Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy

Episode Transcript

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

(00:21):
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. You always need an out, You need an
escape route. You always need options, You need choices. You
always need a plan, and you need another course of
action if that plan doesn't work out. In life, you
need an exit strategy. In business, it's all about managing money,
and most money is tied up an inventory. Inventory having

(01:04):
the right stuff at the right time. Inventory might be product,
it might be people, could be ideas. Managing the use
of inventory is critical for maximizing your profit. If there's
a problem, it's there for controlling the extent of your losses.
The risk takers are gamblers. The best of them are
well educated, experienced navigators that rely on data and the

(01:27):
information at hand. A conservative investor in inventory will never
grow as large as the risk taker, but the road
taken might be a lot less bumpy for both of them.
The same information is on hand to make decisions. Just
approach is different either way. Business is fraught with choices
navigated by the best intentions, and it has been proven

(01:51):
making sure you don't have too much inventory of that
which does not sell wins. Too much of a miss
against what you think the people want, loses loses and loses.
In a fashion world, you need an exit strategy. I'm
reminded often that it's not what you sell at times
that helps you keep your profitces what you choose not

(02:13):
to sell. Having too much inventory or surplus will kill
any business. Fashion, not like fine wine, doesn't improve with age.
You design it, you manufacture it, you sell it, you
ship it, then display it for sale. Then pretty much
you cross your fingers and you hope you guess right.
Think about automobiles, too many choices, too many models, too

(02:35):
many colors, too many of the wrong items on the
lot will not sell. It was never easy. Gauging people's
wants and needs and preferences. Anticipating their wallets today tougher
than ever. Combustion engines yeay, Hybrids okay? Electric yikes? How
do you know? How do you know? If you're a dealership?

(02:58):
How many to buy of each let alone? What colored
to buy? Now? Jaguar, one of my favorite car companies,
closed their company for two years and it's now set
to re emerge as a luxury all electric company in
twenty twenty six. All I have to say is good
luck with that. You want the truth, you can't handle

(03:18):
the truth. We're not ready for electric. The decision making
is deadly. Jaguar and automobile companies, they need an exit strategy.
Business needs a what if? Business needs an exit strategy.
Life and business in this regard go hand in hand.
You need a plan, we need options or alternatives. We

(03:38):
need the facts, and you'll always need an off rep
and that offramp is an exit strategy. I live in
an apartment. Someone has to hold an exis set of
keys for me in case I get locked out A
check into a hotel. What's the first thing I do
you ever think about when you check into a hotel.
What's the first thing you do? Well me, I opened

(04:00):
my door. I look for the exit signs. I look
for the stairways. God forbid, I need to escape or
get out. I need to know where those exits are.
In money, we all learned you can't put all your
eggs in one basket. If you haven't learned it before COVID.
You need canned food just in case, bottled water just
in case. If all fails, you got it covered. If

(04:22):
you're a homeowner, if you can afford it, you get
a generator. I remember the first time I had a blackout.
I had a generator kicked on. You'd never know I
was without power because I wasn't. I looked out the
window down the block, and I said, is this only
happening to me? The whole block was out. The power
goes down, The lights in the neighbors are out except

(04:44):
for yours. You had an exit strategy. In business, you
can't exist with one customer. People change. You have a
new buyer. It doesn't like you, it doesn't like your products.
He walks away. What do you do? Close your doors?
You're done? No, no, no, You have to have alternatives.
Eat an exit strategy tonight, I'm taking this exit, this

(05:04):
exit ramp, this exist strategy, my Laura co host, my
son Jesse Weber.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Hey, Hey, I am impressed by this conversation. I like
this conversation. I gotta I gotta give you credit on
this one. You just came it up. You come up
with interesting ideas to talk about. You know, look, the
big heads, the big talk show heads, they always just
talk about what's happening in the news. I always say,
you take creative content. You have to come up with
something original. I like this one. I'm gonna give you

(05:31):
credit for it.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Thank you, thank you. I guess I'm not just a
pretty face. Even though I'm obnoxious.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
We're going back to that one. You can't get rid
of that one. One person thinks you're Well, let me say,
I was gonna say, one person thinks you're obnoxious and
you can't get over it. I can't. I can't say
there's not other people who probably think you're obnoxious and
just haven't vocalized it. But one person has come forward
officially and called you obnoxious and you can't get over it.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, you didn't really defend me either there or either
just now again I'm sensitive.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Em mister, I don't like humans. You should care less.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's not that I care. I don't care. But if
I'm going to put time and effort into something, I
want to be rewarded with appreciation.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Look, we buy and large get relatively no negative comments
on this show. We get a lot of accolades. The
majority of people who talk to us, who send us messages,
it's all positive. So cheer up or give up. You
want to talk exit strategy, do something else if you're unhappy.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Anyway. Okay, you know, daddy, you're not obnoxious. You're a
good guy.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Is that would that make you feel better? You're not obnoxious,
you're a good guy. You're a good guy. Don't let listen.
You want to talk about something, you want to talk
about negative comments. I get the comparisons people have made
about my appearance on social media, on YouTube. You could cry.
People make fun of me all the time. They hate
the things. Oh my gosh. One So I think the

(07:08):
funniest thing that ever happened was during COVID. I was
doing a lot of shows. You had to do home
shows from home. There was no studio, so I was
home and no one was getting a haircut and I
had a little bit of a stubble, and somebody wrote, man,
Jesse looks like nos man. This guy looks like he's
been on a three day Bender's so bad. Some guy,

(07:30):
some guy I had makeup on.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
I was on TV and they put a little bit
too much makeup on and they did a side by
side comparison between me and a an orange with teeth.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
It was like Donald Trump.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Like a cartoon character. It was bad. And then you know,
people say all terrible things about me when they don't
like what I have to say. But listen, you gotta
have thick skin.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
I do, generally speaking, but I haven't gotten over from
that yet. And you were very kind to me. Your
reaction last week was all the reasons why I'm noxious.
So I'm gonna move on anyway.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Tonight's show, Well, all says allot I'll say is this.
Look when you talk about exit strategy, right, one thing
I'll say about that, wouldn't you be the first to say,
before you run, before you split, you should try and
win by being excellent, Right, wouldn't you say that?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
So?

