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Ralph Lauren Fired Me in 1994
Now, 30 years later, I'm glad he did.
SOS #258 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (1-18-24)
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After serving as the division president of the licensed Polo for Boys business in 1984-85, Ralph eventually hired me at his own corporation in 1987 -- as Senior Vice President of Operations. As such, I was the first SVP at Polo. | |
In a nutshell, my initial role was to clean up many operational support situations -- that Ralph and his executive team were not equipped to resolve.
Quite simply, they weren't interested in understanding the many problems in those areas. They just wanted them fixed -- because those problems were making it impossible for the corporation to remain profitable.
In a sense, I was hired to do for Ralph what Tim Cook did for Steve Jobs at Apple. For the record, Tim and I were both Auburn-educated industrial engineers, with MBA's from other schools.
So, as the new SVP of Operations, I was assigned to oversee the following areas: Distribution, I/T, Customer Service, Off-Price Sales, Sample Control, a Tailored Clothing Factory in Massachusetts, Corporate Security and, last but not least, Corporate Human Resources.
Basically it included all of the "non-fashion" areas which were threatening the financial security of the entire global business. But no one in the corporation had any idea how to fix the many profit-draining "messes" in those areas that had gradually developed over the years.
That's why they hired me. In the beginning, I was told by Ralph and my direct boss, Peter, that they definitely wanted me to quickly clean up those areas so that I could move back to focusing on running various parts of the Ralph Lauren global fashion business. That move never happened.
But Ralph and Peter made sure that I knew that they were pleased with my performance in the so-called "back room" of the corporation. After a few years there, they named me as one of Polo's first three Executive Vice Presidents.
Also, about a year after joining Polo, the VP of Sales announced at a sales meeting with over 100 employees in attendance -- that Jim Hicks had "saved the company" -- by preventing the bankruptcy of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.
So how did I go about getting that done? Well, it turns out that my background was perfect for cleaning up messes and improving processes -- but not so perfect for "managing" fashion businesses.
To me, fashion didn't make much sense. I saw it for what it was: planned obsolescence. As such, the "fashion" business itself was at odds with my entire career up until that point.
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A Summary of My Career BEFORE Ralph Lauren
My background up until that point was absolutely perfect for analyzing complex problems and then developing solutions -- the kind of background that one needs to learn the hard-to-find truth about the leading drivers of climate change.
But my background up to that point, as summarized here, was NOT well-suited for the fashion industry. However, it was very well-suited for what I am doing now relative to climate change and the future of humanity on planet Earth.
Five key eras in my career prior to Polo
All five of these eras contributed to where I am today -- with respect to working to help eliminate the single biggest driver of climate change. My career of problem-solving began in college:
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Earning a BS in Industrial Engineering. The field is about gathering the data necessary to systematically solve problems and improve "systems" in any environment.
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Student engineer at Southern Railway. While in college, I worked a total of 22 months in a position where I could apply what I was learning in college about improving processes.
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After earning a USCG commission, I spent 3 years managing all Coast Guard retail facilities in Honolulu -- while earning an MBA at night at the University of Hawaii.
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Nine years of process improvement consulting. In the factory, boardroom, distribution center and sales force --my role was always to improve the critical processes necessary for the success of the business.
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Four Years of Line Management. From 1981 to 1984, working for Oxford Industries, I had P&L responsility in back-to back division president roles in two fashion companies: Lightning Bolt Sportswear in Los Angeles -- followed by Polo for Boys in New York.
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It turned out that in both of those businesses -- the primary problems were not related to "fashion" issues, they were simply "operational" messes -- exactly like I would later be hired to address at the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation in New York, three years later.
In summary, my career BEFORE Ralph Lauren had nothing to do with fashion -- and everything to do with gathering data, solving problems and improving processes. Thankfully, they never did ask me to run one of those fashion businesses.
Little did I know when POLO fired me in 1994, that they were doing me a huge favor.
The whole experience helped me understand that I was not cut out to be a fashion executive. So, in my early fifties, I still had plenty of time to focus my energies in an arena that was a good fit for those five "process-related" areas listed in my background summary above.
But with two kids in college, I needed an income. So, I decided to leverage my management consulting skills in an arena for which I was well-suited: the executive search business. The tagline of the company that I founded was: "Delivering Value Well Beyond Executive Search" -- implying that we weren't your "typical" headhunters.
I named the company after the neighborhood in which I was living at the time -- the Ansley Park section of Atlanta:
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ACG still has a web presence 25 years later. Over the years, it provided me with the freedom and means to simultaneously pursue projects other than executive search.
