Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Me
Combining vision, leadership, engineering and execution
SOS #142 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (1-25-22)
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In the days of runaway climate change -- combined with a dearth of leadership, I can only dream that some great leader like Tim Cook at Apple or Mayor Eric Adams in New York City -- will apply their special skills toward leading the world out of the desperate climate change dilemma in which we find ourselves.
So far, no well-known leader, except for Mayor Adams, has even acknowledged that the leading driver of climate change is animal agriculture. Not John Kerry, not Joe Biden and not Al Gore.
A little background. Three weeks after Steve Jobs died in October of 2011, I wrote an article about Tim Cook -- one of the most famous and most successful Auburn graduates in the world -- and the man who was hand-picked by Jobs to succeed him as the CEO of Apple.
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I too graduated from Auburn -- in 1968 with a degree in Industrial Engineering, after working alternate quarters as a co-op student with the Southern Railway System in Washington, DC, and in Atlanta.
I later earned an MBA at the University of Hawaii while serving as an officer in the United States Coast Guard at the USCG base in the middle of Honolulu Harbor.
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Tim Cook followed me at Auburn fourteen years later -- also with an Industrial Engineering degree and, like me, worked as a co-op student. He later earned an MBA at Duke's Fuqua School of Business
The inspiration for this SOS Memo occurred last week -- while I was watching the Steve Jobs "Celebration of Life" video that was recorded on October 19, 2011, at the Apple HQ in Cupertino, CA. The master of ceremonies was Tim Cook and he did an outstanding job.
The entire event was heartwarming -- and the three songs by Norah Jones at the 23:30 mark were especially well done. For me, the entire event was all about the power of great leadership -- something that is now tragically missing on the world stage when it comes to stopping or slowing climate change.
Click on the image below to watch whichever parts of this spectacular 80-minute video appeals to you. One of the speakers that fine day was former VP Al Gore, who is featured later in this SOS Memo, albeit in a not-so-flattering manner.
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In business, it all begins with vision & leadership |
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In my case, I got to experience what senior-level vision and leadership was all about while working for Ralph Lauren during the 1980's and early 90's. As Steve Jobs provided exceptional vision and leadership at Apple --Ralph did likewise at Polo.
For example, I remember one "all-hands" session at the corporate HQ in New York when Ralph called everyone together in the multi-level lobby where we all packed into that majestic space -- somewhat like the Apple crowd above, just not nearly as large.
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We were all there to hear directly from our leader. And Ralph did not disappoint us on that day.
He was speaking to us as if we were his partners -- stressing the importance of ALL of us learning to be comfortable representing the Ralph Lauren brand to our own networks of friends and families.
He encouraged all us all to proudly wear Polo in a manner that felt natural and appropriate for each individual. He said,
Your friends know you work for me -- and they will expect you to know the right way to dress -- in a tasteful manner that is unique to every person.
He made all of us feel like owners that day. Our leader had created the vision and part of his job was ensuring that the entire team was on board with that vision.
At Apple, Steve Jobs had the vision for his company and he helped all those around him "catch that vision." Tim has carried that vision forward.
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Next comes engineering and execution |
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Since Tim Cook and I both studied Industrial Engineering (IE) at Auburn, I will start there.
In a nutshell, IE is all about the analysis and continuous improvement of complete systems or processes. Two main points:
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We were taught to study and understand the big picture of any system before making any process changes.
- We were taught to always start with projects that offer the biggest bang for the buck (applying the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule).
And that's exactly what I have done at every corporate leadership role that I have held during my fifty-year career.
One quick example from my days as the Executive Vice President of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation
One of the people who reported to me in the late 80's was Andrea, who was in charge of selling close-out merchandise. One day, while reviewing, with her, the excess inventory that needed to be sold, I saw one line item that contained 80,000 shirts, each with a wholesale price of $70.
She told me that none of her customers wanted to buy those shirts -- at any price -- because of a number of reasons. She said she could not even get $5 per shirt.
So, I took it on as a personal project in order to coach and train our staff on how to apply industrial engineering principles to business issues like selling off-price merchandise.
Long story short, I assigned a one-day "sortation" project to two young men who worked for me in the New Jersey distribution center. On one Saturday, those two guys physically sorted and re-packaged those 80,000 shirts into cartons containing five-dozen each -- all in the same size scale of the total ownership.