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Look, I think I think you're great at this. Uh,
even if you are obnoxious. Which I don't think you are.
But even if someone thinks you're obnoxious doesn't mean you're
not great at what you do here.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Even if I am, I'm not. Never mind, I'm getting
up the subject anyway, even if I am, I'm not. Okay, Thanks, listen,
Mommy and I went outfl way to make sure you
had an exit strategy, and you executed it brilliantly.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
So wait, wait, wait, it's almost like the Godfather, right.
You had a conversation with my father about my future.
You had a conversation about my future with my mother.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
But no, I can't talk to you, mommy about your future.
Who can?

Speaker 3 (08:58):
And of course, look, I here's what happened. Here's what happened.
I was I was a very good student in high school.
First year of college I slacked off. I slacked off terribly.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
It was bad.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
It was really bad. And I knew I had to
shape up or ship out, and.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
So I really really slack off. Or college was so different.
You don't know how to navigate.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
I think I was a part of I was on
my own. I didn't know how to navigate. I didn't
I just didn't. I was having too much fun. I
was so bad my first year, I never went to
the library. And so you kind of like you and
Mommy made it very clear. You said, this is a
great opportunity not a lot of people get. You made
it to this school. I went to the University of Michigan.
Don't squander it. And it woke up at me. I
worked incredibly hard from then on out, and I didn't

(09:45):
know what I was going to do. And I didn't
want to go to law school. I was, I would say,
forced to go to law school. But you and Mommy
had a very very good vision. It was, you can
take this legal degree. You don't have to be a lawyer,
but it will help you throughout whatever you do. And
I followed that vision. I followed that.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Wait a minute, you had no idea what you You
had no idea what you wanted to do. At least
we gave you a path.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
That's true. That's true, you gave me a path. I
was a little I wanted to do business in college,
and then I took accounting and I realized that was
like Chinese to me. So I couldn't figure that out.
But no, but we went to law school. It was
the best decision. You and Mommy were right because it
allowed me to do an entry point into everything that
I'm doing right now. So your path, you and Mommy's path,

(10:32):
was the right decision, and it was a great exit strategy,
or it was executed brilliantly as you say, so, thank you.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
How about you, I've got a great strategy. I've got
an exit strategy for me. What got me thinking about this,
I'll tell you. The other day I watched the movie Casablanca,
great movie, and I was thinking. I watched the end.
In the end, hey Louis, this is the beginning of
a beautiful friendship. And I'll never forget that line. In fact,
when I was very young, thirteen years old, I got pneumonia.

(11:00):
And in those days, when you got pneumonia, you went
to the hospital, except in my case, my mother wouldn't
send me to the hospital. We had a doctor. He
would come every day to visit me, take care of me,
and they kept me home. But for three months all
I did was watch movies and read books. I became
an avid reader when I was thirteen years old to
change my life. I read novels, I read all kinds
of books, and when I got back to school, I

(11:21):
was a reader. It was amazing. But I also watched
every movie that it was ever done, and I never
forgot Castablanca. I loved it. I thought it was great.
Humphrey Bogart, Rick Ilfsea amazing movie. But he always had
a back door the visa strategy to get out of
town if he had to, which got me thinking about

(11:43):
exit strategy this week, and I started to think about
this in general. I had one of the most important
situations in my life when I worked for PVH. I
was a young guy. I grew up in the ranks.
I had so many different assignments. I excelled it mostly
all of them, and the twenty five assignments later, and

(12:05):
thirty years later, my boss walks into my office and
he says to me quietly, I'm going to retire. I said, no,
you're not. We're having too much fun. This is finally
where we want to be. You're to see I'm the president.
You're going to retire. He says, I had enough. I'm
going to retire. I started top with this nonsense, and
he looked at me and said, this is not nonsense. Mark,

(12:25):
I'm going to retire. I said, well, for the record,
I don't believe you. We have it too good. You
don't work all that hard. Me and our other guy
who pulling the heavyweights for you. Right now, you're not retire,
he said, I'm going to retire and I'm going to
make you CEO. And I said to him, you know,
I've been here for a long time. I've been the
president of the company for seven years. I've been on

(12:47):
the board for those same seven years. And tell you
the truth, I don't ever feel good about the board.
I don't feel they loved me. I never did feel
they loved me. I never felt that they would give
me your job. She said, well, they're going to give
you your job. It's going to take some work. They have
the right to interview everyone there is in the world
and decide who, in fact, would be the best CEO

(13:08):
for this company. I know that you are the person.
I know. I've worked with you all these years. I
know how special you are. I know that you can
do the job, and it's the right decision for the company.
And if I have to convince some other board members
who may not agree, I'm going to do it. But
you're going to become the next CEO. So I remember
thinking about it. I went home and talked to my

(13:29):
wife about it, and they said, you know, there's no
way they're going to make me CEO. And she said,
if your boss says he's going to do it, he's
going to do it. Mark he never lets you down
and he's never wrong. Said, okay, you may be right.
So I started going through the process. At the times,
there was a new regulation called Sarbanes Oxley. It's either
two congressmen or two senators or somebody. They put together

(13:50):
a focus on making sure companies did the right thing.
The banking situation in early years destroyed a lot of companies,
destroyed the banking system, and they wanted to make sure
that all the regulations were in place. The doutch your eyed,
cross your t's, and the company started interven you for
the position of CEO. And it was really really peculiar.

