"Respect for people - respect for everyone": DIY Lifetime Award for John Herbert

John W. Herbert, long-time CEO of the international DIY association Edra/Ghin, received the Global DIY Lifetime Award yesterday, 9 June 2022. The roughly 900 participants at the Global DIY Summit in Copenhagen expressed their appreciation of the award winner with prolonged applause.

"Flexible", "open minded", "with passion for networking, for connecting people, for culture," but above all "passion for life, passion for people and respect for people - respect for everyone": these were the words used earlier by Sergio Giroldi, Obi CEO and President of Edra, to describe the man who started working in retail at the age of 15 and who has made Edra what it is. "You definitely deserve the lifetime award," Sergio concluded his laudation.

Visibly moved, Herbert accepted the award - and once again showed how accurately Giroldi had described him: he thanked his team. "I feel very proud and very humble," he said.

On the first day of the congress, the approximately 900 participants had experienced some partly well-known as well as a number of new speakers on the stage of the Bella Center in Copenhagen. Ken Hughes, who had moderated the online sessions of the Global DIY Network in the past months, spoke under the heading "The race for relevance with the modern consumer" about the new conditions of the captivity economy and the relational business model, which has replaced the transactional business model. Rik Vera brought along a "magic formula for the new normal": "c2MxEi", which means "connect to many, engage individuals"; he advocates introducing a "net curiosity score" as a new KPI in companies.

Another session with three presentations dealt with the internet economy. Nils Zündorf from Factor-a explained "How Amazon really works". Tobias Pohl from Google challenged the audience to "Re-invent the digital shopping experience with AI" and also brought examples from the home improvement industry. "How social media can drive business results in an over-connected world" was the topic of Veronica Civiera from Meta Group, formerly Facebook. Victoria Neuhofer from Neuhofer Holz did not disappoint the expectations that had been raised not least by her presentation title: "It's not a f****** disruption - it's called progress!". She explained to the audience that e-commerce is "old school" and "social commerce" is the new buzzword and proved this with examples from the platform economy.

Ken Hugehs came on stage a second time to moderate the presentation round of three start-ups. These were young companies that the paint manufacturer Akzo Nobel is working with as part of its "Paint the future" competition. The summit concluded with an entertaining talk on "Creative leadership in a complex world" by Jamie Anderson, Professor of Strategic Management in Antwerp, where participants were invited to get creative themselves.

The summit in Copenhagen ends today.