October 3, 2024 • 47 mins
Ever wondered how a global retail strategist balances the fine line between human touch and cutting-edge technology? Join us as we sit down with Liza, the dynamic co-founder of Retail Strategy Group, to uncover secrets from her illustrious career spanning iconic brands like Harrods, Ralph Lauren, and Nike. From her early dreams in fashion design to her pivotal roles in buying and marketing, Liza's journey is a masterclass in perseverance and adaptability. Discover her unique approach to retail that prioritizes meaningful change over mere noise, and learn how her extensive travels and global experiences have shaped her visionary outlook.
In this episode, we dive into the nitty-gritty of Liza's career milestones, from navigating failures like a sleepwear line at Club Monaco to mastering the art of customer service and brand localization. Gain valuable insights into building and testing retail trends, and understand the crucial balance between listening to customer feedback and maintaining fundamental business practices. Whether you're a seasoned professional or an aspiring entrepreneur, Liza's candid reflections offer a treasure trove of lessons and strategies for success in the ever-evolving retail landscape.
But there's more—Liza opens up about the unique challenges faced by women of color in the retail industry and the importance of diversity and inclusion. Hear her inspiring stories of overcoming discouraging advice and transforming negative feedback into powerful motivation. With organizations like the Women of Color Retail Alliance playing a pivotal role, Liza emphasizes how diverse recruitment practices can drive business performance and innovation. Don't miss this empowering conversation that not only highlights Liza's professional achievements but also her passion for promoting a more inclusive and dynamic retail industry.
Liza's Bio:
Liza Amlani is the Principal and Co-Founder of Retail Strategy Group. The firm works with retailers and brands, helping them improve profitability and organizational effectiveness.
Clients span apparel, footwear, luxury, retail tech, and more. Liza is a respected voice and is cited in Forbes, Bloomberg, Chain Store Age, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Sourcing Journal, and Footwear News.
Liza has been recognized by Rethink Retail as a “Top Retail Expert of 2024.” This honor is given to a select group of experts chosen from a group of 400 nominees.
Before founding Retail Strategy Group, Liza was the merchandising expert in Accenture’s retail strategy practice. Before that, she spent 20+ in retail with companies including Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco, Sporting Life and more.
She brings a wealth of global insight to her clients given the number of countries in which she has resided – Liza has moved 29 times in her life from Canada to the UK to Africa. Today, New York City is home as she teaches at the renowned Fashion Institute of Technology.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizaamlani/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paula (00:03):
So I'm honored to have Liza on the show today because
she is a woman that has startedher own business.
Diverse woman traveled manycountries, lived in many places.
I believe that she will be aninspiration to a lot of the
younger listeners because shereally embodies that
perseverance and give back andpractice what you preach.
(00:25):
But, rich Gotham, I want toknow what you guys think.
Rich (00:28):
So I've had the opportunity to chat with her.
I think I met her maybe a yearor two ago through Rethink
Retail and we were on a brandinnovators panel together or a
discussion group, and so I'vehad the chance never to really
work with her, but to haveconversations about retail and
the panels that she's been on,and then, obviously, in
(00:49):
following her LinkedIn andreading, I would say, actually
the word I'm searching for isimpactful.
You know, she she dives into anissue, not with the intent of
just creating noise or creatingcontent, but really trying to
create impact with what she'strying to say and what she's
thinking.
So I'm looking forward todigging in and getting to know
her a little bit deeper.
Gautham (01:07):
So I have known Lisa for a few years.
Rich, I am on this crusade tobring executives into the
classroom to make retail moreaccessible, and Lisa was one of
the people who had spoken to mystudents a while back and I
still remember the studentswalked away very impressed
(01:29):
because they got to understandthings such as concept of market
, how long it takes and how youcan think globally but act
locally, locally, and these areconcepts that, for me, we're
teaching movements that are usedsubsequently, and I'm hoping
she will also touch upon thebalance between human
(01:51):
interactions and technology, andI think this is going to be my
theme for this whole podcast.
What's the balance?
We'll see if she brings upthose points of view, but I'm
excited to hear her speak andpick her brains on retail.
Paula (02:05):
To Retail Relates.
Lisa is the principal andco-founder of Retail Strategy
Group, where she partners withretailers and brands to drive
profitability and enhanceorganizational effectiveness.
Her impressive client rosterincludes big names like Columbia
and Mountain Hardware, underArmour and Land's End.
Lisa's insights are highlysought after and her expertise
(02:26):
has been featured in toppublications such as Forbes,
bloomberg, the Wall StreetJournal and the New York Times.
Before founding the RetailStrategy Group, lisa served as
the merchandising SME inAccenture's retail strategy
practice and has over 20 yearsof experience in retail
merchandising and productcreation with iconic companies
like Ralph Lauren, club Monacoand Holt Renfrew.
(02:48):
With a global perspective, lisabrings a unique richness to her
work.
She has lived in numerouscountries around the world,
including Canada, the UK andAfrica, which we will have to
talk about.
That Moving a remarkable 30times in her life Wow, talk
about always being the new kid.
Most recently, she called NewYork City home while teaching
fashion, marketing and digitaltechnology at FIT.
(03:10):
Lisa, welcome to the show.
We are honored to have someoneso global and another woman here
on the show, so thank you formaking the time.
Oh, thanks for having me.
Liza (03:22):
It's my pleasure.
Paula (03:23):
I'm so excited to do this with you guys, so we're excited
to dive in.
I'm just going to ask the firstquestion.
Your bio is going to be in theshow notes, Something we like to
do instead of just having yourun through.
