Franco Bonadio, CEO and creative director of Identica and formerly global creative director of The Body Shop gave us a delightfully honest and empathetic account of the conflicts between running a design business and doing the creative businesses.

He introduced himself by telling us on how he was turned down as a designer by Identica and what it felt like in later years to be asked to run the company by Michael Peters.

Franco used an inspiring technique to introduce subjects to talk about. He handed out cards, each with two opposite-meaning words, inviting people to flash up the cards to him at random. Each card provoked him to talk about an issue and elegantly invited audience participation. These are some of them.

Broke : backed - Being 4-6 weeks away from bankruptcy is healthy, he said, and stops him from being complacent.

Process : people - What makes a great team? It’s a balance between making people feel good and having the right discipline of processes so that you make money.

Fast : slow - This was to do with money. A CEO gives sharp financial focus but the designer need time. Remembering his experience in the life-drawing class at art school, when the time given to do a drawing was reduced by increments from 30 minutes to thirty seconds, he challenges his designers by reducing the time for creativity. It sharpens the creative process and improves the bottom line.

Spend : save - Investing in the business is a big issue. It’s counter-intuitive to spend money in hard times but you have to spend money to grow the business. If you don’t you’ll get stuck.

Happy : mad - A happy culture is best.

More : less - Clients want more for less. Recognise the truth and get used to it.

The prompt card idea will be copied by members of the audience, no doubt. To hear about more of them, look out for our podcast.