(14:12):
What made it mostly peculiar is I had been there
my whole career. They knew everything about me, They saw me,
they knew me. I didn't know whether they were stalling
or not. At one point I heard that they were
interviewing people on the outside, and now I got really upset.
I didn't want to be involved in a beauty contest.
I don't want to be sitting there and find out
one day they made a decision to hire someone else

(14:35):
and I'm stuck. Now, what lessons do you take out
of this? Maybe some maybe know, but I tell you what.
In my career, I've done some smart things, and this
might have been one of the best, if not the best,
for me. I started to think about my exit strategy.
What would happen if, in fact I couldn't be the

(14:56):
CEO my boss goes off into the sunset. We were
words and music. We had the greatest relationship in the
history of business. We complimented each other. We could have
done each other's jobs. He was smarter than me, I'll
grant him that, but I also had something to contribute.
But we were great. And I said to myself, if
he leaves and I haven't become CEO, what's going to

(15:17):
be of me? I'd have to work for some stranger
after all this time, I'm gonna have to convince him
that I'm a good guy, that I'm a capable guy.
I wanted no part of that. I couldn't believe that
I'd have to do that. And the reality is I
worked hard enough long enough successful enough that I said
to myself that if my CEO left and I wasn't

(15:38):
to become the CEO, I wanted to walk away with dignity.
And I asked to see my boss and I sat
down with him and I said to him, look, I'm
really worried about you retiring. First of all, I think
you're out of your mind. We're having too good of
a time. Our performance is extraordinary. Were covering and doing
everything we said we do. Why do you want to leave?
Suse I'm young and I want to try something else

(15:58):
while i'm young. I said, well, I respect that, but
here's what's a problem. If you walk away and they
don't make me CEO, I don't want to be here.
And I coined the term right then and there. I
want to walk away in the sunset with you. I
want the opportunity to walk away, and I want to
be paid for my serverance because I'm going to stick around.

(16:18):
In fact, I'm prepared to stick around forever as long
as you're the CEO. But after all this time, I
want the opportunity to walk away. And let's call it
a sunset contract. He said, Look, I hear you. I
don't understand why you have a problem. If you don't
get CEO, just don't behave act poorly, make it unpleasant.

(16:39):
They'll fire you and get everything you're entitled to. And
I remember how angry I got it him. I started
to scream. I said, I'm here for thirty years, I've
been on the board for seven I've done everything right.
My career has been impeccable, and you're telling me, after
the service I've given this company, if I'm not given
a job that I think I was trained and groomed for,
I can't leave the company with diggnity. What are you
out of your freaking mind? I didn't use the word freaking,

(17:01):
but he said, whoa, you know, calm down, let me
see what I could do. And he went and he
met with the compensation committee, and over the course of
time they started to talk. I met with the compensation
committee and I told him how serious I was. Look,
i'm here, I'm your number two. I've been his number
two for seven years. As long as I was here,
you never had to worry. You knew where we were

(17:22):
going as a company. Now the CEO's leaving, I am
the logical choice. You don't want to make me CEO.
Then I don't want to stay with you. You don't
love me. I don't love you, but I am prepared
to stay if you make me the CEO, or I
am prepared to stay for as long as he stays.
That gives you a sense of security that you've always had,
and I'll continue to give to you. And to my luck,

(17:44):
to my luck, to my great fortune, maybe to the
fact that I was smart. The Board of directors granted
me what I called the Sunset contract, that if in
fact my boss just that one person left and they
didn't make me CEO, I would get the full bennets
of my contract and I could execute walk away into

(18:04):
the Sunset with dignity. And that was my exit strategy.
Now lo and behold months to my surprise when the
interviewing was done, when the anger subsided of me. When
I would have these meetings with one on one with
board members, I said, the questions you're asking me are ridiculous.
I've been here forever. I'm an open book. You saw

(18:27):
me sit on the board for seven years, You've heard
me speak. I shouldn't be requiring. They were very kind,
and they said, we understand, but we have to do diligence.
I then found out that they were interviewing other people
and I was pissed. So I went back to my board.
I now have my Sunset contract and I said, there,
my boss, listen, if this company's going to do a

(18:49):
beauty search, you're going to tell me it's Sarbaine's Oxley.
That's nonsense. You're allowed to name a CEO from inside
who you know as well as you know me. I
want to walk away. I'm in Barras. If you guys
don't love me, I'll walk away. You'll retire. I'll give
you some time. I'll train the new guy, but then
I'm walking away. Tell you that right now, either end
the beauty contest or I'm out of here once again.

