Just In Case

Just In Case

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
show is sponsored by G three of Parow. The 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

(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.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Just in case you missed it, there's a new sheriff
in town. I'll come back to that. I'm always recalibrating, remastering, rehearsing, reconsidering.
There's a famous quote credited to Winston Churchill. It stated
that he said the smodest man I ever met was
my tailor, for every time he met me, he remeasured me.

(01:05):
I remeasure myself all the time. I take a relook,
I have a rethink. I wonder about the decisions I'm making.
I often rethink that which I believe. I have to
admit rethinking is not always of strength. I'm human. I
have my concerns, I have my doubts. I will point out,

(01:26):
though that the most foolish of people I've ever met
are often wrong, but never in doubt. It's healthy to
have doubt. But a second look, a chance to reboot,
a moment more of thorough Another question to asked is
another chance. Now I have to tell you I am quick.
I am super quick. I'm quick on the drawer. My
mind is so fast that it may be my best attribute.

(01:50):
I can get from here to there very, very quickly. Therefore,
I recognized early on I need to regulate my decision making.
It's too fat, too fast. I wonder I need a
just in case mechanism, a technique for assuring I'm measured
in my approach to the world. It's a way to

(02:10):
tell me slow down, mark, not to smell the flowers,
but to make sure I see them and I think
about them. I've met so many people that are ready
fire aim with this in mind. There's just tons of
mistakes because they're ready and firing be before they think
we need ready aim, fire, and then chances for hitting

(02:32):
the target exceeds any of the others. We meet people,
we make judgments quickly. For me, it's in the eyes.
I look at a person's eyes and I already know
what I think of them from there, based on who
I am. I go right to the shoes. I think
shoes are a window to the soul, if your pardon
the pun. I think shoes tell you a lot about
a person. And then, of course it's the overall package

(02:53):
that gives you an idea who you're talking to. But
instantly I make a judgment. Yet the words when a
spot to speak, can make all the difference in the world,
and in worldly terms, it's recognized and we all heard,
and we all know we can't judge a book by
its cover. I've been involved in purchasing companies and acquiring
the assets, taking over the management making the decisions. It's

(03:16):
so easy when you know the brand, you see the
pretty pictures, you understand the positioning. Then you hear management's
point of view on the strength of the company they're
trying to sell you, we have to think, why are
we purchasing it. I'm cynical, so it's easy to say
when I listen to their speeches, I start by thinking
they're lying because the lips are moving. Now, that is unfair,

(03:37):
But I have to admit I'm there to doubt to
make sure I know what's doing. I'm listening to people's
opinion as to what's going on in the company and
why they're selling it. But in reality, what I need
to know, or I need to have known, are the details.
Looking at the reports, drilling down on the questions, looking
for inconsistencies, understanding what's working, understand what's not, and determining

(04:00):
what course of action to take. For if in fact
we buy the company, if the company needs repositioning, we
need to know what we need to do. We need
to know the value, what should we pay for the company?
Therefore taking the time, going the extra mile, going the distance,
slowing down, learning and comprehending, and then of course executing.

(04:25):
So just in case is what I look to do.
Just in case is in fact tonight's show, and just
in case I want the show to be best, I
bring on now my lawyer, my co host, my son
Jesse Webber. Hey, there, what.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
An interesting thought. If you think about it, the world
would be a lot better if people took a moment
to think about what they did before they did it? Right?
I cover what do I do? I cover crime all
the time. I cover politics on my shows. Can you
imagine if criminals maybe thought about the consequences before their actions.
Some of them don't care, some of them do. That's
while a lot of them there's evidence that they tried

(05:01):
to hide their crimes beforehand. They are its intent, they
know what they're about to do. It would be a
better world, though, if people had a full grasp of
the impact of their decisions. You always say, you throw
a pebble in the water, you see the ripple effects.
A lot of times people don't realize that they're too
short sighted. But my gosh, politics this week, I think

(05:23):
it was all about thinking before you're talking, right. Would
you agree with me on that?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Absolutely? I was all set to talk about Zelenski and
I will, and then came the state of the Union
and I want to talk about that. And then I thought, well,
what do you and I bring to the table that
a thousand pundits before us haven't done. And I think,
just in case a slow down and recap and think

(05:47):
about what we're gonna do, maybe we have something to say.
So if it's Okay with you, Jesse, I'd love to
know what you think about what happened with Zelensky this week.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I want to start with Zelensky. Okay. It was very
clear to me this was a power play because there's
nothing that Donald Trump and his administration want more than
for this war to end. Obviously they want the killing
in the bloodshed to stop, but also for them to
tack on the achievement of being responsible for ending this
war is huge for them. And so for essentially kicking

