Banished To New Jersey

Banished To New Jersey

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
show is sponsored by G three Aparo. The views expressed
in the following program are those at the sponsor and
not necessarily the opinion of sevent ten wr or iHeartMedia.
Who is Mark Webber. He's a self made business executive
here to help you find your success from the New

(00:21):
York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His
global success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational.
He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark his classic
proof that the American dream is alive. And well, here's
your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Mark Weber, I have a story. A story about being
at the top of the mountain at four Ley, A
story about disappointment, loss and redemption. A story about corporate politics.
What's upon a time? On November eleventh, nineteen ninety eight,
at four thirty five pm, hold down to the CEO's

(01:01):
office of my company. Oh yeah, I'll never forget that minute,
or from that matter, any second of the conversation. I'll
skip the ys and just get to the facts. I
was thirty four years old, one of the youngest presidents
in the history of the venues and company, at that
time the second largest shirt company in the world, big corporation.
I was writing high. I was young, on top of

(01:23):
my game. I got there the hard way. I earned
it a year before. I was told if I ever
can get the company to a ROI of twenty five percent,
that's a return on investor, which means you invest the
dollar you make twenty five dollars profit. Every dollar you make,
you make twenty five A huge number. They tell me.
If I get up to twenty five percent, I'll get

(01:44):
a marching band up Sixth Avenue where our offices were,
and receive a two hundred percent bonus on my salary.
I earned twenty six percent ROI that year and I
got none of that. That's a lesson and a story
for another time. I was a master of the universe,
big profile, big life. Everyone knew or wanted to know

(02:04):
me until I walked down to Larry Phillips office that day.
The CEO of Phillips venuesing waiting for me was Larry
and the president of the corporation, who was my mentor
at the time. After the pleasantries, LSP that's Larry S.
Phillips says to me. We have wonderful news for you, Mark.

(02:25):
We're promoting you the vice president of Communication and corporate
Product Development. It's a new position within our corporate environment.
You're going to become a corporate officer. So listen to this,
and I say, before we go in further Larry, I
love what I'm doing. I don't want to move. There's
more that I have to do in the role that

(02:45):
I'm in. I hear you, but you have to hear me.
The future of our company is in our retail division.
You know how successful as bought up in venues, analysis
and factory stores. We're planning a major expansion Analyts. We're
going to open Ghpass factory stores, Izard Outlets stores, Jeffrey
Bean Outlets stores, and a new store group called k

(03:06):
Pile Knitters. We want you to spearhead the product development
for this retail group. As you're well aware, we're experts
at shirts. However, all the other products we're learning that
we need to know little or nothing about. We need
to develop in house for expertise for all those other
products that are in the store. We want to become vertical.
We want to be direct to the consumer in retail

(03:28):
and I want you to study how this would work
and present us with a proposal. I thank them both
for profusely for thinking of me for this opportunity, and
told them how much I appreciated their faith in me.
But I said, that's okay, I'll stay in the venues
and president it's you know mind. I'll never forget its
exact words. On Thursday, November eleventh, nineteen ninety eight, at

(03:49):
four thirty five pm, Mark, he's not a request. When
you walk out of this office, you're no longer president
of the Vaners and Shirt coming. I was shocked, to
say the least, And I said, who is in this
new company with me? You and your secretary Judy. That's
what executive assistants were called that secretaries. There is no

(04:10):
division yet, there's no one else. We have to determine
what it is we need and how to go about organizing.
That's what y're going to determine. I tried to bluster
my way through it, but it was clear I walked
out my head was down. I was depressed. I was depleted,
I was career lost. What the hell just happened didn't
feel like a promotion. If I suppose at this point,

(04:31):
it'd be a good time to offer a point of
view and a lesson. My career was never a straight
shot to the top. If you charted my career, it
would look like a seesaw, so many jagged edges, so
many ups and downs. And while I had many truly
great accomplishments, if I do say so myself, you don't

(04:52):
get to be a CEO of a public company from
clerk without doing some great things. But I believe the
defeats are what the that's what we're talking about now,
A huge defeat. I was happy, I was doing great,
I was enjoying what I did. Now I was down
when I felt defeated, when all seemed lost. I always

(05:12):
took stock on myself. I understood my defeats, my shortcomings,
my weaknesses, and I would dig in. I would steel myself,
force myself to be better than I ever did, and
not take it personally and get over my disappointment. It
wouldn't go away, but I wouldn't have let it. Effeck

(05:32):
what I'm doing. I'll tell you what I never did.
I never never ever accepted the realities and the position
I found myself in. I would not accept defeat. I
would become more determined than ever to dig myself out
of this hole that I felt I was in. I'd
work harder, I'd work smarter to with, I would recommit

(05:55):
my intensity. I would think about it. They could take
your title than they did, but not my skills. They
could humble me, and they did, but they couldn't take
away my town. Now I admit I was never sure
I could come back, but I was sure I would
not accept the feat. This is what was motivating me.
And if I do say so myself once again, defeat

(06:18):
is disappoint in time. Don't ever give up, don't ever
give in, don't ever accept it. Always tab the right attitude.
Nothing is forever. So I've given a lot of thought
to the story I'm about to tell you, because in
many respects, it reminds me of the world of Forrest Gump.