(19:12):
I don't know if I'm lucky. I don't know if
I'm smart. I often say I don't know whether I'm smart.
That's for others to decide. I know I'm well trained
and it all helped me well. And in the end,
the boy gave me the chance to be the CEO,
and I had my exit strategy, which was the point
of tonight's show, and that one was about me. When

(19:34):
we come back, I want to talk to you about
the company back in a moment.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Always in fashion.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Dona Karen began her career as one of the finest,
most successful, powerful women in the fashion industry. She developed
a collection aimed at the luxury market for women on
the go, women who were powerful in their workplace, women
who had lives that extended beyond the workplace, and went
from day in tonight an extraordinary collection. But the interesting

(20:04):
thing Donna Karen had a young daughter, and she had
friends and they couldn't afford to buy the Donna Karen collection,
and Donna invented dk NY Donna Aaron, New York. It's
an offshoot of the Donna Karen collection. The same concept
a lifestyle brand. Then we talk about lifestyle brands. What
does that really mean? Simply what they say, there are
brands that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get up

(20:27):
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decaan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products.
You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags,
and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing
about dk andy clothes for work. They work into the evening,
the dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters, the blouses,

(20:48):
extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that go from day in tonight.
Part of your lifestyle is active. You have weekends, you
have events, you participate in sports. Donna ca Arent's casual
clothes did that under the dk and Y label. A
vast array of casual sportswear that make women look great

(21:08):
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soccer games for your children, or whether you're going out
to the movies. Whatever you want to do, dk and
Y genes dk Y sportswear is there for you. That's
what a lifestyle brand is. I need to mention DKY
active Wear, which is extraordinary, the leggings, the sports bras,

(21:31):
the sweats. You can wear DKY active Wear certainly in
the gym, certainly when you're working out at home, and
certainly if you want on the street because it's that
well done. The quality of dk Y is nothing short
of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be Because it was
born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women

(21:52):
of America. DKY and Wire a true lifestyle brand that
takes you from day and tonight from the week into
the Weekend DCN why you can find DCNHY and Macy's
DKNY dot com. As one of the world's most celebrated
fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and

(22:12):
cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian
shit comes to America through car Lagofeld Paris. He has
women's collections, men's collections, ready to wear, accessory shoes and bags.
The fashion house Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches,
I wear and premium fragrances. You can explore the car
Lagovil collection at car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more

(22:36):
than that. I have for one, love to shop. I
love going around and seeing what's happening and what catches
my attention, what would make me feel good to wear Now.
I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can
appreciate it and they look amazing. If you want to
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You want to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive,

(22:58):
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The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well
as the handbigs and the shoes. I, for one, wear
men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a
modern guy. I want to look current, I want to

(23:19):
look the way I want to feel. I go out
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Calls are great, they fit great, and they have little
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(23:42):
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Speaker 1 (23:56):
Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Hover.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Tonight, I'm talking about exit strategy. We all need what
f's you have a plan that doesn't go well, what
do you do? You always need an out, You need
an escape route. You need some kind of vision of
where you're going. And if you can't get to where
you're going, what are you going to do next? Give up?
In life? Same thing, There's always ups and downs. You

(24:24):
always need a plan, you need an out. My wife
told me that when we were very young. We need
an exit strategy. You need a plan. You always need
to get out. My favorite example of all I said before,
if I go into a hotel room, most people look
at the bathroom, look at the condiments that they left behind,
look for the chocolate, see if the bed is so
off the pillows. Not me. I walk into a hotel

(24:46):
room and I look at it real quick. I know
whether I like it or not. But I open the
door and I look for the exits. I want to
know where the stairwells are. For God forbid, I have
to go out. So that's what I'm thinking about tonight,
having an exit strategy, and a couple of questions and
lessons learned. This one first one I want to give
this about style. I at one time was a shirt expert,

(25:11):
and I was around when they started coming out what
we're called fitted shirts or taped shirts or slim fit shirts.
Everybody had a different name for them, and it was
a new invention because up until that point, all the
shirts that were made had generous fit. The idea of
a tapered waist or a loose shirt was just the
fashion in the rage and over the history of time

(25:32):
there was always shirts that were just wider and bigger.
And now a guy named Henry Grethel, I'll give him
a call out. Henry Grethel, I admired him as the
president of Manhattan Shirt Company, came out with a collection
of shirts called Henry Grethel and they were amazing. They
were very fitted, tapered for the day and age. They

(25:54):
came in a very small package and they became incredibly important.
And they Manhattan Shirt with the Henry Grethel label were
the only ones doing it. They had the world by storm.
I'll take a minute to think about it. I think
Heidi Slimane, famous guy was at the yor was at
Eve's Son Lauran. He put the Cint Lauran instead of
Eve Saint Lauran. Actually, he is credited with inventing the

(26:16):
slim fit sit now. Could you imagine any company today
without a slim fit suit. You can't. One of the
great men's pant companies in the world, I'll give you
two of them, whether it's Stockers or Hagars. They're aimed
at men, all sizes, ages and a price point. They
have slim fit pants and they have generous foot pants.
Everybody has a different point of view without one or

(26:39):
the other. Could you imagine what those companies would be like?
Which brings me back to shirts. Henry Grethel Manhattan Shirt
comes out with slim fit shirts and becomes fifteen percent
of the business. Everyone else is lacking behind. It was
fashioned forward. They had great looks, great fit, great colors,
great everything, and left everyone behind. So everyone, like myself

(27:02):
at van Usen, like the Arrow Shirt Company, like everyone
who was out there making shirts, every designer shirt came
out with a slim fit line. And I'll never forget
as I watched the designers and all these companies, they
took all the energy, all the excitement, all the newness
and put it in slim fit. And I remember at

(27:25):
the time talking to the heads of sales, and I
was talking. I wasn't a big shot then, I say,
I'm worried because we're being directed to put all the
great stuff in the fitted line, and you're forgetting the
full cut line. What's that going to look like. I'll
come back to them in a minute. Lessons learned many
years later, I am running a shirt company. It's part

(27:48):
of what I'm responsible for running. I had a CEO
and I was corporately responsible for Thomas Pink, the British
shirt company made in Germany Street in London. They too
had a beautiful full cut business. They built the entire
business on it. And then they came out with slim
Fit and they started pouring all the great designs, all
the fashion into slim Fit, and I said time out.

