Courageous Leaders Focus on Tomorrow
February 22, 2012 The relatively stable surroundings and peace that the world was accustomed to symbolically ended on Sept. 15, 2008. On that day, Lehman Brothers Bank declared bankruptcy. The world panicked and a global crisis was born. Markets became diffident and unstable, or simply oversensitive.
Volatility is now a fact of life. Every bit of information, even if unconfirmed, can cause millions of dollars to vanish from the market.
Volatility has also hurt the cotton market. Unexpected decisions that restrict the free cotton trade and disastrous weather events led to a decreasing global cotton supply. It is undisputable, however, that the common thread – both for disturbances in cotton and in the overall financial markets – is lack of reliable, transparent data and the influence of market speculators.
Unstable times call for brave, responsible and creative leaders who view these as “their times” – times when decisions are made not because of existing circumstances, but despite them. The challenge for a courageous leader is not today, but rather, tomorrow.
Those leaders are able to see and assess the present conditions, but look forward without losing perspective. A good leader can delineate the field of activity, clearly define the players, rules and specificity of the play, and bring about positive results.
In volatile times, a leader should also have the skill to unite the people around him. A courageous visionary identifies with the organization he leads and virtually melds with it, becoming an invisible prompter. It is the organization that must be clearly visible and audible.
I think there are many such organizations in the cotton sector, including the International Forum for Cotton Promotion (IFCP), whose mission is investing in future generations of consumers, rather than focusing on today.
Promotion should be honest and transparent, devoid of marketing gimmicks. Only professionalism and clarity are able to guarantee efficiency in times of market volatility. Promotion should teach consumers about the product’s virtues, which can be obtained when a consumer chooses products made of cotton or other natural fibers. Promotion should also include reaching out to textile and design faculties at higher institutions and colleges. In this way, we can develop enthusiastic professionals whose passion and openness to the virtues of natural fibers will be contagious.
There is another reason to provide honest information: to refute lies about cotton.
Some myths, such as “cotton growing utilizes the most water and pesticides,” are rooted in the consumer’s subconscious. Worse still, the sector itself adds to the confusion by applying a sort of quality gradation. The Better Cotton Initiative, for example, implies that one type of cotton is of better quality than conventional cotton.
Investing for the future means making consumers understand that despite its many names, cotton offers a wide range of natural properties, regardless of the country of origin, fiber length or agricultural means with which it was grown. It is important that in unstable times, the whole cotton sector function as one team, observing the rules and principles of the game based on clear, good and fair practices. Only then will we be able to reach the ultimate goal: watching our grandchildren and great grandchildren, as aware consumers, reaching for products made from natural fibers rather than those made from artificial ones, which are a real threat to the future of cotton.
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