(06:39):
Forrest Gump ended up in situations that were unbelievable. I
was thinking the other day that my career resembled the
life circumstances and predicted in that movie. Here I am
minding my own business, and next day I know I'm
doing something amazingly interesting. Forrest Gump meets the present becomes
a champion thing Boy, player of football player for Alabama. Hey,

(07:01):
he was just working his way through life. While my
stories aren't as big as for as commes, they are
big and like he said, life is life a box
of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
Forrest says it, Well, I learned it from him. One day,
I'm the very own president of the venues and company.
I go from a group of people working for me,

(07:24):
hundreds of people, thousands maybe, to one person, my administrative assistant,
no one else. I get to recommend the retail strategy,
the CEO and president of the company to invest in
a new division, the division I didn't want to head
up and a field that was marginally interested in Truth
is I have been there and done it. I had
proven myself to be a great guy in the sourcing world.

(07:48):
That's in part what won me the VH presidency. But
here I am starting again. I'm career loss. I'm the press.
I may be out of a job. I'm told I'm
going to the scat Away, New Jersey, banished to New
Jersey and meet with Jim Murphy, the CEO of our
retail operations. In fact, I'm going to report to the
president on the company, on corporate product development. I'm going

(08:10):
to port to retail. To Jim what I'm about to do,
build a retail sourcing network and a design network. I'll
never forget. While I maintained an office in twelve ninety
six aven it was his corporate headquarters at the time.
I loved my corner office. I loved everything about what
I was doing. I had a great view, multiple windows. Here.

(08:30):
I am going to the scattering New Jersey to live
in a cubby hole and meet with one of my rivals,
Jim Murphy. Arrived in Jim Murphy's office in the Scatterwaying,
New Jersey. He's the CEO. It is Piscataway and by
the way to will work. I'm moving to Bridgewood in
New Jersey, which is where I ended up spending most
of my time in the two years I'm about to
talk about. And I get brought into Jim's office and

(08:53):
it was awkward at best because I always viewed him
as an equal rival. He always viewed me as someone
to contend it. We never us past, but here I
am gets up from behind his desk, comes over and
shakes my hand, puts his hand on my shoulder, looks
at me in the eyes and he said, Mark, I
can't tell you how happy I am that you're here.

(09:14):
This is a gift. You're a gift to the retail
division said sit down, I want to talk to you
about it. And he's started to explain to me this job.
He says, well, the retail division is relatively small. We're
building an outlet business, and you are the tip of
the sphere of this outlet business. We're going to have
five retail concepts, and these retail stores, in order to

(09:37):
be vibrant, have to have the ability to develop their
own products. We need to be vertical. In order to
be successful at retail, your product has to be made
from within. While we're doing okay buying from third party suppliers,
our margins are close to fifty percent when we start.
But by the time we're finished with markdowns and closeouts

(09:58):
and all these things, we're up already in the thirties.
We need to operate in the fifties and sixties. We
can only get there by doing product direct from Asia
into our stores ourself. And that's where you come in.
The problem is a PVH mark. What do we know
shirts and more shirts. We need women's wear skirts, blouses, pants, jackets,
we need men's wear, tailed clothing, pants, belts, small leather goods.

(10:22):
We need sweaters, we need outaware, we need all of
these things. We need bathing suits in the springtime, linen pants,
linen sure. We need a multitude of products. The task
for us is gigantic. We have five retail concepts on
the board, opening up as we go along. They're all
factory outlet stores. The outlet business is now just beginning.

(10:44):
You're at the point of it. We need you to
help us develop. And when I say developed, design all
these products with an eye to great fashion, we all
know you have that eye. We all know from what
you've done in venues and a company that you have
the skill set for that. And we also know that
you were famous in this company for what you did
in sourcing. Those two talents, plus your administrative skills, could

(11:07):
get us to the promised land. We're going to have
a thousand stores within three years, and maybe two thousand
and three thousand over the next course of our events.
We are going to become a retail company rather than
a wholesale company. Why, as Larry Phillips told you wholesale,
the Wall Street will give you an earnings share boost

(11:28):
of any flare from five to ten percent. In retail,
you begin at twenty percent. Our stock will go through
the room will be a different company. Our volume is
going to be bigger than retail than in wholesale, and
you're joining. So I'm sitting there and listening, and all
of a sudden, I have a different mindset. I was dead,
I was finished. I was useless driving from my home

(11:50):
in New York to New Jersey. Now I'm sitting with
the chairman of the retail group, who not only tells
me that he's happy to have me there, but what
I'm going to do is in critical factor in the
success of the future of the company. I wish Larry
Phillips would explain that a little more, or explained that
when his eyes as look he believed it. I look

