One Small Step for Man in Bamboo Socks I’ve been reading about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area larger than the USA, where abandoned fishing nets, plastic bath toys, computers & plastic pellets wash around endlessly and wondered if I would find my odd socks and lost pens there.

Or perhaps Steve Jobs had charitably combined the talents of Apple & Pixar Studios with global MacBooks animating socks & pens in the dead of night, then directing them to march off and find the one-legged penless of the world.

These thoughts propelled me around the socks section of a Cape Waterfront clothing store, grumpily looking for replacement pairs.  Cotton-rich socks (unspecified percentage) with multi-coloured toes momentarily appealed to my hidden hippy, until I came across bamboo socks.  I knew that bamboo was eco-friendlier than most wood, so it had to be better for the future of humanity than water-gulping cotton.  They were in plain black or caramel – but fashion be damned, I was flashing my green credentials.

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Brand-building in the Time of Conspicuous Conservation  

Joel the Tailor was in a dilemma. It was approaching the time of the Jewish New Year and his synagogue asked him to take out a half-page ad in their annual magazine. Joel had no problem with this, the synagogue was in a poor area and struggled to make ends meet. The ads from local tradespeople helped. Some ads prominently promoted the advertiser - so his first effort was: "Be a Mensch in a suit by Joel the Tailor". Then the Rabbi advised him that the highest form of charity is when the giver is not known. That was fine, but business was slow and where did charity begin if not at the tailor-shop - after all, no customers, no ads next year. He resolved his dilemma with his ad, which read: "This space is donated by Joel the Best Tailor in the Mile End Road - anonymously". While the story, told by my late father, may well be apocryphal, it resonates with a human truth - we like to be recognised for doing good. On a larger scale, we have...

We are currently involved in three change processes. The first is with a once pace-setting company that now drags its heels; the second with an efficient organisation that is losing its relevance, finding itself out of tune with the times; the third with a leader needing a new & significant challenge. We encounter the reactionaries and radicals, the purists & pragmatists, farmers & hunters. We see fear of loss, hope of gain & the muddled middle.

Welcome to summit season on Planet Earth.  We have just concluded a new round of promises to half the rate of biodiversity loss by 2020, having spectacularly failed to do this, as promised, between 2000 and 2010.  Next is the Climate Change summit in Cancun that seeks to repair some of the damage caused by squabbling leaders last year in Copenhagen.

While we squawk, the world burns.  It’s time to listen – if those radio telescopes tuning in to the farthest reaches of the universe, tuned their sensitive ears to Planet Earth, here are some messages they would pick up.

The first time I was invited to a strategy session I was flattered and scared stiff.   What insights could I give, what would I question, and what on earth is strategy, anyway?

We learn from good and evil alike.  Whilst volumes have been written about the beneficial effects of Ghandi & Mandela, few outside the Muslim world have paused to consider how the strategies & tactics Osama bin Laden will benefit our lives.

The clothing & textile industry in South Africa is in a deep crisis.  20 000 jobs were lost in 2003, over 16 000 more in 2004.  While the strong rand has made our exports less competitive, cheap imports are flooding in, especially from China.  Is the industry in terminal decline, or can it be rescued; and what, if anything, can fashion designers do to reverse the trend?
This was the background to the inaugural Fashion Indaba, held in Cape Town as part of the Design Indaba in February 2005