Predicting the Future: Bud Konheim Had a Sixth Sense

Time-starved consumers, mobile shopping and ailing shopping malls are among the numerous now-norms that Nicole Miller’s chief executive officer Bud Konheim predicted decades ago. The quintessential optimist, who liked to boast that he never had a bad day, was always willing to lend an ear to the opposing side. Konheim once explained to a friend, “I have a problem spending too much time in my ‘comfort zone.’ It comes from years of running a fashion business. I get paid to handle the bad news, not revel in the good. When a day goes by and I haven’t heard any bad news, I get itchy because I know every day produces bad news, I just haven’t heard it. Similarly, with political, military opinions and ‘facts.’ The only way I feel comfortable in what I believe is to hear the opposing view. Sometime the opposing view actually makes more sense than mine.” Here, a recap of the many fashion, business and societal shifts that Konheim sensed long before they materialized. On enacting the voluntary drug testing of employees to ensure a sober workplace in 1986. “Nobody has to take the test if they don’t want to. I don’t want to be hysterical about it. But we’re

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