(12:11):
back now. I'm not sure he thought this was going
to happen. But they didn't want to fire me outright
for whatever reason. They wanted to give me a chance.
And if anyone could do this, they felt I could
do it. Took a moment to talk a little bit
about outlet stores. So here I am with a newly
sung life at the beginning of what became a massive
industry outlet retailing, factory outlet store retailing in America and

(12:35):
the world for that matter. And I was at the forefront.
So here I am with hope in my eyes. In
factory retail, it just goes to show you when the
sun comes out tomorrow, there could always be a chance.
Let me tell you a little bit about outlet retailing.
Manufacturers always had in their factories an area where they

(12:55):
would sell closeouts, things that didn't sell, things that were damaged.
They had a little hole in them, they were damaged,
but they'd sell them for nothing, and the employees would
come in and buy them. And instead of burning them
or throwing them away or giving them away to charity,
companies had a way to make back some of the
money they invested in making those products and ar shirts.

(13:16):
Our quality control was very stingy, and if you had
a little nick or a little this or a little that,
they were declared seconds and we'd lose anywhere from five
to seven dollars on closing out those shirts. Now part
of the factory of the retail business. In Reading, New Jersey,
where we began, had a number of other factories, including
an eyes out facility, and this fell of Jim Murphy

(13:37):
and Larry Phillips. One day a talking and Larry Phillips
is saying, we're losing two million dollars a year on
closeouts of dress shirts. We don't sell everything we want.
We have seconds. We need a place to sell them.
Maybe we could break even instead of losing. So they
open up a van ues and factory outlet store right
inside the factory, the corner off of an area. Make

(13:57):
it for the employees. The employees come see the discounts.
They if there's a little hole, they sell it. They
don't care. They could be a little hole in the
tail in the shirt, it could be anywhere. Or they're
just products that we're left with. We're stuck. Nobody sells
one hundred percent of what they make. And they started
to buy them, not at the dispressed price of two
or three dollars, but at seven dollars. Here's a person

(14:19):
buying a seven dollars shirt that would have cost them
anywhere from fifteen to twenty one dollars when it hits
apartment store. And what we find out is right away
the employees start buying them they start bringing their friends,
and their friends are bringing their friends, and we don't
even have enough surplus to sell to them, and we
sell out right away, and occurs to them that there's
something going on here. And from losing two million dollars

(14:42):
in our manufacturing operation because of defects and accumulated in
wholesale those things we didn't sell, we break even. Larry
Phillips gets crazy and him and Jim start to plan
a future. Where else can we put these stores? And
at the time, people were opening strips. You know, you
see these strip centsers all over the place, where you'll

(15:03):
find a Michael's, you'll find a pizza place, you'll find
a bakery, you'll find the hardware store. And they started
trying putting van us and outlet stores in these strip centers,
and the same thing happens. The only difference is now
you've got people who aren't fan using employees of the friends.
People come in walking into a van use the store.

(15:24):
They expect to see something more than shirts. So Jim
tries some belts and pants he buys in the marketplace.
The pants are like crazy at the prices he's offering.
Then he sees most of the people buying the products
are women. Five of these women anywhere buying men's products.
Why not have women's blouses? Man using for her puts
women's blouses. They blow out right away? Is how about

(15:47):
shorts of the summer? They blow out right away? And
all of a sudden, these stores are making money hand
over fist. At the same time, there's a development starting
to happen called outlet centers. There's one in Sawgress Mills
in Florida. There's one in Woodbury, Comes, New York. There's
one in Riverhead, New York. They're opening and we put
a venues and outlet in these stores and were one

(16:09):
of the highlights of the entire outlet store. This outland
more needs brands. At that time, Coach wasn't in the
outlet business. Larry Phllips even went to the CEO of Coach,
Lou Frankfort, and tried to convince them to put an
outlets store. Is thinking that if Coach was in an
outlet store next to venues and the whole outlet store
would do better. Coach laughed. The more they didn't laugh along.
They have a multi billion dollar outlet business now, as

(16:32):
does Ralph Lauren, but that was the beginning of the
outlet business. And guess who's sitting in me The guy
who got checked out of Venues and Shirt Company as
the present, the guy who's no longer relevant, the guy
who didn't see a future is now there right in
the middle of it. My first week, the next stair

(16:54):
show up, Jim walks me into his office. Jim Murphy,
Well for ever, be grateful, Mark again, It's so great
to see you here. Let me just give you some rules.
As far as we're concerned. You're one of us. You
may talk into corporate and to your corporate role, but retail,
you and I are going to work together. You have
my office open to you at any time. Any time

(17:16):
you need to see me. You don't need an appointment.
Come here. But more important, I want you to understand
at any needing that has to take place in this company.
If any of the five divisions all which have is
a president, whether it's Bass Venues in iaot Kpon Letters
or Jeffrey Bean, all those presidents are instructed to welcome
you the way I've welcomed you. You are invited to

(17:39):
every minute. The key to you is to find the schedule,
to understand how you can be with all of these groups.
All you need to do is learn right now, listen
to what's going on, see where they need help, see
which products they think could make sense, and this will
be what we want you to do. But you have
to develop a plan on how it gets worked. How

