What We Choose to Keep from the Past
What a night watchman in Sweden can teach us about identity.
Previously on Giuseppe’s Glimpse: In the last episode, I shared how a simple Post-it on a trash bag turned into a small, unexpected system—and a reflection on how strategy often starts on the ground, not in a boardroom. Missed it? Catch up here! ✨
Buongiorno everyone! 👋
I recently read about a small town in southern Sweden called Ystad, and one of its nightly rituals hasn’t left my mind since.
Every evening, from 9:15 PM to 1:00 AM, a man climbs the bell tower of the local church Sankta Maria Kyrka ⛪ and, every fifteen minutes, he blows a horn in all four directions and calls out:
“All is quiet from fire and thieves! May God preserve the town!” 📯
They’ve been doing this since the 1600s. No real need for it anymore, there are fire departments and CCTV now. But they keep doing it.
When someone asked why, a local simply said: “Without our night watchman, Ystad would just be another medieval town. It could be anywhere.”
That stuck with me. Because it’s not really about fire or thieves. It’s about meaning and identity. 🧭
It's not about honoring the past—it's about valuing continuity.
The risk of moving too fast
We talk a lot about change these days. And fair enough, change is everywhere, and it’s moving faster than ever. 🔄
But we don’t spend nearly as much time asking: What’s worth holding onto?
Traditions like the night watchman in Ystad don’t survive because they’re practical. They survive because they give people a sense of belonging. They make a town feel like that town, not just another name on the map. 🗺️
In our lives and in business there’s a constant pull to move fast, shed weight, reinvent. But if we’re not careful, we end up letting go of the things that give us identity. That make us memorable. That make us us.
I’m not saying we need to preserve everything for nostalgia’s sake. But we do need to be more intentional about what we carry forward, and why. 🧳
Keeping your brand through change
Some companies get it right. They evolve, adapt, modernize—without forgetting where they came from. 🌱
Take Burberry. At one point, it felt like a brand from another era—tired, maybe even a bit stuffy. But instead of running away from its heritage, it leaned into it. The trench coat. The Britishness. That quiet sense of timelessness. 🧥🇬🇧
They updated the look, the feel, the audience, but the soul stayed intact.
Then there’s Oreo. In the late ’90s, they quietly changed the recipe to make the cookie Kosher. No campaign, no big announcements, just a thoughtful decision to be more inclusive. Same cookie. Wider table. 🍪
And then... there are the brands that lost the thread.
Nokia had loyal customers and a product people genuinely loved. But it hesitated too long to adapt to the smartphone world, too anchored to past success. By the time it moved, the world had moved on. 📱⏳
Yahoo tried to be everything at once—news, email, search, social—but ended up being remembered for none of it. It wasn’t that they didn’t change. It’s that they changed without a story. Without a center.
The difference isn’t whether you change. It’s how you do it, and whether that change is still anchored to something real. 🧭
What’s your horn in the tower?
The story of Ystad got me thinking: what are the horns we still blow in our own lives, our teams, our organizations?
Not because we have to—but because they remind us who we are.
What are the rituals or habits that give us continuity? 🔁
What do we protect, even if it no longer serves a “strategic” purpose, because it speaks to something deeper?
And what happens when we forget those things? 🧠
There’s no formula for this. Just a reminder: evolution is necessary, but roots matter too. 🌳
In a world that never stops moving, a little stillness, a little memory, can go a long way. Maybe even further than we think.
Stay curious! 🙌
-gs
P.S. This edition was inspired by Eliot Stein’s beautiful book Custodians of Wonder—a powerful reminder that some things are worth keeping, even when the world tells you to move on.
Oh, wow! You made it to the end. Click here to 👉 SHARE this issue with a friend if you found it valuable.