(06:21):
Zelensky out, saying he was rude, giving his lunch to reporters,
and then now after the meeting taking away military aid
to Ukraine, this is all trying to put pressure on
him to engage in a ceasefire. And what has already
happened is Zelenski, it's being reported, wrote a letter, a
conciliatory letter to Donald Trump, basically saying I'm willing to

(06:42):
give into it because we all know that even if
he has support from Europe, he still needs support from
the US. And I think you talk about short you
talk about the long term consequences of it. Obviously, if
you have a ceasefire would be great. The problem is
what are the long term costs consequences. Is Russia have
to make any compromises? Are there any assured guarantees that

(07:04):
they won't move forward with an attack? I guess one
way of looking at it is right, if the United
States and Ukraine enter into a mineral deal and you
have US officials and you have US companies in Ukraine,
would be less likely than Russia would take some sort
of attack at a Ukraine. Maybe, But I just feel

(07:25):
I understand why he wants it to happen. But this
was all a major power plan. I have to say. Look,
Zelenski tried to correct the record on some misinformation, tried
to fight for his people, but he went in there
and I don't know what he was thinking he was
going to gain by doing that and going on the
offensive against Trump and the Vice president. I thought that

(07:45):
was really bold.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Of him to do. You want my opinion, Yeah, what's
your opinion? I'm going to come at it from a
different point of view. And I don't remember whether anybody
tackled this, but I would tell you the issue is
I guess I'll start with a question. I know what
you're going to say. Who wins the negotiation?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Jesse? It's the party who has the power to walk away.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
I could rest my case right there. Zelenski came in
and he started dictating terms to Trump. He disrespect advance.
He thought he was the power player in this whole thing.
He thought, because the US was behind him, that he
had all the cards. As Trump said that he was
the power player. Now, I'd stop for a second and say,

(08:29):
I don't know enough about the man except to say
I admire him. I admire his courage. He seems to
have great leadership in fighting this war, and he stood
up and to be counted, and I really said it.
I admire what he's done. I do believe that a
war didn't have to take place between Putin and he.

(08:50):
I thought it could be solved. I thought Russia's goals
would have a port in the CRIMEA. They want a
war report for their navy, and that's the only thing
they cared about, and they didn't want anybody else joining
NATO that would block his access to the things he needed.
I don't think he was doing this because he wanted
to acquire more rity. I think the West made a
lot of mistakes and poked him in the eye one

(09:12):
too many times, and that's what started this, But to me,
it's all about negotiating. And Zelenski came into this negotiation
as if he had the power moves. He had nothing.
He had nothing, And the reality is he's losing the war.
Does anybody believe he's gonna win? What is the price

(09:33):
for winning? Killing people every day?

Speaker 2 (09:37):
The counter argument to that would be, if you do nothing,
then what is to stop Russia from going into another
country and then another country.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
His job is not to fight Russia for the rest
of the world. His job was to fight Russia for himself,
to come up with some kind of plan that would
have protected his people. Now the numbers are crazy. Tens
of thousands people dying, hundreds of thousands of people, millions
of people. I was in the studio the other day

(10:05):
and one of the corporate execs from iHeartMedia asked me
what I thought about what happened with Zelenski and the President,
and I said to him, Look, there are times when
Donald Trump's dos things that I don't agree with, I
don't like, I don't think it suits him. When he
started talking about Obama giving sheets and he gave Javelin missiles,

(10:28):
it didn't need to be said. Put the Obama stuff aside.
Trump's position has been I don't want any more people dye. Unfortunately,
in this world, every one of us experiences tragedy. Someone
in their family dies, either too young or they live
to a ripe old age. But people pass. But every

(10:49):
time someone does, it's a hardship. It's devastating. Families get
broken over these things, their heartbroken. Could you imagine a
country with one hundreds of thousands of people dying, young
people dying in both sides, in Russia and the Ukraine.
It is unfathomable. What's going on and what's the endgame here?

(11:13):
Can they possibly beat Russia? And frankly speaking, let's just say,
for the moment, I believe in the industrial military complex.
Let's just for the moment say and I do to
a degree that I'm a businessman, and if a big
business of the United States is weapons, I'd love the
idea of making weapons and shipping them to countries for

(11:35):
defensive purposes. The more weapons we ship to a given country,
the more powerful they are, the more reluctant their enemies
are to attacking them. So in that way of thinking,
I like the fact that money's being made here. And
as a deterrent. But the reality is, if this keeps
going on, is there any chance that Zelensky could win

(11:58):
this move? The answer, I don't believe. So he walked
in like he had the old cards. He thought he
had Trump around a barrel. He thought he could dictate
whatever he wants, and he couldn't because in Trump's mind,
he's one of the great negotiators. He's the new sheriff
in town. He doesn't want this war to continue. And
for the reasons at least, he's stating I don't want

