Impact Series: Robin Dell and imondi. Part 2
Conversations with entrepreneurs and business owners who do more than just make money.
Impact Series is a long overdue project of mine that I am doing in collaboration with Feiy, a Shanghai based platform that inspires and connects purpose-driven individuals and organizations in China.
As a part of Impact Series I am talking to entrepreneurs who pursue a path greater than just profit and strive to contribute to the greater good with their products and services. The first business owner I talked to is Robin Dell, the founder and managing director at imondi, a Shanghai-based reclaimed wood flooring company.
This is the second part of a two-part interview, where Robin talks about succeeding as an impact-driven company, creating sustainable change and his personal contribution to the environmental and social well-being. You can read the first part of the interview here.
Do you think of the impact-driven business world as more of a game of competition or a place of cooperation?
Realistically speaking, in our sector at least, there is always competition between suppliers. However, I don’t think competition is a bad thing, it encourages suppliers to enhance their services to match clients’ requirements. As we’ve seen in the last few years, many clients and governmental bodies are increasingly concerned about sustainability and in a competitive market, it results in suppliers adapting to that. There are still some awful companies in our industry that contribute significantly to global deforestation and many that actively “greenwash”, pretending they care about sustainability, but it’s nice to see many companies that have changed their practices.
What has been your biggest lesson learned throughout the years working with reclaimed wood in China and around the world?
I’m not sure if this relates to reclaimed wood, but on a personal level, as an entrepreneur, you’re going to have a lot of ups and downs and dealing with those psychologically is incredibly important. When we first started, when there was an up, we were popping champagne corks and when there was a down we were going home feeling really s***** for days on end. I think one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to let the ups and downs happen and just carry on because at the end of the day life goes on and it’s very much your choice whether to be happy or unhappy. So why choose to be unhappy? I know it’s easy to say, but it’s important to say it nevertheless.
In hindsight, what was the smartest decision you made with the company?
Our decision to focus on reclaimed wood has probably been the smartest decision we made. When we opened our first factory in Dalian in 2006 we were arrogant enough to think we could build a long-term business by being one of the first factories in China to make flooring with “European-style” finishes. However, within a few years, several other much larger factories started copying these colors and, being larger than us, could manufacture them cheaper, even if without the same level of service. And so we reinvented ourselves by launching innovative patterns and dimensions. But again, within a few years found ourselves being copied. However, since we started working with reclaimed wood eight years ago, we are more or less alone in the field. There are many reasons for this — it’s very difficult to source the wood in long-term sustainable quantities, it’s difficult to process the wood and it’s difficult to find the clients that appreciate it. But I hope it will inspire impact-driven entrepreneurs who read this to consider focusing on one industry and learning about it with the aim to hopefully find a niche with decent barriers to entry.
Taking all the factors into consideration and understanding how the industry has changed, would you start imondi now?
Yes, I love what I do. If I had a bit more energy and time, I would open a “House of Reclaimed” chain of retail shops all over Europe and America I’ve always dreamt about. I think the market is crying out for it, but I’ve got so much on my plate right now. But I do love what I do and I would definitely do it again if I were to start now.
Do you think it’s more important to have a sustainable product or a sustainable company culture that invests in its people and processes?
I can only answer from imondi’s perspective. We started off with the sustainable product, and then we realized that it’s great to be sustainable as a company, so we started introducing this idea into our company culture. Different companies have different journeys. A lot of impactful entrepreneurs come from another direction, they want to do something sustainable in the community and then create a sustainable product. So I think it doesn’t matter where it starts, it only matters where you end up.
How can we as employers and employees encourage companies to have more sustainable products and practices?
I think it’s all about clear communication. When we started our video discussion forums (editor’s note: you can find more about it in the first part of our interview with Robin), I thought how great it would be if a year later Elain from the admin department, or anyone else in the office, were to suggest, for example, to have a recycling bin next to our normal bin. It’s when the message of sustainability, which is so ingrained as brand value of imondi, becomes ingrained in the culture and ethos of those who work here, that we will have succeeded. Communicating that goal very clearly at the beginning has made people in our organization think a lot more about their personal impact. In the end, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, right? So we can do all these cool things: videos, discussions, events, but things really change when Elain says, “Why don’t we have a recycling bin? Maybe I can do something about it.” And I think you can only get that through constant communication.
Who do you think plays a bigger role in driving sustainable change: governments, businesses or consumers?
It always blows me away when I read negative articles in the Western press about how China and India are polluting the world when the reason they are creating this pollution is to supply the needs of the western society. I think a lot of consumers don’t realize that the throw-away products they buy and consumer society, in general, is what creates so much of this mess.
So I think the change has to come from the consumer. There is an increasing awareness from people about environmental issues in the world, so the government can be a reflection of that and businesses can respond to demand. Governments can impact the way the culture thinks, for example, they are taxing producers of plastic packaging in England now — how great is that? It is initiatives like these that governments must take to stop the disaster from happening, but governments can’t get away with being too radical either or they’ll receive pushback from their stakeholders. There has to be a balance. I also think the role of media is very important in creating awareness and pushing cultures in a certain direction. And it all combines, doesn’t it?
As a consumer and individual, how do you contribute to the environmental and social well-being?
On a personal level, I now work with schools around Shanghai to introduce some of the Green Initiatives and Seeds of Change programs and I’m really enjoying it. I put in a couple of hours a week, as it is my personal goal to impact our community and because it is a truly rewarding thing to do. I really enjoyed the recent Dulwich eco-campus where I was given the opportunity to teach various classes of students about deforestation and how we can personally counter it, a subject very close to my heart. I am very impressed with Dulwich’s commitment to the environment and try to encourage other schools to learn from them. I think this generation messed things up and I really hope the younger generation can help sort it out. If you can take a couple of hours a week to think about ways to contribute to your community, I cannot encourage it more. It took me too long to do it but has already given me a lot.
What impact do you want to make in the world? And how far are you into making it?
I enjoy our role in helping the construction industry become greener. In the same way that Bea Johnson has inspired a generation of people with her Zero Waste philosophy to aspire to minimize your waste, I see many of the larger companies in our industry looking at imondi for inspiration on how to be a greener producer and supplier of construction materials.
What is your Why? Why are you doing what you are doing, personally and professionally?
When I set up the company I wanted to be a successful entrepreneur because my family were entrepreneurs and honestly speaking, I felt I had something to prove. That motivation lasted only up to a certain point. It’s not a bad motivation, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money or build a large company, but it’s not something that will get you through the millions of ups and downs. At some point, there has to be more. And so as our business grew, our motivations changed. Our “Why “is that we believe in helping people experience an emotional connection with their interiors. Our “How” is that we create cutting-edge designs, working with sustainable wood with awe-inspiring and unique histories, utilizing manufacturing methods that preserve age-old traditions of craftsmanship. We love that moment when the client enters their house for the first time, walking over the flooring that has been hand-made from oak mooring poles reclaimed from the canals of old Venice in Italy. They now have their own “little bit of Venice” at home that helps it become a little more a “home” rather than a “house”. I cannot state more the importance of understanding your “Why” and “How” as an entrepreneur.
How would you like to be remembered?
Gloriously.
