The New Era of Business Design

What is your superpower and how can you use it for the greater good?

I had a very inspiring chat earlier with Doron Goldenberg , the CEO of Firma. Business Design who is onto something really big.

In our 15 minute phone call I figured out the key to his success. It's what I'm always talking about - bringing leaders together to discuss the issues, and come up with solutions together. It's not rocket science, but it requires a massive investment of time, the best kind of energy and goodwill.

His team invests months in preparing these gatherings by conducting research and fine tuning the content. The purpose of all this is to create the perfect environment for leaders to tap into their collective intelligence together.

And the next big topic they plan to tackle along with their customers (mainly CEO and VP level) is HOW TO CREATE HOPE.

Empowering People By Design

So how is a CEO with 70 employees managing and even thriving through this crisis? The key point is that the things they did to handle the crisis, are things they actually started doing a couple of years ago. Just everything kicked into a much higher gear after Black Saturday.

They immediately set up two war rooms - one was for helping all the various bodies involved in the digital war by creating and editing content, and the other was for raising funds to organize equipment and support for the soldiers.

Like everyone else a bunch of his people were called up to serve. And you would think work would completely dry up during a crazy period like this. But surprisingly everyone made sure they had plenty of work. Their partner abroad Saffron Brand Consultants kept sending them projects. And their customers in Israel also made sure to keep them busy, which I find pretty awesome. There has to be something beyond the work itself to keep everyone so invested. It must be all the deep diving they do into trying to make sense of all this chaos. People appreciate it.

Firma. Business Design does this in many ways. They create incredible reports with insightful content for expressing what they're all feeling inside.

This unique and very emotional content serves as the basis for Doron Goldenberg 's lectures. With one of the main themes being how brands need to be actively involved in shaping a better future

Their latest reports include -

Brands At War - should be on the bestseller list. Of course it's upsetting to review what happened, but putting it all down on paper like this helps us learn the right lessons - so we can make better choices going forward.

Here's an excerpt -

"Israeli society is at a place where its needs are changing and require new solutions and innovative catering. The pressing question is – what role do brands play currently with respect to national, social, cultural and personal responsibility?"

I also love The Day After report.

This intro sentence below is music to my ears because it's really up to us to shape our better future. No one is going to do it for us.

On the day after the war, Israel will be a different country. Its new identity is up to us.

Another great report that was produced two years ago >> Shift Happens

Ego will distract you from the goal

Themed Lecture & Workshop Evenings

As I mentioned Doron and his team go all out when it comes to creating highly relevant meetups that will help leaders deal with current the challenges, and find the silver lining to all this chaos together. We can't erase what happened, but if we get the lesson, than at least it wasn't for nothing.

Some of their event themes include -

Balagan Night - about how to design chaos. (Balagan is Hebrew for mess)

The goal was to learn to function in an environment of chaos, and deal with uncertainty. And ultimately, seeing the chaos as a positive element. Seeing the silver lining to the chaos.

You probably think they dreamed this up after the attack on Israel in October. Nope. It was two years ago.

Dark Night - all about fake news and the negative impact of media / communications. Also psychological warfare.

Broken Heart - our feelings about how AI will impact everything.

What am I always saying? Business owners who are very intentional about bringing people together - not to just sit and listen to someone lecture. But in a way that allows everyone to actively contribute to the discussion - these are the people who will always be successful under any circumstances.