(12:19):
people dying in him. I applaw him one thousand percent.
I'm in his corner one thousand percent. Now Europe lining up,
what is their goal? All of them supporting Zelenski? What
is the end? So in the end for me, stop
this war. Zelensky, you have nothing to say. As much
as I admire you, as much as you've rallied your people,

(12:39):
You've been an amazing leader, but it's now the time
to sit down and think about what am I doing
going forward. That's my take.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Look, you make a good argument. I don't know where
it's gonna go. I think that it was quite a scene.
Have you ever seen anything like that? And by the way,
by the way. By the way, I thought it was
really interesting. Did you catch it when Vance was like, you're,
mister President Zelensky, you're litigating this in the media. You
want everybody to see this. And Trump stepped in he goes,
actually liked it. This is happening. I want everybody to

(13:10):
see why this is happening. And he's like, Okay, you're right,
mister President.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
Look Trump, I'm going to talk about him in a
little while. The end result here is is he who
can walk away wins Zelenski overplayed his hand. He can't
walk away without the United States. This is over quicker
than he ever dreamed, and he won't get as good
a deal. So I think I've covered that, and now
I want to talk a little bit about the president

(13:36):
and the State of the Union.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Was it the State of the Was it the State
of the Union, or was just a his first address
to Congress?

Speaker 3 (13:44):
I don't know which was it. I don't think he
said he did it five times.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Ummmmmm.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
I don't think it was a State of the Union.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Oh maybe you're right, you're looking at it.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm looking it up. I don't know if they Yeah,
I don't think it was a state of the Union
per se. I think it was, but I don't know.
Maybe I could be wrong, but it was something.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
It was something I am incredibly impressed with where the
country is right now. There is an energy in the
United States that hasn't been here for at least four years,
maybe eight. I am impressed, maybe twelve since Trump's first presidency.
There is an energy. I've talked about it before when

(14:27):
I went for my first interview at LVMH and I
met with Bernard Arnaud, the founder of LVMH, the world's
largest luxury company, one of the richest men in the world.
And I had a meeting with him, and I won't
go through all the details, but we got together and
his first question to me was Mark, what do you

(14:47):
bring to a company? And I said to him, mister Arnaut,
I bring energy. I bring energy to a company. I
don't know where that answer came from. To this day,
I am so pleased with myself, in shock with I
came up to an answer, and I can tell you
I saw it in his face the moment I said

(15:07):
that I had the job. You want to talk Earlier,
I talked about being impressionable and just in case I
believe I had the job from that one answer, and
of course I handle myself well throughout the rest of
the interview. So when I look at the President, the
first thing I say is he brought energy to our
country and why he's made it clear that there's a

(15:29):
new sheriff in town. Do you know, Jesse, here's one
for you. I've read about this. Do you know sheriff
badges have six points? And more importantly, do you know
what all those six points stand for? Now? Ah? Well
I do. I looked at it. I read it when
I thought about him being this new sheriff in town. Integrity, courage, professionalism, service, commitment,

(15:55):
and respect. Now, of course they also have to apply
the law. But when I thought about those six things
and I thought about Trump in the address he gave
this week, I think he earned all those categories. He
came in. He's trying to do the right thing, but
he's doing it with a great deal of courage in
changing everything that there is in front of us. And

(16:19):
I love the way he conducted himself in that speech
the other day. He was professional, he was presentational, but
what he was great he was in your face when
he started looking at the Democrats, who were all sitting
there glum. He started in and saying, this past administration

(16:41):
blew everything. They were useless. We are changing America. We're
taking America back again, America. This is now going to
be the Golden Age. Everything that was isn't anymore. And
then here's the things that we're going to do now.
I don't I guess the rest of the world picked
it up right away the way I did. I'm watching

(17:03):
the points he's making, and the entire Republican delegation elected
to Congress stands up and is imploding. And none of
the Democrats are imploring. None of them are standing up.
And I'm saying to myself, what's going on here? You know,
if they don't like, if they don't like eliminating DEI,
how could they not stand up for the fact that

(17:23):
immigration illegal immigration has trickled down to five percent, it's
down ninety five percent? Then it was how could they
not stand up and applaud that? How could they not
stand up and applaud the waste that's been found in
the government. And I'm watching this and I'm saying, to myself,
what is Trump thinking? He's gotta be seeing what I'm
seeing when he learned over and he looked at them

(17:46):
and he said, it doesn't matter what I do. None
of you going to stand up and applaud None of
you have anything that you're gonna appreciate. I say, I'm
wasting my time, said, if I discovered the cure to cancer,
you wouldn't stand up and do it. I loved him that.
It proves what a great communicator he is. It proves that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
How great was it when he called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas day. Yeah,
And then the camera went to her and she looked
incredibly angry.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
What about Nancy Pelosa? She wasn't standing behind him ripping
up his speeches this time. She looked like a church mouse.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Look. I mean, can I give you my perspective absolutely.
My perspective is the Democrats of their own worst enemy.
They looked incredibly, incredibly weak. The Democrats who are going
to do well in the future, who want people to
come into their party, are the ones who have to
look at the things that Trump administration is doing and
give them credit for and try to work toward cooperation.