(18:00):
do we service the business, how do we design the products,
and whether or not you can acquire these products, source
them for us and bring them into our stores. One
last thing, Mark, We're not going to force them to
buy from you. And I looked at and said, what
you have to earn it. You have to convince these
retail presidents that what you offer is better than what

(18:22):
we're currently getting. The stores are opening, they're finding product
in the marketplace, they're doing good. We want to do better.
You have to convince them, and the only way you
convince them is by offering something better than they have
in the market without forcing them. You can't force retailers,
or for that money, anyone to buy what they don't

(18:44):
feel is right. If we force them to buy the
stuff that it doesn't sell, they'll blame you, they'll blame me.
If they buy it because they like what you're offering,
because they believe in what you're doing, and they believe
in the prices that you're offering them, They're going to
buy more than you ever dreamed of. That's our goal.
You and me, and you and me with Shouel, Larry
Phillips and Bruce the President. What there is to do

(19:06):
in this division. We're going to need a name for it.
You're going to be the head of it. So go
to work, learn, put a plan together, come to me
when you're ready, and then we'll go present a corporate
On that note, I was banished to New Jersey, but
I saw a future back in a few minutes.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Always in fashion.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
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(19:48):
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(20:11):
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(20:36):
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(20:56):
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(21:21):
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(21:41):
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(22:07):
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(22:27):
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(22:51):
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(23:12):
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(23:33):
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Speaker 1 (23:40):
Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
If you're just joined. This is a story about going
from the top of the mountain to the bottom of
the mountain, and not by choice. I was a master
of the universe, and one day I'm minding my own
business and I'm getting pulled out of my job put
it in a new corporate role. I had hundreds of
people working for me and now I have no one,
just my administrative assistant and I who have to study

(24:07):
a new business mensure and make a representation and a
presentation to corporate to develop a new company that I
didn't want to head that I didn't knew anything about.
I was lost, but determined not to be a loser,
never to accept loss and fight my way back, and
here we are one day on the corporate office, corner
office Philip's venues and public company exec VP of the company,

(24:31):
President of the venues and for company, and now nobody.
I go to retail. I have to build a new
organization for retail. I have to help them build a
sourcing and design arf. Like every other major retailer in
the world, everything you walk in and you see from
the gap says gap on it. Gap themselves are designing
it and buying it overseas and importing it and selling.

(24:53):
You go to American Eagle Outfitters when you're not focused
on Sydney Sweeney, you realize that American Eagle, it's only
their label in the store. Everything they do, they strategize,
they design and manufacture themselves in Asia and put it
up for sale. It's no different in vtone, It's no
different in dre It's all done in house. Our company

(25:14):
only knew shirts then use it, and we had to
put them in men's and women's and every product you
could think about, because that's what a full retail store
requires in order to capture a consumer's attention. If you
walked into a venues and retail store, you'd find men's wear,
which included shirts and sportswear, pants, jackets, out of wear,
bathing suits, small leather goods, and a full assorting complement

(25:37):
of women's clothing as well. So here I am. We're
out an organization, show up and bridge worn in Jersey
for the first week of assignment, and my first meetings
are with the presidents of each division. Each one says
to me the same thing, Mark, We love you did
a great job at Venues, and we're happy to have
you here. We wish you luck. We hope that we

(25:58):
could start this division, and if we do, we'll be
more than willing to buy. But you have to prove
it to us and the people you choose and the
products you develop, and the ability to deliver it at
a price. And when I say delivered a price, we
want the right quality and we want it in our
warehouse on time the way we order it. Don't take
tasks for anyone but me. Ordinarily I would say it

(26:19):
would be easy. But you know what, I wasn't even
happy being there. But now that I saw a life,
and now that I understood how important retail's future was
and how in fact I may make a contribution. I
started to get excited. After all, having a job was
better than no job. Losing in defeat is a hard
way to go out and find another job. In Frankly,

(26:39):
if I got myself re established and chose to leave
the company, be a whole lot better with a job
in my pocket. So I stay. I also believed I
could do whatever was asked to me, So my meetings
went on. I started visiting retail. I was spending three
or four days a week in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Now
company moved, sitting with their presidents and their management teams
and thereby staff, and learning about retail. I'm going to

(27:03):
come back to that in a little while retail. Having
said that, I'll give you an example what happens. I
still to sit in retail. We're planning a spring season.
I'm with the Venues and Group. A big part of
their business is men's polo shirts. Everyone sells men's polo shirts.
I mentioned the gap Ralph Lauren, whoever it is even theory.

