Ironically, as I write this viewpoint, I am in the USA (and not in the host nation) but it’s pleasing to see that even here – the most soccer resistant country in the world – the fact of the World Cup being held in South Africa has made mainstream conversation.
OK, so I know soccer is not everyone’s cup of tea, but a live and global conversation about something so heartfelt, personal and unifying is undeniably a real symbol for how open and accessible the world has become. This also bears testament to just how far the host nation has been able to progress in 20 short years on an often troubled journey of transformation. South Africa is a country that is literally designing its future through good and bad. And, as any good designer would agree, the process of transformation is the sum of many parts: strategy, ideas, ideals, opportunism, bravery and play.
20 years ago when I first worked in New York I – probably like the majority of the world – watched the TV footage of Nelson Mandela being freed from Robben Island and walking the road to freedom. It is a journey that South Africa is still on although it is fast catching up with a world that, in the meantime, has also had to deal with transformational thinking on an epic scale. There is a wise quote that says ‘the journey is the reward’ and, quite often, the relationships I build with my clients and team are as valuable in the long run as the creative result we jointly produce.