(18:44):
They have disagreements, fine, but the ones are going to
succeed are the ones that look reasonable, right, and so
the fact that they didn't even stand up at certain
key moments, even when there was a sick child in
the audience, and that whole thing. But I think the
other way of looking at it is two things can
be true at once. You could say Donald Trump was
very strong, the Democrats look weak. But but let's also

(19:05):
be intellectually honest. Donald Trump was making a lot of
claims and not all of them were one hundred percent accurate.
So if you see opposition or you see people saying
that's not true, you also have to be an honest
broker about that. I think there were things that he
was over exaggerating, and it depends upon how much people
care about it or not, but there is something to

(19:27):
be said. He was over exaggerating certain things.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
New sheriff in town gets to say what he wants
to say. How about the Democrats holding up those stupid
signs was more importantly back to the six points on
the star. Respect. They absolutely have no respect for other
people's opinions. They had their chance, the country voted against them.
They went too far left. Everyone knows that. Everyone I

(19:57):
think you would learn I found did incredibly disrespectful that
they couldn't find common ground at all. I saw what's
his name, Ted Cruz. I saw Ted Cruz from Texas
on I think Fox News. Afterwards, I was changing the channels.

(20:18):
He said, it's the first time in a historical memory
that a president addressed Congress and the other party stood
up for nothing. He said, you know, there are times
I'm sitting there listening to former Democratic presidents speak, but
I stand up for those things that are right. You know, Jesse,
this show, you go back five years ago, long before

(20:41):
Donald Trump decided to run for office. Okay, I had
a thing that common sense was not so common. I
talked about the problem with common sense and business and
common sense at work. It isn't common, it doesn't exist.
What we saw this week was no common sense. Back
to negotiating, Zelenski no common sense in his negotiation. He

(21:02):
could not win the Democrats right now, cannot win now
when you talk about voters, if they want to get
voters again, Look, as long as you're a Democrat in
this country, you're gonna get seventy million votes. There's no
question about it. You could stand for all the wrong things.
It doesn't matter what you stand for, what you do
you're gonna get votes, but to win. That's where I

(21:24):
agree with you. They lost the center of the country
because that's who we are. You have people on the right,
have people on the left. You agree, you don't agree,
But somewhere along the way, we've always been able to
come together on these things. The whole Democratic Party is
anti Trump on the Zelenski move. If you take away

(21:44):
what Trump is saying, I want to stop the killing,
and Zelensky's not going to win the war. What's the
debate here, what's the negotiation? Get them the best deal
they can. That's my take, that's my politics. Anything else
you'd like to add, My young son.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
No, I think you nailed it. I think it's interesting
time to say the least.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
New sheriff in town Sheriff's bands has six sides, six points.
They all stand for the following integrity, courage, professionalism, service, commitment,
and respect. Just in case you didn't know that, I
thought i'd share it with you back in a minute.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
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Speaker 3 (22:30):
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(22:52):
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(23:13):
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(23:56):
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Speaker 1 (26:34):
Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Webber.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Tonight's show is just in case, taking a moment to
think about all those things you need to think about
in order to be successful and not make mistakes. But
I have to tell you when I'm really thinking about
is loneliness. I have to tell you I'm lonely. I
admit I have very little to do, but I don't

(26:59):
have enough time to do it. But I do feel alone.
And it got me thinking about the president, got me
thinking about making decisions and being the CEO because I
got a bunch of things going on with CEOs and
CEO Exchange, a new show I'm trying to get behind
and build. We'll talk about that in amendment. But I'm

(27:20):
thinking about how lonely it is at the top, and
that the wind blows hardest at the top of the mountain,
and when you're the CEO and making decisions. It is
a lonely, lonely place. Now think for the moment about tariffs,
I would pretty much say, other than a handful, the
whole world is against Trump and his tariffs. If I'm wrong, great,

(27:44):
because it's unknown what's going on with tariffs right now.
And I think we've broken it down before, and I
want to break it down just a minute. If you
listen to what's being said. A big part of the
tariffs on China and Mexico and Canada have to do
with that and all. And Trump is weaponizing tariffs and saying,
if you don't stop the flow of fentonol into this

