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Sir Paul Smiths designs for a successful business

Sir Paul Smith’s designs for a successful business

2 April 2013

Designer and chairman Sir Paul Smith delivered a talk at Nottingham University’s business school recently and spoke of the balance that retailers (and other businesses) need to find in order to succeed.

Paul discussed the requirement to be different and stand out in a world where there is already too much of everything; too many of any given product and too many retailers selling them. Eye-catching window displays and lateral thinking when it comes to shopping experience are part of the picture, but Paul believes that success lies in ensuring a proper balance between the exciting and out-there and the stuff that pays the rent.

This balance, Paul said, has enabled his business to grow organically without taking on large debts. Though we think the difficulty in achieving this balance is shown all too clearly in the recent retail administrations of big names such as Blockbuster, HMV, Republic and Dreams (with HMV reportedly having debt of £345m at the time of its collapse).

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