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I then told Andrea that she no longer had 80,000 separate units to sell; she now had only one stock keeping unit (SKU) -- and each one contained five dozen shirts. I also instructed her to begin each sales session with a customer like Marshalls -- discussing with the buyers the quantity of those 5-dozen cartons they would purchase on that particular visit.
We decided to price those shirts at $15, which would enable our retail customers to enjoy a decent profit margin while selling them for $25 to $30 in their own stores.
Within three months, all of those shirts were gone.
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How much $$ did we save with that simple project that
took one day? At least $800,000.
It was almost like "found" money since, without the intervention, Andrea would've ended up giving those shirts away to charity.
Yet, with just one day of labor from two young man, we raised well over one million dollars in cash, freed up lots of warehouse space, made our customers happy AND minimized any negative impact to the Polo brand which would have occurred had we "dumped" those shirts.
In this situation, we simply gathered the data, brainstormed a solution and made it happen -- all in less than two days.
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Comparable Process Improvement Opportunity
On a Global Scale
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If you gather the data and look at the numbers regarding almost any process, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what should be done. And that goes for gathering the data about the leading drivers of climate change.
After a 35-year career in process improvement and various senior corporate executive roles -- several years ago, I accidentally discovered the greatest potential process improvement opportunity in the history of humankind.
I am talking about the process of how we feed ourselves — and the dramatic impact that it has on our own quality of life, the cost of health care and a host of environmental and moral issues.
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Here are the global numbers that would accompany a massive shift away from eating animals.
By simply shifting to a whole food,
plant-based way of eating:
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We could feed all 8 billion people with one-tenth as much land, water and energy as we are using now.
- In the developed world, the annual cost of eating for the average family would be cut by at least 50%.
- A global shift to a whole food, plant-based diet would also save trillions of dollars in healthcare when it comes to many chronic diseases and pandemics.
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Most importantly, billions of acres of land -- now used for growing animals, could be returned to nature, with a likely outcome of slowing, stopping or reversing climate change.
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Why is that not happening?
Quite simply: A dearth of leadership from the likes of Al Gore, John Kerry and a host of other political leaders in the world, including ours here in the USA
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Some of this tale appeared in last week's SOS Memo -- but, in order to put all of this powerful information in perspective, it bears repeating here.
About two weeks ago, on January 13, former Vice President Al Gore was featured in a CBS News story about climate change. As the primary driver behind the 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, he has become one of the best known environmentalists in the world.
Al Gore on his hopes for the planet: "Job number one is to stop using the sky as an open sewer."
The sad part about that statement is that it does not convey any clue to average citizens regarding what they themselves can do about climate change. What he should be telling the world is that JOB NUMBER ONE is to replace ALL animal-based foods with plant-based just as quickly as possible.
Another sad and particularly disturbing part of this story is that Al Gore almost certainly knows the truth on this topic -- having reportedly become a vegan several years ago -- but he NEVER talks about it.
Sadly, there seems to be a code of silence among many of the world's most influential leaders when it comes to sharing the truth about some of the most important issues that affect our future as a species.
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Click on this image to watch the 7-minute video on YouTube. You can also click here to view the CBS news release.
Never once in the film does he recommend that the viewers walk away from the proven #1 driver of climate change.
He won't do it because he lacks the courage -- and the character. He knows that a stand like that would not be good for the economy -- or for his own popularity. He is right about that. And he is not alone.
He won't do it for the same reason that Joe Biden, John Kerry and practically all other global political and environmental leaders will not even think about breaking that same code of silence.
They all know that doing so would be a very
unpopular move among the majority of their
constituents from whom they draw power.
They refuse to follow the data and solve the problems using the simple formula that my team used with the 80,000 shirts that Andrea could not sell.
They all lack integrity, it's that simple. It's either that or they are all ignorant which I do not believe. Sadly for all eight billion of us, integrity among well-known leaders is not rewarded in the political arena.
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What happened on Gore's Environmental Team?
For the future of the world's children, how should that team have responded to a lack of courage, integrity and genuine concern from their leader?
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After watching the video above, I reached out to my friend and colleague, Dr. Sailesh Rao who, in 2006, was actually working on Al Gore's team in the years after his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth -- back when Mr. Gore was seemingly telling the world the truth about climate change.
