| Dorry’s appetite for success has seen him profiled by Marketing Magazine in a series of 5 best marketers in Australia. He has also launched the industry’s first magazine focusing on brand values with a circulation of 30,000. It is aptly named Branded.
Dorry continues to be a recognized professional in his field. How did Dorry make the transition to mover and shaker in Sydney's young entrepreneurial set?
A positive outlook on life, he believes attracts positive energy. Putting this into practice is what sets Dorry aside in the game. His “against the grain” attitude and sharp decision making ability has always been a defining feature of Dorry’s approach.
To Dorry, each decision was a key step along the road to success. This is clear from the moment you meet him. His charismatic demeanor, effervescent drive, focus to achieve, his vision and sincerity to work along side his experienced team is what current clients enjoy and what future clients can look forward to.
To Dorry, each decision represents risk, and therefore required great care and consideration.
No decision has been greater than the one to start his own business. The first decision in the chain was the one to leave hairdressing and join a small family company selling polo shirts and baseball caps; a promotional products business.
Dorry spent five years learning the trade before he decided to break away on his own. As he put it, he had nothing but experience. No money, no education, no backers, no clients. It was a life defining decision; failure was never an option.
The stakes were high for the next decision; exactly what would his own business look like?
Dorry headed off to find his answers. He left on a 10-week journey to Europe intended as his personal mind mapping session. The trip extended to six months; determined that he would not return home until he had a clear set of ideas and plans.
His epiphany transpired and Dorry jetted back to Australia the very next day. The moment he disembarked he was fuelled to embrace his new journey. The foundation of Dorry Kordahi Management was built around a solution driven business model with a clear idea of image and brand.
A fourteen-year veteran of the promotional products industry, Dorry had seen companies put their great brands onto mainstream products that delivered no value. In fact, often a great brand on a cheap product led to a cheapening of the brand. Dorry wanted to offer his clients a service that differentiated them from their competitors in the market. Part of his vision continues to surround the concept of educating his clients with resources enabling them to make informed decisions once presented with options. The key was the idea that promotional products were brand platforms; the style and quality of a product affected the consumer's associations with a brand.
The second key idea was the scope of his business offering; Dorry Kordahi Management was going to be a solutions and management company. Yes, Dorry Kordahi Management sold promotional products, but it was a services business, looking out for brands, serving brands, making brands work. As Dorry maintains “The decision made to build and enhance a brand should not be taken lightly.”
Dorry Kordahi Management was concerned first with protecting and adding value to its client's brands, and only secondly with selling product. It was from here that the DKM Philosophy was born. “At DKM we add value to your brand, we protect your brand, we extend your brand and we build your brand."
For this to have credibility, clients had to trust and respect DKM, and how could they respect the business unless they saw that it looked after its own brand?
Dorry poured all his energy into building his brand, and this effort was rewarded when in 2005 the DKM logo was named by international logo ratings agency Logo Lounge as being one of the world's most exceptional logos. DKM was on a stage next to brands like Microsoft, GE, Intel and Bentley.
Today Dorry Kordahi is at the head of a thriving marketing and merchandise solutions business. He has diversified, and now also manages leading sporting and celebrity brands such as Australian Idol's Cosima De Vito.
Locked in a safe are three scraps of paper covered in scribble. These scraps are Dorry's original business plan, the essence from six months of thinking. They might not look like much, but they have translated into one of Australia's most exciting young start ups. |