(28:06):
country or the component parts that make it, we are
going to tax the hell out of you in other
categories to get even, and to make sure not to
get even, We're going to tax the hell out of
you on it many different products to bring you to
the table and get you to do the right thing.
I don't know if that will work. I don't know
if connecting the dots there will work. I don't know

(28:28):
why any country wouldn't say they would try and help
maintain that law. And at the same time they said
to Canada and Mexico, but Canada in particular, stop the
border crossings in Canada. You got a huge border with
the United States. We have a problem of illegal immigration.
We want it to stop. Unless you do it, We're

(28:48):
going to penalize you. That I get. I don't know
if it works. But what are you thinking about tariffs?
Not gonna you wanted to ask me something, jess what's.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
On your nd I can't tell if tariffs are good
for the economy, whether or not they increase inflation. Maybe
you have an answer to that.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Well, the reason you can't tell is because nobody knows
the answer. The reality is is long long ago when
the first conversations about free trade happened. Really the conversation
shifted from free trade to fair trade. If tariffs are
put on our goods being shipped into Europe, like the

(29:25):
vat tax in the UK, then why don't we do
the same thing to them. It's a question about what's right.
It's a question about integrity, and it's a question about
fair Even though I don't believe in fair, it doesn't exist.
I respect the President for trying to get parody. If
he's trying to raise tariffs solely to get Americans to

(29:48):
come back and build plants in the United States, and
it's a mechanism to give them a helping hand. I
like it, but it's going to cause problems. You have
to find ways to ma make automobiles in this United States,
and a lot of our competitors around the world do
make automobiles yet. So there are things that make sense.
But when you hear that the price of avocados is

(30:10):
going to go up because of our trade war with Mexico,
or you hear some of the other things, there is
a very strong chance that prices are going to escalate.
But the effectiveness on business may or may not work,
and nobody knows the answer to be specific. Jesse I
called a couple of people and asked them in the retail,

(30:30):
luxury and fashion business. I said, if there's an additional
twenty percent on China, what are you going to do?
The answers varied, but I will tell you some of
the people said, when Trump was in the president last
time and he put tariffs on China, we resource goods
to other countries. So a lot of what was the
problem then has been fixed. Secondarily, today, if you raise

(30:53):
prices on goods that are coming into the country now,
there's not much room to move. You can't go to
your customers and tell you I need you to pay more,
and retailers are not going to raise their prices. So
retailers will win. Somebody else is going to have to
eat it. It's either going to be the manufacturers overseas
in China and Mexico or the people importing them, those

(31:14):
people with the brands selling these products. So unless you
have time to work this through into next year, prices
are gonna go up or someone's gonna make a lot
less money. And that we don't know how it's gonna work.
So again, it's a big negotiation. And that's what I think.
So for me, I think the tariffs can work. I

(31:35):
think if they're designed to get parody. You tax me
on what I ship to you, I'm taxing you on
what you shipped to me. That's good common sense. You
better think about what you're doing in your country before
you're goin to take advantage of us here. All the
rest could be a little too massiacal, a little too machiavellian,
But I leave Trump and his team to figure out

(31:55):
what to do with it. But I was talking about
being alone. And that's why one of the things that
Trump's alone on being a CEO. As I said a
moment ago, it is a very lonely place to be
because the reality is you're making the decisions and nobody
else is it's I was a president of PVH for

(32:15):
seven years. I was on the board for seven years.
I wasn't the CEO. And during that entire time when
I was president, I cared about the company's success more
than anyone. I worked as hard and as smart as anyone.
I never slept. My mind was always on doing what
was better for the company. But the reality was the

(32:37):
board wasn't looking at me for the answers. The board
was looking at the CEO, and the CEO would either
make it his way or the highway, either he was
successful or he wouldn't be there any longer. It's lonely
to be a CEO. Now. I've been interviewed a million times,
and one of the most interesting interviews along the way

(33:00):
had to do with what it was like being a CEO.
And the problem is there's no way to hide you're responsible.
While you're the final judge and jury, you get judged.
You're the only one in a company that is responsible. Now,
if you're the CFO, the chief financial officer, and you

(33:21):
make a wrong entry, if you do something that isn't right,
you'll be held accountable. But the reality is the strategy
of the company, the operating company down to the clerks,
is all the responsibility of the CEO. He rests on
him alone. And I was the president of the company
with all the pressure sitting on the board, I knew

(33:42):
that I wasn't responsible. He was, and it took a
lot of the weight off of my shoulders. And it's
just the way it is. I remember one of the
best questions I was asked when I was CEO in
those interviews is what is the toughest part about being CEO?