Sailesh, who I did not meet until fifteen years later, was actually one of Mr. Gore's very first Climate Presenters. After training sessions in Nashville and three years of working as volunteer presenters -- many among the group had become concerned about the fact that their efforts were not being directed nearly enough at the leading driver of climate change: animal-based foods.
So Sailesh drafted a letter to Mr. Gore -- and seventy-one of his fellow presenters co-signed it with him. Here is a copy of that letter:
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August 2009 letter to Mr. Gore from seventy-two members of his own team
August 11, 2009
Subject: The Elephant in the Room
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Dear Mr. Gore,
We are Climate Project presenters who have worked to convey the urgency of the climate crisis for nearly three years. As we portray this crisis as a planetary emergency, however, we find it increasingly difficult to ignore the impacts of the Western diet on the state of our planet – in particular, the climate impacts of eating beef and other meats.
The 2006 United Nations FAO report, “Livestock's Long Shadow,” estimated that humans use nearly one third of the ice-free land area of the planet, or nearly twelve billion acres, for livestock production. According to many scholars, such as Professor David Pimentel of Cornell University, just over one-fourth of humanity consumes most of these livestock products.
To put that number in perspective, the Global Biodiversity Assessment of 1995 estimated that the Earth can sustainably support just one billion human beings at American levels of consumption.
We also feel that this moment provides us a unique opportunity to address the health care dilemma in tandem. As preventative health care increasingly becomes a focus in our struggle to remake the US health care system, we believe that a potential synergy exists with our two campaigns.
For the last fifty years, various US Surgeons General have recommended a reduction in beef and red meat consumption as part of a heart-healthy diet. Indeed, the 2007 Second Expert Report of the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research – the world’s most definitive report on cancer prevention, involving scientists from thirty countries – underscored the cancer prevention implications of these recommendations.
The consumption of beef and red meat could thus become a nexus in the relationship between personal and global health, and greatly help invigorate individual involvement in the fight against global warming.
We strongly believe that your public stand on meat consumption, in conjunction with Dr. Pachauri's forceful stand, would truly be world-changing. Please count on our unflagging support in taking such a courageous step.
Respectfully yours, Dr. Sailesh Rao + 71 co-signees
(Climate Project Presenters)
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Gore's Response to their August 2009 Letter
A huge disappointment for the team
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September 2009
Dear Sailesh and other team members,
Thank you so very much for taking time to express your thoughts about the planetary impacts of our Western diet - especially as it relates to eating meat.
While it isn't possible to personally address every email and letter that you send (simply due to lack of time), I want you to know that I care deeply about your thoughts and viewpoints, and sincerely appreciate hearing from you - my fellow presenters.
On this particular topic, you can expect to hear a bit more from me when I update my slideshow and after the release of my new book on November 3rd. I also look forward to sharing some new slides with you next year as well.
I wouldn't say that there's an elephant in the room, as your letter indicated. Rather, there are many factors that contribute to the climate crisis, with meat production as one of them.
While I've spent most of my energies focused on other aspects of alleviating the crisis (e.g. reducing fossil fuel consumption), I'm not unaware of the impacts of eating meat, and indeed mentioned the importance of eating less meat in An Inconvenient Truth.
As a matter of fact, I'm in ongoing discussions, and have been for quite some time now, with various experts on this issue. Once again, thanks for your thoughtful and impassioned letter. I appreciate your feedback and support more than you know.
Sincerely, Al Gore
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Three years later, in 2012, Dr. Rao sends
Mr. Gore a second letter.
Again, with the same 71 co-signers
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Subject: The Elephant in the Room Revisited
Date: August 10, 2012
Dear Mr. Gore,
It has been three years since we wrote to you on the subject of "the Elephant in the Room" concerning the climate impacts of animal agriculture and the Western diet, in a letter dated August 12, 2009. Thank you for your gracious reply to that letter.
Since then, two developments have occurred in the scientific literature that lead us to believe that the Elephant was just a baby in 2009 and that it is now growing into adulthood, making it even more impossible to ignore.
Firstly, in December, 2009, the Worldwatch Institute published a paper by Dr. Robert Goodland, former lead environmental advisor of the World Bank Group and Dr. Jeff Anhang, environmental specialist at the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation (IFC). The paper was entitled, "Livestock and Climate Change," and it contained the bombshell estimation that:
"livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32,564 million tons of CO2e per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions (their emphasis)."
