A SEAT at THE TABLE: Conversations with Today's Top Industry Leaders

Many people dream of starting a fashion brand.  

The combination of a doing something creative with the glamour and energy of catwalk shows and photo shoots can be intoxicating.

What isn’t always obvious - at least for new designers or for people outside of the industry - is the challenge of starting from scratch.  

It’s not only about growing your brand.  It’s about doing everything yourself - from desig...

Today supply chain success is driven by a combination of speed, reliability and innovation.  

The concept is easy to understand.  Executing on this is where it gets tricky.

Especially in a global landscape that seems to be constantly changing - with no indication of settling down any time soon.

Today we’re joined by Sean Coxall, chairman of 707 Limited, a leading provider of worldwide sourcing options and innovativ...

In the face of rising competition from new brands, more demanding consumers and ever present cost pressures, it’s not easy to run a successful brand.

Thus it’s not surprising that more brands are losing momentum or are stuck in slump that isn’t being solved by changing creative directors, altering their DNA or adding new lines.

In many cases, that’s actually made things worse.

To get a better understanding of what ...

The retail landscape has becoming increasingly challenging with more brands struggling not only with top line growth but also with bottom line performance.

The easy excuse is blame the economy.  Tariffs have shaken up the entire supply chain- from sourcing through to retail pricing.

And yet some retailers are outperforming the market.   

Why?

To learn more about what’s standing in the way of retailer performance, I ...

Activewear continues to be a a top performing apparel category with consumers worldwide having a seemingly insatiable appetite for both the look and the comfort aspect that defines sports garments.

After such a long successful run, how will activewear maintain its lead position in a highly competitive industry.  And amongst consumers who are constantly presented with ‘the next big thing’?

I reached out to my long time colle...

In an increasingly competitive retail landscape, more brands are looking for new markets with high growth potential.

That’s put the GCC (Gulf Cooperative Council) region on more brands’ radar.  

The region includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, nations that have strong spending power and continue to invest in retail development.

In this episode of A Seat at The ...

What happens when an apparel guy decides to found a tech company?

A game-changing concept that can drive retail sales - and build customer engagement, that’s what can happen.

And it is exactly what one smart entrepreneur did.

Meet Jeff Gray, Founder and CEO of RoboArt Labs, a pioneering AI-powered platform that is transforming how retailers engage with their customers. He is also a co-owner of Creative Ap...

After being off the sourcing radar for almost a decade, suddenly everyone is starting to talk about Pakistan.

The combination of brands looking to diversify sourcing - and the benefits of having a the entire supply chain from fiber to finished garment in country - is putting a shine on Pakistan and boosting it up the sourcing tier list.

But Pakistan is more than simply another one of the countries where brands use...

Do people still have employment opportunities in a world increasingly focused on AI?  

And if so, where? And what competitive advantage do they have?

Turns out, there are still big opportunities for people in the workplace.  

The key is to understand what value humans can offer that technology can’t.  And how smart companies will see the strategic advantage of balancing people with AI.

To find ou...

What if you could find a system that maximized luck and generated outsized returns? 

A method based on decision science that led you to make better choices - in both your business and personal life.

That’s exactly what Daniel Kang did.  He learned how to use asymmetric bets to win scholarships that paid for his education, as well as to raise millions of dollars to fund his startup.  

He then used this pri...

2025 has gotten off to what might generously be described as an ‘uncertain start’.

The one thing people want right now is clarity.  Or at least some idea of what might be the next impact on supply chains.

One of the most consistent issues facing sourcing directors and supply chain managers has been logistics.

After years of unprecedented disruptions, logistics could be the one blessing in an increasingly ...

Almost everyone in a senior leadership position these days feels the pressure of a business environment that has become increasingly uncertain. 

At the same time, the pressure to drive both growth and profitability has never been more intense.

The pain is being felt  by large-scale organizations, as well as start ups as the market becomes much less forgiving that it was even a year or two ago.

Today we a...

Many brands are starting to wonder if China might no longer be the hot market for luxury brands that it used to be.

After years of disappointing sales growth, some brands are turning their attention away from China and towards markets which they think might be the next big thing.

While the China market has certainly faced challenges, the are still huge opportunities there - for brands that know how to read the mar...

Fast fashion has always been competitive but in recent years its become a speed-driven race to the bottom.

No matter how low prices are today, some new player will enter the market - with even lower prices - and more styles!

In the midst of this chaos, UK supermarkets have carved out a solid business selling budget priced fashion.  Yes, fashion.  Not basics.  Not the standard socks and underwear you’d expect to fi...

Typically older generations complain that young people don’t work as hard as they did when they were that age.  However that narrative does seem to carry some truth these days.

Suddenly it seems that Gen Z and even younger Millennials are disengaged with the working world.  

From ‘Quiet Quitting’ to seemingly lacking ambition, what’s happened to the energy and enthusiasm that younger workers used to have?

In a fast paced, complex business environment decision making has become increasingly difficult.

We want to make good decisions.  We’re told we need to make faster decisions.  But often we end up in ‘analysis paralysis’.

Caught between analyzing endless data, including inputs from a vast range of participants, and often trying to please too many masters.   It’s no wonder fewer decisions get made.  And when they do...

When people talk about PTSD we usually think of returning military veterans or survivors of catastrophic events.

Yet many other people suffer from stress-related issues that are not unlike PTSD.  

Terry Earthwind Nichols, is a bestselling author and father of  Repetitive Behavior Cellular Regression, a methodology that helps people decrease anxiety, fear, procrastination, self sabotage and overall stress

In this podcast, he talks abou...

Everyone wants to build a brand.  But few people actually know how.

For most, a brand is a logo and a vague mission statement - and little more.

And you can really blame them.  Creating a unique brand identity - and articulating it so that others (ideally customers) understand what you stand for - is a lot bigger undertaking than it seems.

I'm Jane Singer, and welcome back to A Seat at the Table.

AI has become one of the most talked about technologies. A lot of the hype makes AI seem like a magic wand that can do anything or an evil demon that will leave massive numbers of people without jobs. 

While it's unlikely, at least for now, that these extreme cases are true, there is little doubt that AI is a technology we need to understand. 

For most companies, the challenge is identifying what are practica...