(34:02):
I'll ask you that, Jesse, what do you think A.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Lot of responsibility, a lot of things to keep on check,
everybody reporting to you. When the bill, the buck stops
with you. If something's not successful, it all comes.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Back to you.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
You can't put the blame on anyone else, right.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
Well, we can argue that there are a lot of
things that people might say, and I think that's a
good choice for me. My answer you ready was communicating,
because communicating is leadership. Once again, I referred to the
President's speech this week. He was in command. He let
the world know there was a new sheriff in town.

(34:39):
He let the world know he had a vision. He
let the world know what he was going to do.
He was an amazing communicator that night. And when I
was asked that question, I said that communication and communicating
is the toughest thing a CEO has to do, and
I explained that managing is a multi directional process. You

(35:01):
need to manage upwards to your bosses, to your board,
to your shareholders. Stakeholders. They need to know what you
intend to do. They need to know how you're doing.
At the same time, your leadership has to go sidews
to your colleagues. They too have to step in line.
They have to know why they're working, they have to
know what they're trying to accomplish. Then you have to

(35:23):
manage downwards to your staff, the people that do the
day to day work, to ensure that they're on board.
They understand what the prize is, they understand how you
intend to get there and what you want to accomplish.
And less but not least, you have to talk outward
to your partners to your suppliers, and most importantly to

(35:45):
your customers the consumers. What are you standing for? What
are you promising? What are you going to deliver? Very
very complicated to lead and have that whole thing communicated
in a proper way that all those constituents know what
you're thinking and of course your vision, what you plan

(36:06):
to do differently, how you intend to get there. CEOs
must lead, so I said, it is lonely being the CEO. Yes,
they get the perks. I've also been asked, what's my
favorite perk? Now that you mention it, you want to
guess what that was, Jesse having.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I think I know what the answer is. You want
me to say it? If you do control over your schedule, time.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Ah, you heard me say it before, You're right. You're right.
The ability to plan my world out, travel when I want,
go where I want, take whom I want with me,
go alone. The control of time and the decision making
acquired with that is one of the most gifted things
I've ever had in my career, because up until then,

(36:54):
any given day I have a plan of what I
want to do. Anybody above me calls me and does
me come down to their office. It gives me something
else to do. I'm constantly being taken away from the
job or the task at hand. When you're the CEO,
your control of your time, unless, of course, there's an emergency.

(37:14):
So the ability to do what you want when you want,
your style, knowing the goal, knowing the prize was in
my view, the greatest perk in the world. Now, having
said all that, I'll make it clear. Yes, the CEOs
get the big bucks. Yes, though the pressure, the responsibility,

(37:37):
the risk to the future, the risk to the company
is a heavy weight they have to carry. And yes
I said it before. Being at the top, the wind
at the top of the mountain blows the hardest, and
that's what the CEO is contending with. So as I
sit here and think about loneliness, I'll probably do a
show on it. But I gotta tell you, knowing the pressure,

(37:59):
knowing where to take to be successful, makes you think
just in case, back in a moment.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Always in fashions.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl
Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
America through Carlagofeld, 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

(38:29):
premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagofil collection at
car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more 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 look right, you

(38:50):
want to have clothes that fits you well. You want
to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's
exclusive for you and yours. You can find at very
affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com Paris. The women's
ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as the
handbigs and the shoes. I for one wear men's clothes,

(39:11):
unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy.
I want to look current. I want to look the
way I want to feel. I go out at night.
I'm in black and Carlagafel is my buddy. Clos are great,
they fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches,
whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or button at
the neck or on the shoulder. There's a lot of
details that go into Carlagathel because he's always been, he

(39:34):
always had been one of the world's great designers, and
this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak
enough about it except to say to you, you want
to feel good about yourself. You want to know that
you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well.
Carl Lagafeld Paris, Carl Lagofeldparis dot com. I love polar fleece.

(39:55):
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 sweatshirts, the 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

(40:16):
of Izid. I used to be the head of ISID.
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? 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 (40:35):
Now.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
I left a long time ago, and the company just
continues to thrive. ISID is one of the great sweater
maker's pants, make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polar
shirt makers. They're incredible company. The colors are great, the
fabrics are great. Guys, do 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 ISID.
Now that doesn't say that they don't have dress shirts

(40:57):
and they don't have suits. You go find them. ISOD
is a colective 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. Isaac is the one