(27:24):
No matter what the brand is, men's polar shirts are
a staple our Venues and Company. Store believes that they
should have ten colors of polo shirts and probably run
through a few hundred thousand dozen a year. At this time,
we had one hundred store, so they had thousands of
Polos they needed to sell. What did they know about Polos? Nothing.
They went to some guy who was selling Polo shirts
its private label. He put the venues and name on it,

(27:46):
give them a price and tell them we'll buy Polo
shirts and they would get them. The question is what
did they cost, how is the quality, where did they
come from? And can I do better? Have a great store.
Example at the time, I the guy's name was president
of the division. I like Michael Blitzer, and he had
a team, and the head of merchandising was a guy

(28:07):
named hal and I forget his last name. Shame on
me because he was such a great guy. We're in
one of these meetings now after weeks and week he says,
I'm ready to start going to Asia to see what
we can do. It takes out a bathing suit and
he said, Mark, I thought this might be a good
item for you to buy for us. You know, it's
not a lot of quantity, but we use a couple

(28:29):
of hundred thousand units a year. If it works, we
can give you that without risking the franchise. It makes
sense to us. Let's start with something simple. He brings
out a bathing suit and he shows me La cost
Back in nineteen eighty eight, La cost was huge inactive
where they had a great bathing suit business. In fact,

(28:50):
when we bought eyes on the company, the greatest ad
I ever saw was a bunch of guys and girls
running down the beach with black and white bathing suit stripe,
polka dots, beautiful ad. It was under La Coste. We
didn't own the cost we owned eet we had bought
the company had separated, and that ad hung in my
office for a long time because I looked at it

(29:12):
and it moved me and larly, I'm sitting in this room.
It takes out of La cost bathing suit. He said,
this is the bathing suit we want. We love the fabric,
we've lost it, we've tested, it performs beautifully, the specs
are beautiful. We love quality. But we're paying seven ninety
nine for fifteen dollars bathing suit. Now we're making good margin.

(29:33):
The question is can you do better? And it gives
me that bathing suit, and he says, find out. At
this point in time, I had told the president and
CEO of the company. I needed someone to go with
me to Asia who spoke the language, who knew how
to do sourcing, who could bring in multitudes of products
and could do advance work before I get they determine

(29:55):
if we could do this. There was a young lady
a name was Winny Law. She was from Hong Kong.
She was one of the most talented women I ever
met in my life in the world of source it.
I should take a moment to hesitate. Winnie Lord died
very ill. I wish her and our family the best.
In fact, her husband one of my great friends, of

(30:17):
my great colleagues. And this is joined PVH the division
I am later on. But Whennie was the first employee
who made a decision to come follow me and work
with me to develop this decision. Now, I was very
courageous of her at the time because she didn't give
up her job yet, but she was willing to split
time doing this week on the hope that in the

(30:38):
end she could follow me and work with me and
get this done and be a partner in this whole business.
So Winnie was sent to Asia with a multitude of products,
women's blouses, sweaters, all these different things, including the bathing
seat story, which I want to cultivate right now. At
the end of a few weeks, Winnie comes back from Asia.
She's down in my office and she says, Mark, and

(31:01):
she lays out all the products and she said, we
can buy all these I know where to buy them all.
They are great manufacturers. I can get great prices. We
can get our deliveries because we're PVH and we're public,
and they know we have financially sound. They want to
do business with us. We're ready to go to Asian.
So I worked out a trip with her to Asian.

(31:23):
Told the powers to be in the company that was
going to Asia. They were thrilled that I was going.
I thought I was making progress. And Winnie and I
went to Theafaris. My first stop is in Taiwan. Back
to the bathing suits. We go to a Taiwan bathing
suit maker, walk into their office and the guy sits there.
You never know he was the master of the universe.

(31:44):
He was very subdued, subtle. Shop as attack and I
took out the Lacas bathing suit and I said, we're
intrigued by this bathing suit. I love the fabric. I
love the specs. I want to make bathing suits like this. However,
we have our own different designs. Hey looks at me.

(32:05):
He says, how many bathing suits are you looking at?
I said, my opening order will be ten thousand units,
but I think we'll get to one hundred thousand units overnight.
I said, do you make this? She picks up the
bathing suit, looks at it closely. He starts the smile.
He says, you have time to ticket to walk on
my factory with me. He said, absolutely, we're here, So

(32:28):
we get up, We walk to another section. He opens
the door. We walk into the factory. That factory is hummy,
I mean hummy, yes, making tens of thousands of bathing suits.
And he starts the smile and he walks me over
to this huge section. And what are they making the
cost bathing suits? In fact, they're making all of the
cost bathing suits we've seen in the store. And he

(32:51):
looks at me and says, I think I can make
your bathing suits. Start to smile. We go back into
the office and he said, Mark, we can make these
for you. I'll tell you what, I'll make them the
same fabric you saw in the cost that's valable to everyone.
The specs we gave them the specs. We have the
expertise they're using aspects, so I can give you those

(33:12):
specs because most people use the similar spect The one
thing we won't do is we won't copy their designs.
And I said them, I don't intend to copy their
designs either. As a matter of fact, I took out
ten designs and I said, these are the ten designs
we want to make. Can you price these for me?
When he starts to smile, So why are you smiling,
she said, You'll see. She sits down with this calculator,

(33:35):
and each of the ten bathing suits are different. Some
are solid, some are color blocked like stripes, you know,
a red, a white, and a navy stripe. Some are prints, florals,
whatever you do. The ten dating since the first one,
he said, solid color bating two seventy five. Now I'm
listening to this. Let's remember what we're doing here. We're

(33:57):
trying to make the quality check. We're trying to get
the fabric check. We're trying to get fabric manufacturers who
have the expertise check. And now the price retail is
paying someone seven dollars and fifty cents to buy these
bathing suits. I was just quoted to seventy five. Now
I imagine to have my poker face. I said, okay,

(34:21):
to seventy five for the solid color version. How about
this color block takes out his calculate goes three and
a quarter three and a quarter. I can't believe that
I'm listening to. Because we're going to charge a commission
to pay for our overhead. That's the strategy of the
new division. With the conemission. I'm going to sell them
these bathing suits for less than four dollars. I'm shocked.