They go on to write, "This is a strong claim that requires strong evidence, so we will thoroughly review the direct and indirect sources of GHG emissions from livestock. Some of these are obvious but underestimated, some are simply overlooked, and some are emissions sources that are already counted but have been assigned to the wrong sectors."
Data on livestock vary from place to place and are affected by unavoidable imprecision; where it was impossible to avoid imprecision in estimating any sum of GHGs, we strove to minimize the sum so our overall estimate could be understood as conservative."
Since that report was published, the authors of the 2006 UN Livestock's Long Shadow (LLS) report and Dr. Goodland and Dr. Anhang conducted peer-reviewed defenses of their respective estimates (18% vs. 51%) in the Animal Feed Science and Technology journal.
In the issue dated Dec. 28, 2011, Dr. Goodland and Dr. Anhang published the definitive defense of their estimation to counter the original critique, and to which the LLS authors declined to respond. In the scientific process, this means that the 51% estimate for the contribution of livestock to anthropogenic GHG emissions is now more credible than the original 18% estimate.
Secondly, in our previous letter three years ago, we had stated that "almost one-third" of the ice-free land area of the planet is used for livestock production. Since then, in November 2011, scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have announced that:
"Livestock systems occupy 45% of the global surface area," which makes it an even more burdensome industry on the planet.
In light of these developments, we feel that the lack of emphasis on the diet issue in our TCRP slide decks is detrimental to the credibility of our fellow presenters and needs to be corrected.
Respectfully yours, Dr. Sailesh Rao
+ the same 71 co-signees (Climate Project Presenters)
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The Bottom Line
After TEN years -- Zero response from Mr. Gore
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And it's not just Mr. Gore. The world's political leadership continues to ignore the "elephant in the room" when it comes to climate change.
With the exception of a few well-known activists like Greta Thunberg, hardly any well-known leaders anywhere in the world are talking loudly about the absolute necessity of dealing decisively with the #1 driver of climate change: animal agriculture.
Simultaneously, as mentioned earlier, changing what we eat is also, by far, the easiest, quickest and least expensive way to combat other environmental disasters such as deforestation, species extinction, water shortages and much more.
Earlier in this SOS Memo, I mentioned the "code of silence" regarding the single largest driver of climate change. For whatever reasons, the well-known political world leaders and the top brass at the UN -- remain mute on what is likely the most crucial issue in the history of humanity.
Ten years later, in 2022, Mr. Gore still enjoys a very favorable reputation as one of the world's greatest environmentalists -- even though he never mentions what is, by far, the leading driver of climate change.
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But, Mr. Gore knows that Dr. Rao (and his 71 teammates) are well aware of his cowardice -- and he knows that they will never give up.
As a matter of fact, during the recent COP26 in Glasgow, Sailesh saw Mr. Gore walking the arena -- and when he passed by, Dr. Rao thrust a copy of this powerful book into his hands.
As for this book, I was privileged to have been invited to provide this endorsement that appears inside this timely, 2021, book:
“Food Is Climate is the only book in the world that discloses the complete truth about the relationship — and the timeline of discovery — between humans eating animals, climate change and our steadily declining chances for surviving much longer as a species.
It shines a bright, embarrassing light on Al Gore, one of the few globally-recognized leaders who understand the complete truth about climate change—but lacks the courage to share that crucial knowledge with the public.
Maybe this book will help to shame him into taking a global stand on the most crucial topic in the history of humanity. Leveraging his global fame and wealth, he could make a real difference by loudly, and urgently, sharing the truth with the public about the paramount importance of a rapid shift to plant-based eating throughout the world.”
--- J. Morris Hicks, Author of Healthy Eating, Healthy World and OUTCRY, Urgent Alarms from Our Planet and What We Can Do About Them
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This SOS Memo began with Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and their collective roles of leadership in the business world. To be sure, there are many great leaders in business -- but most are completely beholden to the entities and shareholders who control their corporations.
That said, most corporate executives would be fired if they began encouraging their employees to stop eating animal-based foods.
But, if they felt a great enough conviction about the topic, they could resign and apply their own personal wealth toward uniting the world in an urgent overall effort to greatly reduce -- or eliminate -- the primary drivers of climate change.
There is another well-known, globally-recognized political leader who totally "gets it" about the significance of animal agriculture when it comes to driving climate change. He is the mayor of New York City and you can read all about what he is capable of doing in this SOS Memo.