(41:17):
that's most personal to me because I was involved in
crafting the future of this brand. The close of great
Fall is 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.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Isaad.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
For men, welcome back to it. Always in fashion.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
Here's your host, Mark Webber tonight's show. Just in case,
Just in case, you want to be successful. I want
to talk to you about something. I want to talk
to you about what you do before you do it.
I know how I prepare by myself for success, but
before I go there. Jesse, you're on a lot of
TV show and a lot of radio shows. In particularly

(42:03):
you're on News Nation. You're a legal contributor. I only
think of you as a host when you're hosting Dan
Abrams Show or Chris Como's or Elizabeth Fargas or Ashley Banfield.
I've seen you do them all. You grated it. I'm
so proud of you. But I think of it for
a second. Yeah, you're hosting Chris Cuomo's show. You got
to be as good as Chris if you can be.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
I love that guy. I love the way he's treated you.
I love your back and forth with him. I'm really
forever beholden too, Chris Cuomo for the way he's treated
you at News Nation. Having said that you have to
be as good as him? So what do you do
to prepare when you know you're hosting his show?

Speaker 2 (42:39):
I have to First of all, I'm very active with
the producers in every story, what's the angles we want
to hit. I'm very fully researched on each part because
I want to make sure that the conversations I have
with the guests are intelligent, that we're thorough, that we're
trying to get to points that maybe other sides aren't
getting to. So I have to be as fully prepared.

(43:01):
I don't just go in, read the prompter, read the questions,
and walk out. Not those shows. So it's very important
that I'm very prepared and researched as well as possible.
And also I try to add something different. I try
to add a little bit of my personality, which is
different than anybody else's.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Well, I think you're right on. And the part of
the show that may be considered the fashion component, considering
it's called always in fashion. I have a couple of
things I want to talk to you about. In preparation
for success, I joined companies where everybody is smart. Now,
let me step back for a minute. When I was

(43:38):
a PVH and part of the senior management team, there
were twenty six of us, men and women. All it's
the senior leaders of the company, all making the decisions,
all doing what the board and the shareholders expected us
to do. Was that we would build a company that
would last a lifetime and we would grow between ten
and twenty percent a year. That was the goal, and
that's what we were committed to. And in order to

(44:00):
do that, I looked around the room and I would
say to you, of the twenty six people that were
a PVHS, six or seven were truly brilliant. And I
always used to look at them and say to myself,
how do I compete with those seven? And how do
I stand out amongst them? And here's a tip for you,

(44:23):
Jesse touched it. I was prepared, and I'll tell you why.
And I'll tell you what I did. First of all,
I read everything that was to read. I knew people
were busy. I knew that my competitors weren't reading Women's
Wear daily every day. They weren't reading Memoir magazine every day.
They weren't reading the New York Times fashion pages. Maybe

(44:46):
some of them would touch it, maybe they'd watch it
on the weekend. They all got too busy. They all there.
I read everything. I read Forbes, I read BusinessWeek, I
read all the articles I could possibly read. Yes, I
looked at fashion magazines, Giku, Xi, Maxim. I did it all.
And I felt that reading would give me the heads
up because every time I read an article, I would

(45:07):
know a little more than the next guy. To this day,
I read articles. I send them to Jesse, I send
them to my son Jared, who's in that business. I
know that I was always ahead of the game. And
you'd be surprised. As something you might have read on
the cover of a magazine, everyone should have known. You
would voice it as your opinion. Something you read, you'd
look smarter than the rest. I was always always prepared.

(45:30):
Another thing I always did was shop. To this day,
even though the name of the show is always in fashion.
It's the smallest component of what we talk about. But
I got to tell you I am current on what's
going on in the fashion, retail, luxury business. Why because
I'm in the stores whenever I have free time. Now,

(45:52):
the good news here is I don't work for a living.
I do this tells me to speak. I shop when
I walk in the stores. Again, whenever I used to
go to board meetings, whenever I used to go to
meetings with a senior manager of my company, I know
I just walked through J. C. Penny. I know I

(46:13):
spent time in Northstream. I knew I was in Macy's
and I knew they weren't. So if they talked about
a brand, Vince, that's a brand that some of you knew,
some of you don't, Vince contemporary brand. I knew what
Vince was doing, and I knew what looked well and
I know what didn't look well. I knew what Sneakers
were exciting. When I walked into one of the Sneakers

(46:34):
stores Finish Line, you pick one, I knew what was happening.
So I knew what was going on and active. So
shopping always prepared me which brings me to story. I
was running as part of lvmhor responsibility. One of the
responsibilities was the chairmanship of Donna Karen dk why and
we made a decision. I made a decision. To board agreed,

(46:56):
Bernardo no agreed. The managing director, Antonio Bellon agreed to
buy back our gene's license from an outside third party
who was not doing well with it. Made the decision.
It was one of the most remarkable meetings I ever had,
and I had done all my research. I did research,
I walked the store, I talked to the biggest accounts.

