miss the commute but I am definitely mourning the demise of my regular “normal” coffee break.

5.
Are you decoupling already?
By Nader Mousavizadeh

As hostility between China and the US grows, business leaders would do well to plan their strategies to suit.

China, for all its faults, is having a moment. The pandemic has accelerated a number of trends that play to the Asian economic power’s strengths, both in its domestic economy and its global influence. These are trends such as digitalisation, automation and cashless commerce. But perhaps the most significant shift is in the relationship between it and the US. Although the view that China is an adversary and no longer a competitor precedes Donald Trump’s spell in office (and will succeed him too), the unavoidable question for business leaders in the new normal of US-China relations is: are you decoupling already?

The companies best able to navigate the frayed relationship will be those that can leverage deep roots in both countries and have the market strength to propose new structures that can satisfy leaders on both sides. But the escalation of US-China tensions is also leading management boards of global businesses to consider alternatives. That includes making radical changes to their capital, corporate and governance structures if they hope to thrive in the key geographies of the US, China and Europe.

Just as in the (now arguably defunct) “one country, two systems” approach to Hong Kong, global companies might need to adopt a “one business, two countries” strategy to operating in the US and China. This could mean “designing out the threat” of a collapse in the US-China relationship by ensuring that factories, entities, teams and value chains are reworked to operate in China in a way that is sealed off from US reach. In a post-coronavirus world, this could involve separating the supply chains of specific sectors, especially pharmaceuticals and biotech, to ensure that the US regains what it perceives as the “supply chain leverage” that it lost to China. While there will be different approaches to such a reconfiguring, the momentum is there across a number of industries and regions.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said it memorably in his annual letter to shareholders this year: “Entering into a crisis is not the time to figure out what you want to be.” But when it comes to US-China relations, this moment is forcing companies to do exactly that.

6.
The future of small business in the US
By Tomos Lewis

Entrepreneurs can flourish in turbulent times but well-aimed economic policies and incentives must add support. —

You don’t have to flick too rigorously through the chronicles of recent US economic history to find that, when the economy slows, a spurt occurs shortly after. Entrepreneurship tends to flourish as the economy contracts and people search for new opportunities. Start-ups and fresh ideas fuel the rebound.

But in the febrile atmosphere of a divisive presidential election campaign – one that is taking place in the context of a pandemic, a cratered national economy and ongoing demonstrations against systemic racism – the opportunities for rebuilding an economy in a meaningful way, from the ground up, seem to have a particular energy this time around.

“To me this is an opportunity. It is a reshuffling of the deck in ways that you very rarely see in one’s lifetime,” says Ryan Wilson, CEO of The Gathering Spot, a members’ club that he co-founded in Atlanta in 2016 to facilitate relationships between the owners of the city’s small- and medium-sized black-owned businesses with Atlanta’s broader commercial and creative communities. “The best entrepreneurs understand that, even during a crisis, [it’s] the best time to solve new problems.”

The Gathering Spot’s membership runs the gamut of Atlanta’s business and creative sectors. Its youngest member is 22 years old, its oldest is 88. Its doors reopened early post-lockdown – in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in May – to give its members a safe space in which to meet, debate and organise amid the anti-racism protests that swept across the country.

All of this gives Wilson a surprisingly positive outlook. “Although I’m not comfortable with our current political climate, I’m optimistic too,” he says. “We’ll do what is necessary over the next few months to try a different course. And as it relates to small businesses and entrepreneurs, we will be a part of crafting what that new world will be.”

Every four years, the US economy is the hub from which the spokes of any US presidential election campaign fan out. Incumbents tend to do well if the economy is strong – and poorly if it is in trouble. Both sides typically offer sweeping, overarching views of the economy writ-large: boosting the middle class, reimagining manufacturing, revamping national infrastructure. But these big ideas gloss over the nuances, the nuts and bolts that make a national economy vibrant and ripe for growth.

What are those nuts and bolts? That would be the small-business economy. And for that to flourish, the question is just how open the door is to entrepreneurs who are seeking to set up their own firms. “We know from research that, during economic downturns, the rates of entrepreneurship generally increase,” says Danny Kim, an assistant professor at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, whose research specialises in the roles that entrepreneurship and immigration play in economic growth.

Entrepreneurship ascends during a recession for two reasons, says Kim; opportunity costs and necessity. The latter is the product of hiring freezes, companies closing their doors and contractions by larger employers during a recession. All of this reduces the number of jobs on the market (the unemployment rate in the US stood at 10.2 per cent in July). “This is going to be an important time for many to consider starting [their] own businesses,” says Kim. “And we haven’t yet seen enough efforts in catalysing this next generation of entrepreneurs.”

Kim’s assessment that entrepreneurs need more help and support isn’t unique to the current moment. “I didn’t have a lot of help; there weren’t a lot of resources,” says Danielle Ribner, creative director of Loup, the women’s fashion house she established in New York a decade ago.

Ribner says that it has been easiest to keep things small and to work on her own rather than relying on outside help. “I started the company with the idea that I wanted it to be this big clothing brand. But I realised that there weren’t a lot of benefits to that if you want to stay independent and have any control.” Making your own mistakes on a path that you have forged yourself for your own business has its benefits, she says.

Many entrepreneurs simply strike out at opportunities on their own. But there are several things that the next incumbent of the White House could do to help them gain a footing, particularly if the economic terrain remains rocky. The first is a simple acknowledgement of the oversized role that small business, and entrepreneurship more broadly, plays in the US economy. The Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal body, reported this year that there are nearly 32 million small businesses (companies that employ 500 people or fewer) operating in the US, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the country’s annual GDP. Loosening the barriers to entry, especially for minority-owned businesses, should be a priority for the next president.

“Access to capital is the biggest hurdle,” says Moddie Turay, a property developer in Detroit. “I’m first-generation, born here in the US, so you don’t have that friends-and-family money that people tell you to raise when you’re starting out.”

It’s why Turay established the City Growth Partners (CGP) development firm in 2018 with the goal of redeveloping many of the city’s neighbourhoods in a more inclusive way, a counter to other projects that have – in the eyes of many residents – left them out of the city’s rejuvenation.

“Gentrification is something that is [often] done to you; but it’s something that has to be done with you for it to be done well,” says Turay, noting a current construction of 228 apartments that cgp is undertaking in Detroit’s historic Brush Park neighbourhood. The retail spaces in the pedestal of the development will be occupied by businesses that the neighbourhood’s current residents have said that the area needs. “For our neighbourhoods in Detroit to grow in the way that they should, it’s not just the people living in them who need to be diverse,” says Turay. “The people who have a seat at the table, who are helping to open new opportunities in those areas, they need to be diverse as well.”

That’s a call that resonates beyond Detroit. And it plays into the current structures of entrepreneurship more broadly: “I would love to see more from existing, traditional venture-capital firms,” says Kim of the Wharton School, noting that 93 per cent of partners in US-based VCs are male and 76 per cent are white, which “might lead to blind spots in terms of implicit bias”.

The tone set by the White House – and the overarching values set out for entrepreneurship – will be crucial as the economy continues to recover and recalibrate in the coming years. “[Your decisions] are tied into policy and what’s happening in government,” says Christine Hoffman, who founded the Twin Cities Flower Exchange flower wholesaler in Minnesota in 2017. “Do I pay attention to it? Absolutely. But do I directly base things on that? No. The past few months have been a reminder to always be nimble. As entrepreneurs, we need to pay attention to how we move forward, because we’re in a very different world now,” she adds. “And the election will certainly affect that.”

The Monocle shop

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