What follows below is how I became interested in learning all about the optimal diet for humans in 2002-2003. For the long version of that story, click here: From Polo to Plant Food — My Story.
For the condensed version, keep on reading -- beginning with:
How I Became Awakened Regarding the Crucial Importance of Our Food Choices to Our Future as a Species!
I am near certain that there has never been a more important topic in the history of humanity. I am also near certain that fully grasping an understanding of our current situation -- is not easy to do in a world full of leaders who are only interested in never-ending economic growth in a world of finite resources.
After learning the alarming truth about the connection between our food choices, our own health and environmental health in 2003 -- I continued to make a living in the executive search business, but my passion was now with something far more important.
I documented that passion in this 2011 book that I wrote with my son Jason. It was the first of its kind -- a "big picture" view of how our food choices are not only crucial from a human health perspective, but more importantly, those food choices are tremendously important from an environmental standpoint.
Click here to check it out on Amazon.
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Since publishing that book in 2011 -- and after publishing several thousand blogs and articles, speaking at many venues and writing two more books on the topic -- I have only recently come to grips with the many reasons why very few people are genuinely interested in learning the truth about the crucial importance of our food choices.
As such, the powerful video below has been
largely ignored by the global public.
Since researching the "optimal" diet for humans in 2002-2003 -- I became friends and/or colleagues with many of the heroes of the plant-based food movement: Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, Joel Fuhrman, Pam Popper, John Robbins, John McDougall, Jeff Novick and many others. (Many of them wrote praise blurbs for our first book)
In this powerful, sixteen year-old, 40-minute documentary, produced by Jeff Nelson, most of the above heroes appear many times and their collective message regarding the promotion of health and reversal of chronic disease is still just as compelling as it ever was. Click here or on image to watch.
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I urge you to take a look at this powerful 40-minute video. The problem is that the collective message in this documentary is STILL not being embraced by enough people to make a difference in slowing climate change.
Oh sure, we are told that there are now more vegans in the developed world than ever before -- but, sadly, there are now more ex-vegans than there are vegans. Just think about that stat for a moment.
For most people, it's no fun being vegan -- especially at first. So after a few months or years, most of them apparently go back to eating meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish.
For the record, I eat zero animal-based foods, but I rarely describe myself as vegan. It's because the word "vegan" is all about what you don't eat, when what we do eat is most important. Whole plants are where I get over 80% of my calories.
The chart below illustrates the continuing problem. In spite of the so-called "vegan" movement, meat production continues to soar all over the world.
Just look at this graph: Except for a slight dip during Covid, we're right back on that upward track for the past 60 years -- as more and more people in the developing world begin to start eating like the wealthier humans in other parts of the globe.
Global Meat Production by Type (1961 to 2021)
(in hundreds of millions of tons per year)
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As you can see above, global meat consumption has gone up six fold in the past 60 years.
There are many reasons why the plant-based diet has not been embraced by enough people to make a difference regarding climate change and other planetary boundaries. Here are a half dozen comments/questions that I often hear.
- "My mother taught me how to eat. How could she possibly be wrong about something so important?"
- "I've been eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish my entire life and simply do not want to do without them."
- "If I shouldn't be eating meat and dairy, why is that truth NOT being taught in schools from kindergarten to graduate schools all over the world?"
- "Al Gore is one of our greatest environmental leaders of all time. So if meat, dairy, eggs and fish comprise the leading driver of climate change, why is he not telling us?"
- "Why aren't President Biden and his Department of Agriculture (USDA) encouraging all Americans to shift quickly to plant-based eating? Are they also ignorant about what we humans should be eating?"
- "Some people tell me that animal protein is the leading driver of heart disease, diabetes and cancer; if true, why do most MD's never mention that fact to their patients?"
Speaking of Al Gore, he may go down in history as the world's greatest failure ever. He's one of the few highly recognizable people on the world stage who actually know the complete TRUTH about animal agriculture -- yet he's chosen to remain silent about the single most powerful weapon we have to fight climate change. Our forks.
Greta Thunberg, on the other hand, speaks the complete truth about animal agriculture's impact on climate change every chance she gets.
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Who would you trust most with your life? | |
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The Bottom Line
Our global leaders, due to ignorance, complacency and/or a fear of losing their lofty positions on the world stage -- are NOT informing us about the easiest, quickest, cheapest and most powerful step that we can take to actually reverse climate change.
Let's face it. We need a far better method for informing the international public regarding the truths about the connection between food choices, human health, climate change and the future of humanity.
So, how can we get some well-known journalists involved in telling the world the most important truths in the history of humanity?
