In conversation with Bob Sheard.

He asked a room full of LVMH executives to raise their hands if they were wearing a watch. Then to put them down if it wasn't a Rolex. Half the hands stayed up.

"That's the hole in your soul," he said. "That's what the watch is telling everybody."

As co-founder of FreshBritain, Bob Sheard has spent thirty years building the tools that taught companies to behave like people — from Levi's and Burberry to Converse and Arc'teryx. He was headhunted onto the Karrimor board in his twenties by the Benetton family and called in to advise the Gandhi family during the world's largest general election. 

Then those same tools escaped the boardroom and were absorbed by...people.

I called him to find out what that's costing us — and whether there's a way back. His answer involves an ice axe company, a jacket that will eventually become a carrot, and a four-week programme designed to reach every kid at the exact moment their identity is most formative.

Have something to say? I'm all ears.

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Credits:

Host: Meredith Ogilvie-Thompson

Sound Editing: Dax Krishna and the team at SpeechDocs

Music: Ilya Kuznetsov