(28:09):
I remember meeting with Jonathan Heilbron, the CEO, British guy.
I loved him. He's a great guy. Him and I
worked really really well together. In fact, there's a lesson learned.
When I first met him, I said to him, look,
Elvi Image brought me in. You report to me. We
don't know each other and we have to get along.
I want to make a deal with you. I want
to be able to say anything I want to say
to you about design, about processing, operation and you not

(28:33):
take it personally. I'm going to let you make your
own choice unless I have something that I feel very
strongly about that I can't live without changing. But basically
that's not going to happen. I want to tell you,
without any difficulty, I don't want to be uncomfortable anything,
And in turn, I want you to tell me no.
I want you to tell me anything you want to
tell me, and I won't take it personally. And if

(28:55):
you and I could work that way together, it'll be brilliant.
And sure enough it was. Him and I had one
of the best working relationships I ever had because I
cleared the air right up front, and there's a lesson
in there, even though that's not worth particularly what I'm
talking about right now. I want to go back to
slim fit shirts. So they launched slim fit shirts at
Thomas Peak, and they put all the fashion up front,

(29:16):
and I said to him what I learned at Van
use it. If you put all the fashion in slim
fit and you forget your full cut business, you're going
to alienate your full cut customer who you built your
business on. These are the people that are out there
counting on you to keep them happy. You don't want
to put all the new designs. If you come up
with a white collar on a pinstriped shirt, you want it,

(29:37):
and full cut you want it and fit it. You
want to give both customers a choice at the best fashion.
And we did it. And why did we do it
because I learned my lesson in Van use it. Because
when we put all the energy into then our slim
fit shirt was called Hennessy did amazing, came from nowhere,
became twenty five percent of the business almost overnight. But
it wasn't all incremental value. Our full cut business suffered

(30:00):
while we built a smaller business and fitted shirts because
we didn't keep the full cut current and we had to.
So I warn you Thomas Spink and they did the
same thing, and for a moment, only a moment in time,
our full cout business suffered. And then we added the
fashion right after my conversation with them. And I'm not
taking credit for helping them other than to say it worked.

(30:22):
We kept fitted vibrant, we came full cut now vibrant,
and the business grow. And the point is you don't
have to throw away the baby with the bathwater. You
want to go into a new business. Give it your best,
but at the same time protect it. Which brings me
to cars, which I said before. You look at all

(30:43):
the automobiles right now. If the EVS, all the energy
and excitement and styling is going into the EVS, it
is the dumbest thing I ever saw in my life.
All the new lights up front, the new shapes of light,
the side panels, all the interior decorations, all going into
the ev and the full cut. In this case, the
regular gas combustion engines are getting a little tired and

(31:06):
they're not putting the energy into it. So in terms
of where you're going as a business planner, I asked
you to consider an exit strategy. Why not have it
all if you can have it all. If you said
to me, I'm going out of all combustion engines like Jaguar,
good luck, Jaguar, I don't believe in that. I'm worried

(31:28):
for them. I can't imagine, you know. I look at
the Hummer. I've had three Hummers in my career. I
bought three of them. I loved the Hummer. It was big,
it was safe. My Jesse learned to drive the Humber. Jesse.
How great was the Hummer.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
When we had the Hummers, Oh man, the Hummer was fantastic.
First of all, I was sixteen, seventeen years old and
high school driving a Hummer. Nobody else had it. It
was how should I say? It helped me a lot socially.
Let's just say that it was a great car. Now
do you remember what happened when I had the Hummer?

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Well? I remember I bought the Hummer because I didn't
think you could drive worth a lick. I was SKay.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
I passed the road test the first try. But but
I will tell you with the Hummer, right, the H
two massive car I had my license for a week
ended up smashing into a park car when I was
backing up. Didn't see where I was going, and bam
picked the car up and dropped it on the ground.
And I remember I went up to the guy's house

(32:28):
in the neighborhood. I was like, I'm so sorry I
hit your car. He's like, I got hit by a Hummer. Awesome.
He was happy, But I just thought to pay it.
But it was, uh yeah, it was a great car. Amazing.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
So how did we settle it? You know? I had
to remember.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
I don't even remember I don't think it was that
much damage actually, despite the fact that he was hit
by a hummer. But what I will tell you is
the car was awesome. Parking it was tricky. It was
so wide. Didn't we have to take up like two spots?

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (32:56):
It was huge, But you know, Gary Nod, I knew
exactly what I was doing.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
I knew exactly what I was doing.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
It was great a minute. So Mommy and I made
a deal. She would teach you to park, I would
teach you how to drive. We're both busy, so we
divided in conquered. The day of your road test, I'm
taking you to the road test, and I'm giving you
a chance to drive. And then I said, let's practice parking.
You couldn't park. You couldn't park, And I said, what
are you doing? He said, Well, Mommy said, I should

