Breasts. I want you to stop for a moment and think about breasts. Now, hold that thought for 30 seconds.
Granted, as opening lines go, it’s not quite in Moby Dick’s league, but given that the majority of you reading this column are – so I’m reliably informed – red-blooded, meat-eating retailers with only a hint of metrosexuality about you, I would hope that, at the very least, it would have grabbed your attention.
For some of you quick thinkers, those lines may even have precipitated something more substantial, in which case, you should probably take a long, hard look at yourself.
One of my reasons for the rather brash heaving of said subject matter before you is not to promote our latest collection of sexy bras, but rather to remind you all that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you haven’t bought a ribbon, or one of the many pink products that we’ve all produced (we have a very nice pink, frilly suspender brief, in case you were interested), please wear something pink on Friday, October 26 and make a donation to support the great work of the Breast Cancer Campaign.
I can’t recall another cause or occasion that so many retailers unite to support and, for that, we should collectively be very proud. Sometimes, we forget how powerful we can be, but when we act together, over and above the institutions of church and state, we as businesses can be the greatest force for good.
My other reason for taking the liberty of using this column to promote a cause that is important to me and my team at Ann Summers – and one that is even more of an excuse for me to not give two hoots whether anyone is even remotely offended by my attention-seeking opening – is a nod of deference to Anita Roddick.
Anita was someone that I greatly admired for her tireless campaigning, humanity, vision and creativity – and not least for being such a revolutionary retailer. She inspired many of us and the world is all the poorer without her.
I think it was Stephen Covey, in one of his books, who advocated “beginning with the end in mind”. He suggests that we should imagine our own funeral, or our arrival at the pearly gates. Who will be there and what will they say about us? What would you want them to say your contribution to the world you lived and worked in was?
Start here, then work backwards and change your life accordingly is the general idea. Anita’s, or, for that matter, the untimely death of any of our friends, puts this notion into sharp focus.
So, perhaps this month, as well as helping raise cash for Breast Cancer Campaign, we should all take stock of our broader contribution and imagine what people will say about us when our shops are shut for the last time.
Then, let’s get together more than once a year and do something even bigger and bolder and make that our collective legacy.
Jacqueline Gold, chief executive, Ann Summers
No comments yet