In closing, at least we know what we're dealing with when it comes to the lack of candor and integrity from political leaders throughout the world -- and that's why we need back-up plans -- that do not depend completely on politically motivated leadership for our survival.
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Dr. Sailesh Rao has such a plan. It is a series of quarterly events,
V-COP8 and the first session is this weekend.
Click on this Vega image for a 2-minute intro from Sailesh.
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From Sailesh Rao, "There is no question that we have to solve the climate crisis from the ground up and we can't wait for solutions to come from the top down. This is what the VEGAN community has come together to plan and engineer at V-COP8 next weekend, January 29-30, 2022 and every quarter thereon."
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Finally, contact me directly at the email address below with any questions you may have.
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
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The section below will continue to provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics.
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"Big Picture"
Data and Info Section
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This section has been appearing at the end of my weekly SOS Memos for several months. It contains links to relevant information that form the foundation of what our options for responding quickly and appropriately to our global crises appear to be.
In order to respond appropriately, we must first grasp the all-important "big picture" regarding how we got to where we are in the first place. The various links below will help you do that.
This first one, that I just discovered recently, is a free YouTube video by Michael Dowd, a non-scientific researcher like me who does a very fine job of explaining the many facets of the obstacles standing between us and survival as a species.
Dowd has a pretty good handle on most things, but he seems to be unaware of the simple weapon that we can all use to fight the leading driver of climate change. Our forks.
That said, he does a terrific job of describing our ever-worsening dilemma. Click the link below to view this very informative 33-minute video, entitled:
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This next item is a free 83-minute documentary film that is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION. |
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This powerful film will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture." Just click on the hourglass image.
I will continue sharing this TEN BILLION link in future weekly SOS Memos
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More Data re Leading Driver of Climate Change.
Beginning in September of 2021, I have been including links to world-changing scientific information that thought leaders everywhere should read and and share with others.
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What can you do? For starters, you can buy the new documentary -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix -- and watch it often with your friends and family.
Also, you can:
- Share this SOS Memo with everyone you know.
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Get an e-copy of OUTCRY. Visit Outcry page on Amazon and get a much bigger understanding of the situation in which all humans find ourselves.
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Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic. Urge them to read these SOS Memos and our latest book, OUTCRY.
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- Completely stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish today and tell everyone why you are taking such a "radical" step. You're doing it for the innocent children of the world.
- As noted above, do yourself a favor and make sure that your plant-based meals of the future consist of whole plants -- the kinds of foods that prevent or reverse most chronic diseases AND enable your body to effortlessly seek its optimal weight.
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A final word. Hopefully, the kind of crucially serious situations expressed in these SOS Memos will soon replace meaningless and trivial topics that dominate a ridiculously large percentage of all of the conversations in the world.
We must all start talking much more about what's really important. That is , we must start doing everything possible to maximize the chances of a meaningful and pleasant life ahead for the young people of the world.
I volunteer to help you do that. For Free. Invite me to collaborate with you and your group via Zoom. To help you jump-start that all-important conversation, I will be happy to present and discuss this topic at length. Here's an advance link to my standard presentation: 62 slides.
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The image above is a clue regarding the essence of my "family game plan" that is revealed only in my talks. I do not put that in writing.
Want to share some of my SOS Memos with others? Visit my SOS Memos page where the most recent ones are listed first.
Finally, I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested OUTCRY, that there might at least be a more robust conversation taking place about our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world -- and what it will take to get us focused on maximizing our chances of survival as a species.
To be sure, we must do a lot more than change what we eat -- and OUTCRY helps explain the "why" and the "how" of that proposition.
To my knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.
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Regarding the free Zoom conferences with your group,
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Our book, for a host of environmental reasons, is only available as an e-book on Amazon. As such, it contains hyperlinks to hundreds of references and videos, is less expensive, does not kill any trees and does not have to be manufactured and delivered.
The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas have unfolded since 2018.
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As always, I am just trying to help spark the all-important "conversation" about what is needed. By sharing a vision of what I believe is possible, I hope to influence others to think bigger, faster, better and bolder.
You will find that there aren't many books that cover both the health of your body and the health of your planet. This is one of them -- a book that my son Jason assisted me in writing. It was published ten years ago this month.
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Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth |
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