(34:42):
I am so happy, I am so lucky. I'm Forrest Gump.
I just showed up Life gave me lemons, and now
I have lemonade. When he's smiling in a air, I'm
smiling in a here. I got an order, and give
them an order for ten thousand days in suits. I
give them the delivery, I get the price. That night,
Winnie and I call Hall, the head merchant in Bridgewater

(35:03):
for venues and bathing suits, so much other things. We
tell them the story, and he said, you tell me
you're going to be able to sell us all these
bathing suits at four dollars, and you get your commission,
and after your commission it's four dollars. So my margin
is willing to go from fifty percent to eighty percent.
I said, exactly, I'm sure you are. They going to
be a delivery it. We're in the factory. I'll call

(35:25):
you back in ten minutes. Calls me back in ten minutes.
It gives me an order for one hundred thousand bathing suits.
Few more styles they send to us. We go back
to the factory, give them the order the next day
for one hundred thousand bathing suits. Amazing. Now I know
this formula will work, but how do I do it? Here?

(35:47):
I am banished to New Jersey, hanging out in Asia
about to build a new division. We'll take a break
back in a minute.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Always in fashion.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Than a lifetime of my career building the van usen Brand,
and I am so pleased that they're back with us
now talking about suits. Men were dressing up again and
it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits can be
one on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You could wear
a suit formally to go out at night or to

(36:17):
an event, to wear a suit to the office, with
or without a tie. If you look closely, now fashion
trends suits are being worn with turtlenecks or mark next.
The choices are endless and every one of them looks right.
You could really really look the part. I believe that
in packaging yourself this is important does the products you

(36:38):
package and wearing a suit is one of those things
that make men look their best. Then Using invented a
new idea. It's called the cool Flex suit. It's been
engineered with stretch technology, giving you the most comfortable fit
and mobility. Its wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool moisture WICKI
it makes it perfect for all occasions as we just

(37:00):
us just now. This new style of looking shop while
feeling cool and comfortable is amazing, and I'm so excited
that the van Using company is involved in this new
technology and is embracing the whole idea of dressing up.
Let's not forget van Using made its name with dress shirts.
It's only proper that the soup business follows strongly in

(37:22):
its way. You can find van Using cool Flex Men's
stretch suits at jcpenny or online at jcpenny dot com. Guys,
they're great. You should go look at them. My favorite
brand has always been Izod. My company at one time
bought that brand. The CEO of the company handed it
to me and said, you better make it work. And
I put everything in my career to make Eyesod work,

(37:45):
and I fell in love with that brand, and to
this day it is one of the most exciting endeavors
I've ever gotten involved with. Iszod is an incredibly strong
golf brand. If you play golf, if you play tennis
for that matter. They make a great polo shirts. I
mean great. They're fit perfect. The material is unique because

(38:10):
it's a PK fabric that waffle leave, you see, and
it's made of a blend of cotton and microfiber that
allows you to stretch. And very often they are treated
with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable,
and they breathe well. And one thing about Isoc they
always fit. They'll never tug on you. You put it

(38:32):
in your waist that they'll fit you great. The colors,
patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell you Isaac
makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golf friend,
you want to look good. You don't have to think
about how do I look. You want to think about
how you play, not how you feel. ISOD is the
brand for you. I know I was there when it
was created. The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's

(38:55):
one of my favorite brands. While I talk about it,
I should tell you about the man's sportswear. ISOD wasn't
enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just
great polo shirts with logos, without logos, incredible branded story
and history. ISOD makes salt weather programs. They have great

(39:16):
printed woven shirts, short sleeves. They look excellent with colors,
excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which they
also make this whole salt order relaxed line from ISOC,
whether it be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts
and pants of a range of colors and fabrics that

(39:38):
a perfect for a guy wants to go casually in
the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing,
ISOD is affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this
brand can afford to buy it and know that there
are a lot of other brands that also have a
look like ISID. Although I don't believe it's fun as

(40:01):
Eyesida is. The brand has a lot of energy in it,
but at the price points no one can compete. You
can find Isyaad at your leading retails and online at
ion dot com. Toal to you, lady guys, I wish
you are very happy springing summer, and I help you
by telling you if you were isaon, you're gonna look great.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
This is Mark Weber, who is telling you a story
about the heights of corporate life. As a president of
the company. One day I get called down to the
CEO's office. He says, you're no longer the president. I'm
giving you a new job. The new job existed in
determining whether or not I should start a new division
that didn't exist. And the only employee I had from