(33:27):
line up the mirror on my call with the with
the door handle in this car. I said, that's the
dumbest thing I ever heard. Every car is a different
shape the door handles in. That's not how you park now,
it just so happens. You figured it out. You passed
on the first drive. But that was a nightmare.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
It was not great, but you jumped in and the
last minute taught me how to parallel park, which, by
the way, I don't think i've ever wrote parallel park
since then. I don't find a lot of opportunities to
parallel park, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, the world changed, the world changed, but the car anyway.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
But the car was awesome, man, By the way, the
car was awesome. And we had something that we never
had before. We had a DVD machine in the back
of the car. Do you remember that? So if me, yes,
if I wasn't driving or somebody else was driving and
I was the back, there was a DVD like the
screen came down, you could watch a movie in the backseat.
I thought that was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
It was back in the day. Anyway, let me get
back to the point I'm trying to make. So now
Humma comes out with a new version after six eight
ten years of stopping great looking car crab walk. I
don't even know what that is. But they made it
all electric. I am telling you, I know they're not
selling cars. I see too many of them on the
dealership by me, And no matter what, I would have

(34:39):
bought the Hummer in three seconds. I don't care how
many cars I had. I would have bought it because
of the size, the safety, the speed. That has a
thousand horse power, But it's one hundred percent electric and
I just won't do it. So in your business planning,
you can do whatever you want, but you can't forget
that you need a plan. My greatest story of excess

(35:03):
strategy has to do back in London, different brand, different
set of circumstances. I was the CEO of Donna Karen DCN.
Why are the responsibilities of LVMH And when the time
I joined them for whatever reason other than jeans, there
was no men's business. I grew up on Calvin Klein men's.

(35:24):
I love their suits. I love this shirts, I love
this sports. You know you're talking Calvin Klein, one of
the world's greatest businesses. We have no men's business. In fact,
the greatest advertising I ever saw for shirts in my
life was Calvin Klein. What they did was different than
anything else. Rather than models posing and you know, showing
you their favorite smile, they took slices of life. They

(35:45):
went down to a street on Wall Street. They had
four models walking, they had ten models behind them. The
models behind them were blurred out, but it was the
real looking pictures of four guys talking to each other
or walking down the streets in the suits and tied
DK why it was in fact, when I came to
the company and I started and decided to relaunch men's

(36:06):
the first advertising I did, I took the former model
of DK Y who's now in his forties, who was
in forties at this time, Mark vanderlou put him in
the ads like the old ads and recreated that slice
of life advertising that meant so much to me. And
during my entire time at the Donna Karen Company, whenever
I was there, I had put up the advertising on
my walls bigger than life than I loved it. So

(36:29):
I decided to go back in the men's business and
I was introduced to this fellow. To this day remains
one of my favorite people of all times. His name
was Michael Morris. He was an entrepreneur based in London,
the UK. He had been the licensee for East Saint
Laurent in Europe and therefore all the East Saint Lagan
clothes and Europe at that time were coming out of

(36:50):
his company and he became a multi millionaire gazillionaire guy.
He is a few years older than me. He was
very cool. He dressed well, very nineteen five dresser, but
always hair slicked back, the pocket square, dressed well, always
looked apart. Nice, great guy. He went to Wimbledon, he
went to all the favorite restaurants. He belonged to the

(37:11):
right gambling clubs. Whenever I go to London and hang
with him, I was so happy hanging with him. I
just enjoyed him. He enjoyed me, loved my children. The
boys would come. In fact, anytime we had a runway
show in New York, the boys insisted they sit next
to Michael. Anywhere we went anything for dinner, Michael was
with me. We became best of friends. And he was
a great guy. And at one point in time he

(37:34):
lost the wire cell license. That's how I met him
because Nieves Solaruan decided they didn't want a partner in
doing men swear, they wanted to do it themselves. They
brought it back in house and Michael was without a job,
and I met him. And now I'm being introduced by
another friend of mine to Michael Morris, And you know
I met him. He was a little two col Valier

(37:55):
for me a little too entrepreneurial. Anything I said I
want him to do, he would do. Money didn't matter.
Whatever I asked them for Matt, it didn't matter, Just
do it. I want this license. Tell me what you want.
I'm going to build you a great business. Just stay
out of my way. And when he said to stay
out of my way, it made me a little concerned,
because when you rent your brand to someone, you have
an obligation to make sure that person does with it

(38:16):
what you expect them to do. The way they treated
who they sell, what the price points are made me
a little fuzzy. Michael was a little fast and furious
in his lifestyle, but that's okay. I loved him anyway
and decided to give him the rights to dk y
around the world. Big deal, big, big deal. But at
the time I was a little less than comfortable. I

(38:42):
had a sixth sense that said I needed to protect myself.
Let's call it an exit strategy, the theme of tonight's show.
And I was doing the negotiation with Michael Morris and
my friend Jean Rothkoff, great friend of mine who is
a licensing guy, said listen, I need protection for the company.
I want to get this deal. I won't ask you
for money up front. I want to ask you for

(39:04):
a signing bonus. But when I'm going to ask you,
at the time, our royalty was about three million dollars
a year for the first two years, I want you
to set up an LC for me, a letter of guarantee.
What an ELS was. It was a guarantee of payment
from a bank that should anything go wrong, should they
break their contract, should they not offer collections that they

(39:26):
probably agreed they would do, if they did not pay us,
the royalty were own, I could draw it down on
that LC, meaning take the six and a half million
dollars at any given time if they didn't own up
to their agreement. And they signed it and we agreed.
Fast forward three years later, I get a call in
New York from Michael Mark. I have a problem. I'm

(39:48):
going bankrupt. What what do you mean You're going bank
Look you know I bought the shoe company. It was
the biggest mistake I ever made. I don't know anything
about shoes. It's a money hole. I have to protect myself.
If I have to get rid of the company. The
only way I could do it is going bankrupt. And
clean up all this mess and come back. And I
want you to know I have a new financial backer