(47:16):
I knew exactly what needed to be done. I started
recruiting people looking for a president of that gene's company,
figuring by the time we finished it, I would have
a person in command. And I met a number of women,
and I met a number of guys. But one woman,
particularly in the early stages, really impressed me. Now, she
spoke well, she was dressed well. I liked her shoes,

(47:39):
which said to me she understood something about our business.
Her whole package reeked to me a professionalism, and I
liked what she had to say. She was a seller
by heart. Now, there are many different kinds of people
that can run companies. Let me just take a moment
to tell you that I was a merchant. I understood
product and I understood marketing. My predecessor, now, my predecessor

(48:02):
was an operations guy. The person who succeeded me, PVH
was a financial guy. You can see people from all
walks of life become president and CEOs of company. This
particular woman impressed me and we got down to the interview.
She was sharp as could be, and I was impressed,
and I was ready to hire her until I asked
her one question. I said, what do you think about

(48:24):
our stores? And she looked at me and she didn't
answer me. I said, you know, we have two don
account Collection stores in New York and I have six
DKY Jeans store. What did you think about DKY store?
And what do you think about the Jens? And she's
quiet and said I didn't visit them. And I looked
at it. I said, what do you mean you didn't
visit them? She said, well, you know, I didn't have time.

(48:46):
I had a prepare I was working. I knew I
was coming here. I said, time out. You're coming to
meet me the ceover company. You're interviewing for president of
one of my divisions. I have six stores in DKY
and New York City Town, Downtown, all around the city.
You can have gone in anyway, and you didn't go in.
She put her head down and said, I made a mistake.

(49:06):
I said, you did so when I'm talking about being prepared,
the fact that she was interviewing for a president level job.
At that level, she didn't do what I just spent
the last ten minutes doing, being prepared, knowing more than
the next guy. She should have come in and said
to me, I loved the stores. I hated the stores.
I liked the store. It could have been done. I
saw the jeens. You were missing this. I really appreciated

(49:28):
your wide leg jeans. I thought the tops could have
been better. I loved your sweater. I looked at the store.
I watched the people working. There's a lot of traction
in the store. While dkmy had so many products, the
genes seemed to generate a lot of attention. I liked
your price points, I liked the quality. I loved everything.
After all, I'm a Jeens person. I understood that nothing, zero, nada.

(49:51):
The interview ended right there, and because of as a gentleman.
I didn't tell her she lost the job. I said
to her, you know, with all due respect, maybe this
is one of those lessons you can learn in life.
Maybe this is important enough for me to stop and
tell you. You're coming to me CEO. By you not
shopping my stores, you're you're questioning my intelligence. It's not respectful,

(50:15):
but you're questioning my intelligence. You're underestimating what I know.
I could answer all those questions. I just asked you,
and you come to me on an interview to be present.
Says you're right. I have nothing else to say, and
I said, I'll tell you what. I'll try and forget this.
But I want you to go back shop the stores,
and when you feel you have a good picture of it,

(50:36):
I want you to come back and I'll meet with
you again. Now I could have told her send me
a report, but the good guy in me, the one
who wanted to teach, thought she deserved the opportunity to
sit in front of me again. And she did. She
did much better. I told her she did. I said, look,
you're one of a number of candidates. We're still going
through the process. I thank you for doing what you

(50:59):
just did. I hope you learned a lesson and we'll
see where we go from here. She thanked me. She left.
We never hired her. We found someone that I thought
was much better, and unfrankly speaking, that was that was
a defining moment that I don't think I could get over.
But just for example, I mentioned before when I interviewed
with Bernard Arnau for the CEO job at LVMH and

(51:22):
the chairmanship of Donna Karen. I flew to Paris that day.
When I arrived at two o'clock, I was jet legged,
I was beat, but I went to every single store
that was on Gallery Lafayette or the department stores to
see how the brands were being treated. I want to
see if Eton would be in print on well Gallery Lafayette.
I wanted to know exactly. So when I sat down

(51:45):
with Bernard Arnaud, the chairman of the company, I was prepared.
I did this just in case he asked me those questions,
and tonight's show is just in case. I did all
this work just in case he would have asked me
something that I didn't expect to be asked. If he
asked me my opinion, I would have one just in

(52:07):
case he had a specific question, and he would ask me,
what did you think of the Denhim handbag that was
in the window of the Vton store on Avenue Montaigne.
I would have the answer just in case. I was prepared,
and I said earlier the first question he asked me,
what do I bring to a company, mister Orno, I

(52:30):
bring energy and I'm all about energy. With that, I
wish you good night. I hope you enjoyed the show.
Talk to you soon.