Page 47 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

and have it create a situa- My wife and son started You describe a problem: A Do you think a founder
tion where there would be a [apparel brand] Kit and boundary- pushing creative always knows what’s best
large changeover in board Ace, and I got involved with team could be successful for a company?
members, in order to get rid it. But I soon realized that I for 11 straight quarters, but I think it’s going to be 50-50.
of the CEO and hire another wasn’t willing to put in the inevitably, they’ll stumble. You’re going to end up with
CEO. As of last month, I 18 hours a day. My mind And when they do, the opera- founders who became really
accomplished that. So you wasn’t there. In my 16 years tional side steps in and takes successful because they
can say that I haven’t been at Lululemon, my job was command, creatives never understood the underlying
involved, or you can say that to be five to seven years in regain control, and the com- subconscious of the con-
I’ve been very strategically the future, so if Lululemon pany stalls. sumer—but they became
involved and my strategy has was doing three and a half That’s what I noticed hap- so attached to that one
come to fruition. [In July, billion dollars in sales, pened. When I was CEO of the idea, and when the world
Lululemon announced a new my mind was always on company, man, I had to fight changed, they’d gotten older
CEO, Calvin McDonald. He Lululemon being like seven, for creative, and I had to fight and weren’t the customer
replaced Laurent Potdevin, eight, 10 billion dollars in for the times when it failed. anymore. You can see that a
who was ousted earlier this sales. So my frame of mind And of course, if you have a lot in the apparel business.
year and accused by the com- isn’t set up any longer for a CEO that has to report to the They’re making clothing for
pany of conduct violations.] small startup. public every quarter and the a 25-year-old, but suddenly
board is concerned about their they’re 50 and don’t really
But that doesn’t address the There are other notable reputation, then everything understand the fashion of
emotional component. It’s founders in the news right starts to become about control the new 25-year-old any-
easy for me to say this, hav- now trying to get back into of the creative process. No more. They’re not up on
ing not created something the company they founded— one can quantify how great the music, they can’t see
like Lululemon, but to put it Travis Kalanick of Uber, John creative has been over the the trends, blah blah blah.
plainly: You created a suc- Schnatter of Papa John’s. other 11 quarters. But oper- Now, there’s the other
cessful company, you made Leaving out their individual ational people can definitely 50 percent that eat, live, and
quite a lot of money, your scandals, do you sympathize prove where it didn’t work breathe that 25-year-old
relationship with it didn’t go with them? in the one quarter. and surround themselves
as I imagine you would want,
but why bother continuing to
talk about it and trying to get
back in it? Why not move on? [LULULEMON] IS ALL I THINK ABOUT ALL DAY LONG. IF I
I think—not “I think,” I TAKE MYSELF OUT OF THAT, THEN I KIND OF GO, LIKE, ‘WHO
know—that what Lululemon
is, is every ounce of who I am. AM I?’…IT’S LIKE A LOT OF MEN WHO RETIRE AND GO, ‘OH
As a human being, it’s every- MY GOD; I WAS AN ACCOUNTANT, AND NOW I’M NOTHING.’ ”
thing I was meant to do. It’s
all I think about all day long.
If I take myself out of that,
then I kind of go, like, “Who Well, in order to answer Isn’t this a trap any company with 25-year-olds, listen to
am I?” Am I emotionally that, I have to preface can fall into? their music, watch the vid-
attached to it? Is it my iden- it by saying whatever I know All good CEOs probably have eos. They have an innate
tity? It’s like a lot of men who from reading about them a group of mentors, if not a sense for it.
retire and go, “Oh my God; in the press is probably board of advisers. And a good
I was an accountant, and 2 percent of what is actually CEO will be attuned to what I How would a founder
now I’m nothing.” So I had to true. It’s one of the reasons would call their flat spots—in be aware if they’re in one
ask myself those questions. I wrote the book; if you other words, everyone’s good group or the other?
Do I have any more to offer leave the press to write the at something, and everyone’s You have a group that
Lululemon, and is it what story, they won’t get it right. not good at something. It’s is interested in self-
excites me? Is that who I am So do I have sympathy for just a genetic makeup. So the development, the psychol-
when I get up in the morning? them? I do, but I don’t know astute person will have the ogy of change. They’re
And it’s exactly who I am. I their real story. right kind of advisers around aware of themselves. They
have an area of expertise that them, or a CEO will have the look for feedback. They’re
can add a lot of value. Throughout your book, you ability to say, “I’m really weak not hurt by feedback. And
make a case for the impor- in creative and brand; I need then you have the other
Were you ever interested in tance of supporting a com- to hire somebody who is a 50 percent that is the
starting another company? pany’s creative teams. world expert at this.” opposite of that.

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