(40:09):
behind me. The gentleman's from India. He gave me his name.
He said, please Mark, when this happens, at least listen
to me. I could be back in business in fifteen
minutes after the bankruptcy is soft and I have the
financial backing, and you know what I can do, I said,
I'll consider it. About two hours later, I get a
call from our lawyers in New York who tell me

(40:32):
they just heard from our lawyers in London that we
had a bankruptcy with Michael Morris and they want me
to come to London. Why do they want me to
come to London because the bankruptcy procedure is different in
the United States. In the United States, just so you
know those if you are interested in this, if you
have a bankruptcy and someone has the license to your brand,

(40:53):
you can't get your brand back. It stays with the licensee.
So you have to fight your way through bankruptcy. Because
the bankruptcy judges in the United States and the arbitures
are interested in two things, getting the creditors as much
money as they can. But they want the surviving company
to continue to keep the workers employed. So that's what happens.

(41:13):
Even though it's your brand, you lose it to the
bankruptcy court. You have nothing to say. In London. I
was informed by our barristers, our legal counsel, that it's
not the way it works in London. In London, there's
an administrator whose sole responsibility is to support you for
the future of the company. Whatever you want, they'll make happen.
So they asked me to come to London to meet
with these people, the bankers, and I said I would

(41:35):
do it. A couple of days later, I fly to London.
First thing I do. Then I to get dick Less
to see me. I meet with Michael. He tells me
what happened. He shows me who the people are, introduces
me to his new partners if I give them a license.
I said to him, I think about it. Michael. You
know I like you and I believe in you. Let's
see what happens. In the next two days. After that,
my lawyer and I have dinner and drinks and he

(41:58):
says to me, I need you to come tomorrow morning,
first thing and meet the administrator. He wants to meet you,
so I said, okay. After that, there is a Swiss
pension fund who was one of Michael Morris's largest backers.
They put their payroll and pension money in Michael's company
and they lost it all. They want to meet with you,

(42:18):
so I agree. Now, Remember it's Mark Weber from the
City Projects. Being in London, being a master of the universe,
involved in all these processes. I couldn't have felt bigger,
high or whatever. First things first, I meet the arbitrator
the next morning, Mark, I represent the London court system.
I represent you. I'm here to make sure you get
what you want. That's the way the law works. If

(42:39):
you want to pick a new partner, you want to
stay with the sk associates, with Michael's company, whatever you
want to do, we're here to protect you, make sure
you are completely in charge. Later tonight, I'm going to
ask that you come to a meeting. We're going to
have the Swiss pension fund there, We're going to have
the three banks representing the losses here. They want to
make a presentation to you on how to continue with

(43:02):
the DKY license. I said sure. But in the interim,
right after I met with the administry, I was taken
to a building which just so happened to be the
same building Michael Morris's company was in, and they took
me upstairs to meet with a father and son who
wanted to take over the dk andy license. And I
was thrilled to meet them. I was excited, you know,

(43:22):
father's son operating together, something that I always wished that
I could have took me a radio show to get there,
but that's what it was. And I met with I
went to this showroom and basically speaking, they were a
tiny company that their business really was odds and ends
and underwear. And I'm looking at them, I said, do
you realize what we have here? This is one of

(43:44):
the most famous, accomplished brands in the world. We sell
in every corner of the United States, in the world.
It's a big business. It's clothing, it's shirts, it's suits,
it's sportswear, it's jackets, shoes, this is a huge business.
How do you intend to do this? Well, we have
the financial back with them, I said, Okay, I hear you.

(44:07):
I look at the guy from a Swiss pension fund.
I said, I'm missing it. You want to back these guys,
you want to sign a license agreement with me. You
want to continue. They know nothing about the business. Well, Mark,
you know we've identified them. We trust them, I said,
I hear you. I'm glad you trust them. I trust them.
The only thing is I don't believe they can do it. Mark.
We really want you to consider it. We have a

(44:27):
lot of money invested. They we want you. I said, okay,
thank you. Listen, guys, it's nice meeting you. That night,
we go to the Minister's office. We're in the financial
section in downtown London. We go into a board meeting.
I first meet with the advisor and he reminds me, Mark,
whatever you decide to do, listen to them. But then
you make the decision. We go into a boardroom. I'm
telling you the boardroom is like a city block and

(44:48):
representative I may work correctly. There were three banks, Wells Fargo, HSBC.
And if you out there know what HSBC stands for.
We see it all over the city, all over everywhere. HSBC.
I'm going to shock you if you don't already know,
it stands for Hong Kong shank I Banking Corporation. I
never knew that until then, great bank. I have money
in there. I like them anyway, I'm eating two of them.

(45:10):
And then of course there's another bank I don't remember
who in the Swiss pension fund and the head of
Swiss pension. Front of all of these people start to
present to me why I should go to this new
company with the father and son, and I'm listening, I'm
being polite, and they asked me what I think. I
said to them. Look, i'll tell you what I said again,

(45:32):
I don't think they're capable of doing the job. Let
me rephrase that they're not capable. Now you're in my zone.
You're in the banking world. I can't speak to what
you do, but I'll tell you. I'm sure you're experts
if you're sitting here. But when it comes to running
an apparel company and managing a big business globally, I'm
an expert. Those guys can't do it. But I have
a question for you. Would you just consider hiring Michael Morris,

(45:54):
Bring him into the company, put him at the head
of it, and let him get it done. Bring in
his people. Absolutely not, we want to do with He
promised this and that we all lost money. I said,
are you sure? They said, we're sure. I said, let
me ask you a question. You guys owe me six
and a half million dollars. When are you gonna pay me?