(40:49):
one hundreds of thousands I had before was my admittedistrative assistant.
And I was going to study whether or not our
fledgling and beginning new retail group with a high hundred
stores would be able to go to thousands of stores
by adding sourcing and design as a service to the
retail company. And as much as I was miserable of

(41:11):
going from the heights of presidency the venues and shirt
company to nowhere. I didn't give up. I saw a glimmer.
The retail division needed this the future of the company's retail,
and I was at the point of it, at the
spear of it getting lucky. And I just mentioned before
you tuned in. If you haven't heard it, then my

(41:31):
job was to develop an organization that could design and
import products that didn't exist in venues. And we were
a shirt company. We didn't know anything about bathing suits.
We didn't know women's wear, we didn't know men's pants, jackets, outawear.
We did know small leather goods. We didn't know belt,
we didn't know socks, we didn't know polar shirts. And
now my job is to know it all and teach

(41:54):
it to our company and bring it in and import
it and design it. So here I am now. The
trick of the whole deal was the retail division wanted
desperately to go vertical. They wanted to buy these products
from the own company, within our own company, my division.
But the kicker was they didn't have to. You see

(42:18):
a funny thing in corporate life when you force people
to do things and it doesn't work, they'll blame you,
even if you're not afraid of getting fired. They'll say, hey,
you asked it to do it, it didn't work. You
didn't let us do what we thought it. So I
was going to build a division now that had to
do all these things for them that they eagerly wanted.
They eagerly embraced. They treated me like gold. They had

(42:39):
all the faith in the world that this was important.
They were to support it. But I had to proved
that we were a better deal than what they were
buying from the marketplace where they had no responsibility. I
had to have at least equal or better quality. But
I had to have better products, and I had to
perform and deliver them on time. And that's where we
are in now. I'm ready to build the organization. I

(43:03):
went on a test trip to Asia placed in order
we realized we could do it. I went back to
the group and said, this is what we need, and
I put an organization together that basically said, then I
would be like a spider on a mirror. If you
have a general manager, I will give you a general
manager in my organization, which I named TVH Philip span

(43:24):
US and International PVH would match your organization. If you
had a head of product development, I would give you
a designer of product development. If you needed a sourcing person,
I would have a sourcing person. Although I centralized sourcing
the niware, the woven shirts, the women's wear had key
people at the head of eaches, but designers were hired
to service each of the individual retail group. So, for example,

(43:49):
we had an active wear division within venues daving suits,
sport gear, activewear like you see from Nike. The hot
brand at the time was the Cox sports l E,
coq Sportif and Nike. I had to bring them products
that was as good as theirs that designed as well.
So what did I do? I went to our HR

(44:10):
team and said, recruit me designers from the Coxsportif on Nike.
And we did. And when the time came and I
showed up with the organization, here is the head designer
from Nike or the Cox Sporte. They now work for us,
so instantly credible, credible. We had a decision that was
called kpe Ile Knitters. What was Capel Knitters? Is it?

(44:37):
It's like if you started a company for Kate Spade
or Ralph Lauren, and you needed to design it where
That's what Capel Knitters were. So what did I do?
I hired the head sweater designer from Ralph Lauren. She
looked the part, ACKed the port, lived the part more
and Polly could talk the part. And I put her
in front of retail and they were remarkably pressed and

(45:00):
eager to work with her, and it became even more
eager the more we designed. We were great at it.
We were great at it, and they these people like
a spider on a mirror, as they said, a retail
counterpart on the mirror looking back at a counterpart from
PDH International. We were convincing people to buy from us.

(45:23):
Now we also had a source it. I had Winnie Law,
who was an amazing woman. She could only do so much.
I was able because of the organization. We put together
a sourcing group, design group. Each design person was responsible
directly into their retail group. So we had a head
of design for Capel Knittis van Usen, Jeffrey Bean, Isaad

(45:44):
and gh Bess who made apparel in their shoe stores.
A huge bit of their business was a power almost
fifty percent. I put these great designers in front of them.
We created great products. I had to source them because
the organization was getting this feeling success. And I convinced
both Larry Phillips and the president of the company that

(46:05):
we could do this. They gave me caught Blanche to
request and get anyone I wanted. I went to the
head of operations at PVH and said, I know you
can't come here. I need your number one person. They
gave me the number one person. My name was Susan.
I went to the sourcing group Murray Weinberg and Honk
and I said, I need Andrew Lee. Is your number

(46:26):
one merchant in Hong Kong. Would you want to come
work with me? Andrew came to work with me and
for me. Andrew to this day I consider one of
my greatest allies, one of my greatest business friends ever.
He linves in Singapore. He listens to the show. He
comments on the show. When I do well, he tells
me what I missed. He adds details when I forget them.
Andrew has moved from Hong Kong to New York. He