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Here's what we can do. Our vision is all spelled out in an SOS Memo that was posted about seven weeks ago. We are highly confident that this game plan will work. And we believe that Mayor Adams in New York is one of the few people on the planet who can make it happen.
He's the mayor of the world's most influential, and most vegan, city in the world. And, since well before 2020, he's been eating himself a diet consisting mostly of whole, plant-based foods -- in order to reverse his own diabetes.
Our envisioned "game plan" for taking this crucial message to the world public -- involves the participation of Mayor Adams and is described in the recent SOS Memo below.
It features the most knowledgeable people in the world on the topic of the relationship between food choices, human health AND environmental health.
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SOS #245 (11-28-23)
Game Plan for Reversing Climate Change.
The opening question in SOS Memo #245 is this...
What would happen if the global media were to become aware of the simple fact that animal agriculture is, by far, the leading driver of climate change and the ONLY driver that is theoretically possible to completely eliminate by 2030?
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At zero cost! It also comes with a powerful fringe benefit. As people begin consuming mostly whole, plant-based foods, most chronic diseases will be reversed -- and the world's cost of healthcare could be slashed by over 50%.
Most Importantly. The beauty of this approach is that we don't have to deal with the world's food growers and manufacturers, the world's self-serving healthcare Industry, the many rogue governments and international alliances (UN, UNFAO) or all the academic entities who are supported financially by the animal food producers and drug marketers. We don't need ANY of their support to get this done!
We just must take the message directly to the people!
Individual food choices alone -- all over the world -- can make this happen. Then, when enough people shift to plant-based eating, the food producers, for financial reasons, will respond quickly -- and start producing what the consumers choose to eat. And, at that time, we will have triggered a rapid dismantling of what is BY FAR -- the single largest driver of climate change.
With help from George Monbiot, Greta Thunberg and a process described in the game plan above, the seven well-known journalists could inspire scores of other courageous journalists to follow them in treating climate change like the civilization-threatening emergency that it truly is.
The stakes of this game are just too daunting to ignore. And only have a few more years to get this right!
How can we get the above group of seven news anchors prepared to urgently begin reporting the complete truth about the relationship between our food choices and climate change
The climate change solution is simple. Executing that solution is hard.
Mayor Adams, in helping make this happen, will enjoy a very special place in history.
(Click image to visit his book on Amazon)
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Mayor Adams knows better than most what we should be eating -- for our own health and the health of the environment that keeps us alive.
In the book above, he wrote about reversing his own type 2 diabetes -- a process that conveniently delivers the fringe benefit of helping to preserve the environment's ability to keep us alive.
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In closing, it's all about what we choose to eat. Let's just do it, already! We're about to run out of time.
For billions of innocent children...let's all work urgently together to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.
Sincerely, Jim
J. Morris Hicks — hpjmh.com
500 Bank Street, Suite 215
New London, CT 06320
jmorrishicks@me.com
PS: How can YOU make a difference?
1st: Become a healthy vegan -- making sure that over 80% of your calories are derived from whole, plant-based foods. As such, you will be doing your part in dismantling the leading driver of climate change: global animal agriculture. As a personal bonus, you will get healthier, eliminate most prescription drugs, lose weight and save money at the same time.
2nd: Start "walking the talk" of sustainable living. Let your actions do the talking for your friends and family. My thoughts on that process are in this updated SOS Memo #200 from early 2023.
3rd: Check out the FREE stuff in the appendix below and start sharing all of this info with your friends & family.
4th: Schedule a FREE Zoom call with me and your group. Contact me at jmorrishicks@me.com to arrange.
In the APPENDIX, you can read about what we must do to understand much more about the climate dilemma in which we find ourselves -- along with what it will likely take to prevent a collapse of civilization.
This appendix can help you get that done:
Appendix to SOS Memos
(lots of data, FREE books, scientific reports, videos & more)
You can join my mailing list and find all previous
postings by visiting this SOS Memos page.
Again, my primary website is hpjmh.com -- featuring a powerful summary that appears on the landing page. Click the link below for my one-page bio summary:
J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy.
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Want to get started nurturing your own health
and the health of our planet?
Take our dietary survey at 4leafsurvey.com (2 min). With your answers to 12 multiple choice questions, the survey provides an estimate as to what percent of your daily calories are being derived from whole, plant-based foods.
Over 80% from whole plants = "4Leaf Level" of eating
(The average American or European gets less than 7%)
Click to learn all about this dietary assessment tool:
About the 4Leaf Survey
For much more about 4Leaf, visit 4leafprogram.com
Also: Link to the FREE e-copy of the The 4Leaf Guide
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