Handelsblatt: Die roten Exoten
By Degenhardt, S.; Jahn, Th.
In this profile of ReD Associates, the reporters from Handelsblatt use case studies of LEGO and Adidas to describe ReD's work and continuous growth.
“This is a very exciting and successful company,” says Dietmar Fink, professor at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences and an expert on management consultancies. When ReD opened their office in New York in 2008, they had three U.S. customers. Today there are 15, including well-known names like Intel and Ford. “A few years ago, we were still considered hippies,” says Rasmussen. “Now we're talking with the board members.”
Initially, many of those board members shook their heads, says Rasmussen. Social scientists? They can’t read a balance sheet and know nothing about running a business. James Carnes, responsible for global brand strategy at Adidas, felt much the same: “In the beginning, they sometimes come across as being very intellectual,” he said. “But then they are very convincing, with deep insights.”
"ReD asked the right, ‘stupid’ questions that no one would have otherwise dared to ask,” remembers Adidas manager James Carnes. Currently, ReD advises the sports company in a project “Voice of the Nation,” about the things Germans like about soccer. Why, for example, will they raise the flag when the team is playing when national players with names like Özil or Podolski don’t sound German at all? “The insights from ReD are a great baseline for our design teams," explains Carnes.
Adidas is designing Germany’s new national jerseys for the European Championship in 2016.
The full article is available to subscribers at Handelsblatt's site.
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