(46:49):
became the head of the whole sourcing arm. He was
in concert with Susan and the two of them, operations
and sourcing were together, and we built this unique organization
and it was incredible. I have to say, our Foreign
office is one of the best in Asia. They always
were and they continued to be, and now they geared
up to handle all this additional work for pH International. Now,

(47:12):
the numbers. Originally the first year we would sell. We
figured five million dollars and we'd earn on that five
million dollars one hundred and fifty thousand commission fifteen percent. Well,
we did fifteen million dollars in the first year, which
is only a half a year. We smoked the numbers

(47:33):
paid for our entire overad. The second year, the goal
was fifteen Well, in that we did fifteen million in
the first half of one year. It ended up we
did forty five million dollars in the second year. Now
we're making money. The idea was to make money, was
to cover overhead. But you know, we were so successful.
We're making all this money and the money would go

(47:53):
into consolidate into the retail group at the end of
the year because it was made off of retail. We
gave them the money. But this thing became huge and
if you asked me what I did in the third year.
You won't believe it, but I'll tell you four hundred million,
four hundred million. The bad news was that the head

(48:14):
of retail who replaced Jim Murphy, who eventually retired, was
a guy whose name I won't mention. He was successful
in many retails, very smart, very poors guy, very professional.
I don't believe he ever liked me or enjoyed working
with me, but that's okay. He was good. I don't know.
Let someone else decide if he was great in this job.

(48:36):
Eventually he was gone, but he went into Bruce, the
president in IR Philipstein's CEO, and told him it didn't
make sense anymore for pH International to be a separate division.
He wanted to absorb to Retail. I should point out,
as we had our first three years, every board meeting
I made a special presentation. Every company strategy meeting, monthly

(49:01):
figures meeting, every meeting, we made our own presentation. I
became a superstar again. I went from two people to
one hundred and seven people at the tip of the
sphere of helping to build our retail group, which is
now up to eight hundred stars. I was a superstar.
I had my name back. I was as proud as

(49:23):
it could be. Here I am at the peak, going
from the most oppressed I ever was the most disillusioned
I ever was, to becoming president of pH and International.
That had my picture in the annual report. They talked
about the work we were doing. Everyone in the company
knew that I built this thing from scratch. I came
back from the dead. I had my second rung of success,

(49:45):
from being the venues and president now to the head
of PREVIAH International. And what happened. The head of retail
convinces my boss that it should be absorbed into retail.
I get pulled back to the CEO's office and the
president's office. Mark, you did an amazing job. Retail would
not be where it is without you. However, we've made

(50:09):
a decision to disband the organization and move it into
the Retail group, and we're going to ask for the
next eight to ten weeks you come in and figure
out and help Retail absorb pH International. We thank you
for what you've done. We appreciate what you've done. I

(50:30):
can't promise you that there'll be a job for you
at the end of this, but we need you to
do it. And if there's no job for you, you will
be taken well care of. Yes, silence, I'm listening to this.
I'm listening to it. How in the world, of all
the people in the world, can I be the one
that's not going to have a job. So I talked
to my friend. I have two questions or two requests. One.

(50:52):
I have one hundred and seven people, not including me.
How many of those people you're going to keep? And
if you're not going to keep any I'd like to
know about it, to try and convince you to take
them elsewhere or make recommendations to other companies, He said, Mark.
It's our intention to absorb them all, all one hundred
and seven people. But if we don't, I will come
to you. Promise. What else I said? I need to

(51:12):
hear from you whether anything of this has to do
with me. Have I failed in any way, I've disappointed
in any way? I need to know this, he said, Mark,
you have gone above and beyond what we could have expected.
You and your team that you built made retail viable.
You brought the products to a place we never thought

(51:33):
we'd get. We now have expertise in all these areas
we never did before. Our margins have gone up anywhere
from ten to twenty to thirty percent. It's a remarkable turnaround.
I said, well, if that's the case, I want your
solemn promise to me that there'll be no negative comments
made about me and the reason for disbanding this. He said,

(51:56):
there won't be none. I will shut it off if
anyone even attempts to do it. You did in a
remarkable job, and you should take that home at night.
So here I am. I talk about my career being
a sore, the ups and downs, the ups and down.
This is a story I probably never told before. I
can only tell you in the end of ten weeks,
there was no job until there was, And all I

(52:18):
would say to you is I was banished to New Jersey.
It's the best thing that ever happened to me because
I learned retail from the ground up. Every executive you
meet in our industry, who's in the wholesale business, or
the brand business or the designer business selling products to
retailers around the world, understand retail for a very type level.

(52:41):
At best, their information, their knowledge bas is cursory. I
was given the opportunity and became an expert. There's a
reason that I worked my way back to become CEO
of the company after having no job. It's always been
the same reason, hard work, smart work, and the information

(53:03):
I garnered along the way. Like Forrest Gump, I showed
up out of nowhere. I caught a break, and I
learned retail and became one of the foremost experts in
retail as well as all my other skill sets that
I learned. And remember, for me, it always happened out
of adversity. So yes, tonight I tell you my story
about being banished to New Jersey. Good Night,