Interview with Rodrigo Rodriguez
On June 11th we visited the Italian lighting company FLOS. While there I was able to complete a short interview with the company’s CEO Rodrigo Rodriques. Here are the questions I asked and his paraphrased answers.
What made your father in law want to start his own company and why lighting?
He saw the signs of the market. He saw the need in the market and he saw the talent of the Italian designers.
Why is the company named FLOS?
FLOS is Latin for flower and a light that is turned on is like an open flower. A light that is turned off is like a closed flower.
What is the secret to FLOS’s success?
There is definitely luck involved, but it is also about understanding the market. You must know how the market is changing and you must be able to foresee what the market will become. It’s like a gunner shooting at a plane. If you shot at where the plane is now, the plane will have already passed by the time the bullet reaches it. Instead, you must shot at where the plane is going to be.
You want to swim in a blue ocean. A blue ocean is one where you are the only one in the market (monopoly). You don’t want to swim in a red ocean (perfect competition). Cirque du Soleil is a good example of a blue ocean company.
Another reason why FLOS is so successful is because we make sure that the main feature and concept of a design is carried all the way through the 5 stages; prototype, you must have a very good prototype, engineering, where you must work out all the details, manufacture, which must be very good quality, marketing, which must match the idea and finally communication. Communication is very important because you are not just selling the light; you are selling the idea and concept behind the creation of the light.
How do you choose who you want to work with?
If a historic designer presents us with an idea, we always try to realize it. We will of course work with them to make the idea more feasible, but we always try to stay as close to their idea as possible. We also receive a lot of outside ideas from young designers which we review once a month. We usually have one new, young designer join the FLOS team every year.
What do you like most about Italian design?
“First of all, that it is Italian”. I also like that Italian design is a unique phenominom with unique ingredients. The war created a new environment and a new market with a mixture of many cultures. For example, I have a very Spanish name. A student from England once said to me, “There is no such thing as British design but there are lots of design schools in England. There aren’t any Italian design schools, but there is such thing as Italian design. Why is that?” My response was “Because we study Greek and Latin.” It is important to know the history of design and cultures.
Finally, what was your first car?
It was the last model of Italians car that had both doors open from the middle, the Appia. My parents got it for me when I got my degree.
That’s all I had time to ask him.
P.S. Here’s a bit more about the Blue Ocean/Red Ocean analogy.
Blue Ocean
A slang term for the uncontested market space for an unknown industry or innovation. Coined by professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their book "Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and the Make Competition Irrelevant" (2005), blue oceans are associated with high potential profits.
Red Ocean
In an established industry, companies compete with each other for every piece of available market share. The competition is often so intense that some firms cannot sustain themselves and stop operating. This type of industry describes a red ocean, representing saturated market share, bloodied by competition.
By Anne Charbonneau, Amanda Cox and Laura Van Staveren
Keywords: Business Strategy
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