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Ah?

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, well that's what we're here for. We don't want
to pay you six and a half million dollars. We
already lost a lot of money. I looked at them.
This is one of my favorite things of all time.
I stand up, I look at them. I said, I
really respect you being here, But if I knew you're
going to ask me to lend you six and a
half million dollars, I would have told you to fly
to New York rather than me fly here. What are

(46:34):
you crazy? Why would I relinquish six and a half
million dollars guaranteed based on a future that may not happen.
They were shell shocked. I looked at my administrator. Do
I have a right to ask for this money? Absolutely?
Mark at the end of this meeting, if that's what
you want, you don't want to sign a contract with
these gentlemen, you do not have to, and you will
collect your six and a half million. Guys meeting over.

(46:58):
I loved it. Even though that meeting was over, it
wasn't over. And here's one of the greatest lessons I
ever learned in my life, and let me give you
the end of the lesson up front. In business, in life,
you have to have your ducks in order. You have
to know what you're doing. You have to do your
due diligence, You have to be sure of the accidents
you take. And you can never be emotional. You always

(47:19):
have to do what's right for the company, or if
it's about you, what's right for you. In this case,
after everything was said and done, I made a decision
to give the business to Michael Morris. I signed a
new agreement with his partners from India. I got my
six and a half million dollars and signed a new
agreement with another ten million dollars because the royalties were
taken up because of the new deal with the Indians

(47:41):
and Michael. A week later, I get a call for
Bernard Kuhn, who is Bernard Kuhn at the time chief
legal counsel for LVMH. He gets on the phone. Hi, Mark,
you and I have met, but we really have never spoken.
I have to talk to you about an unpleasant happening.
I said, okay, says I received a call from whatever

(48:03):
his name was, the head of the Swiss pension fund,
who said that you had a meeting with him and
didn't treat him right. So I said to him, thank
you for calling. I'm glad you're on the phone. Let
me tell you what happened. Had a license agreement, he
invested them. The license went bankrupt. They offered me an alternative,
which I did not believe would work. Nor did I
think the people that they were suggesting I go into

(48:24):
business with had the capabilities of doing that. And it's
not that I didn't think. I know these people were small,
they were very nice people. They couldn't execute a global business.
I made a decision not to give them and find
another partner, and for that they owed me an additional
six and a half million, which I collected on behalf
of the company. Visit the facts and I give you
the RUSS version, but I went to details. He said,

(48:45):
thank you. I have to talk about it. I have
to talk with them. I have to understand. I'll come
back to you. A week later, get a call from
Bernard Kunn and he says to me, mark On behalf
of Bernard or no and myself. I want to congratulate
you for the work you did on this bankruptcy problem.
From what we have learned, you did everything right. We've
spoken with the attorneys. Everything was done according to the

(49:07):
laws of in London. And here you save the company money.
You put us back in business, and we have the
highest regard and the outmost respect for the decisions you made.
I want to thank you. So there you go. Lessons,
learn exit strategy, do the right thing. It'll pay off
back in a moment.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Always in Fashion.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Spent 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 won
on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You could wear a
suit formally to go out at night or to an event,

(49:49):
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 package and wearing

(50:10):
a suit is one of those things that make men
look their best Venuesing 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 discussed just now, this new

(50:32):
style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
and I'm so excited that the ven using company is
involved in this new technology and is embracing the whole
idea of dressing up. Let's not forget venues and made
it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the
suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find

(50:54):
vanues in cool Flex Men's stretch suits at jcpenny are
online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great, you should
go look at them. I love Polar fleece. It's lightweight,
takes colors beautifully, it's comfortable, keeps you warm and even
if it's warm out, it doesn't hamper you. It doesn't
make you perspire. I love Polar fleece. I also love

(51:17):
sweatshirts and sweatpants. Love them, love them, love them. I'm
a big fan of khaki pants and a big fan
of a golf clothes. And I'm a big fan of Izid.
I used to be the head of Iszide. In fact,
my company bought it and out of bankruptcy, and the
CEO of the company asked me to come in and
fix it. And he said to me, Mark, the future
of the company's in your hands. Can you do this?

(51:39):
And I said, I will do it. I put everything,
my heart and soul into making Eyeside the powerhouse that
it is today.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Now.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
I left a long time ago, and the company just
continues to thrive. Isaid is one of the great sweater makers.
Pant make his shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polar shirt makers.
They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,
you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
easy for you. If you're going to be casual, go
in and look at Isaac. Now that doesn't say that
they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits,

(52:08):
Go find them. Isaoda is a collective brand that offers
lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true it's
a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun prices.
Everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of all
the brands that I'm involved with, and you can name them,
think about PVH and LVMH and all the brands, Isaoda
is the one that's most personal to me because I

(52:29):
was involved in crafting the future of this brand. The
clothes are great, They're doing well. Isaad dot com, isaadat jcpenny,
Go look for it. I think you're going to be
very happy. And ladies, those of you the shopping for
the guys in your lives, take a look. I think
they'll be very happy with your choices. Isaad for men,
welcome back to it.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Always in fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber everywhere.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Oh use it.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
You're the only tonight.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
I've discussed exit strategy, whether it's life, business or whatever.
We all need plants, we all need what IF's. Things
don't go the way you plan, if things aren't happening
the way you have. Everything needs to be thought through
in advance. Smartest people I know always have an out.
They always have a back door. They always have room

(53:38):
to maneuver just in case. You must have an excess strategy.
But it's yours for you alone. It's no one's business,
but your own good night,