You know, tell me aboutyourself.
We like to ask what were thethree most pivotal moments in
your career that led you towhere you are today?
No pressure.
Liza (03:43):
I would say that my first one is working at Harrods.
Harrods was somewhere where wewould go as a family.
You know, when I was growing up, I was born in the UK so I am
British but also Canadian andthen in the 80s we lived in
Africa.
We were in it's called Zaire atthe time it's DRC now and so
(04:04):
every summer we would go back toLondon and see my family and my
grandma, but Harrods wassomewhere we always went and so
I would say working at Harrodswas a very proud moment for my
family because we grew up withthat store.
So I would say first was workingat Harrods.
I really learned the importanceof customer service within the
(04:26):
customer journey.
The second point I would say isworking with Ralph Lauren.
Now, I worked with Ralph Laurena lot.
In fact, I started my career atRalph Lauren at Harrods, which
is we can talk about that laterand I started on the shop floor,
and what I learned from workingon the shop floor and then
continuing my career with thebrand was that I really really
(04:48):
understood the value of having abrand point of view throughout
every part of every ethos of abrand.
So what I learned at RalphLauren was truly localizing
assortments while playing homageto the brand point of view.
And then the last one I wouldsay was working with Nike.
I learned about consulting, butI also learned about what is my
(05:16):
value proposition as a formerretailer within the world.
The wild world of consultingwith a big firm and working with
Nike was just awesome to workwith such a large, matrixed
organization and seeing so muchopportunity.
So I would say those are thethree.
Rich (05:30):
So I'm going to jump in and ask this question because
you said shop floor and we havehad a long debate over how
widely used that term is.
Gautam started using it.
I used it because I was inmanufacturing at one point.
The question is is this whatyou always envision doing with
your career?
And I don't want to just assumethat it is because you started
(05:52):
on the shop floor quickly.
Liza (05:54):
But I will sidestep here because I am pretty sure that I
worked illegally when I was 13on in retail.
I was one of those people I waslike I begged to work in the
store.
I loved I love the excitementof being around product and
(06:18):
really making customers happyand solving their problems.
So I started with this thedream of being around product at
a very young age.
But I initially thought I wasgoing to be a fashion designer.
I went to school for fashiondesign and I switched over to
fashion buying and marketingafter my first year, realizing
(06:39):
that I was really good at thebusiness stuff.
Yeah, I guess I thought I wasgoing to be a designer but then
started this amazing career inbuying.
Paula (06:46):
So that's funny that you should say that you started in
fashion design, because that'sbeen a topic of conversation as
well between the three of us asto like, what do people major in
and how do they get into retail.
And you know why aren't theremore like retail, focused like
careers in college that areliterally retail?
So I'm glad that you calledthat out because that is a
(07:07):
really it's a traditional careerpath, from what I understand.
I'm not a retail, so I'm comingat this as a layman, but it
seems like some people that gointo fashion design end up going
into the retail route on thebusiness side.
So we you're a successful womanand I admire you a lot, not
just for your successes but tobe able to hold all of that
together.
But is there a failure that hastaught you a lesson that you'd
(07:32):
like to share?
Liza (07:32):
really anchored in listening to customer feedback
and using insights to developthe right product assortment at
the right time.
So when I worked with ClubMonaco a number of years ago in
(07:53):
Canada, we had a store calledCaban and we had eight stores
across Canada.
It was part of Club Monaco,owned by Ralph Lauren.
There was a trend back in thatday of sleepwear and loungewear.
In every assortment it was just, it was wild.
So I'm like, okay, we need todo this right.
So we developed a line ofsleepwear.
(08:14):
It bombed.
It did not sell.
I sold it all on Markdown.
It was awful, it was awful.
But what I learned was that inmany cases, we chase trend, but
trend is not always what ourcustomer wants.
So what I learned from thisexperience was about closing the
feedback loop to build betterassortments, which in turn,
(08:37):
builds better process for manyof the brands I work with today.
Are we really listening to ourcustomer?
Are we really giving them whatthey want, what they expect to
see from us?
I don't think we should alwaysfollow a trend.
I think that we should drivetrend also.
So I think that there's a lotof lessons learned just from
that assortment that totallybombed.
Rich (08:57):
Okay, I'm going to hit a follow-up on that, because you
actually hit kind of two trendsin one, pun intended the idea of
driving a trend and the idea ofnot always following trend, but
the fundamentals.
We've seen retailers that havegone out of business by chasing
trends and their businessbecomes very cyclical and you
(09:19):
have a list of them, I'm sureand they don't have a
foundational business to basethat on.
I actually want to ask aquestion before I turn it over
to Gautam for the lesson how doretailers build a trend today?
How have you seen that besuccessful?
Liza (09:36):
So I talk about insights and closing the feedback loop a
lot, and I think that haseverything to do with listening
to the customer.
What are they looking for?
What problem are they trying tosolve, Whether it's an apparel
problem, an outfit problem, afootwear problem or a CPG
problem.
What are we trying to help themsolve for?
And, taking all that intoconsideration, thinking about
(09:59):
your fundamentals, which is yourassortment plan, how are you
building that assortment?
Are you testing before you diveright in?
There are many ways to tap intoa trend without setting yourself
up for failure, and I thinkthat does come down to how are
you building your assortmenttoday?
Do you have a very clear ideaof your brand point of view and
(10:23):
what you stand for?
What does the assortmentarchitecture look like when
we're talking about season listsversus core and basic against
fashion, and how much are youspending on innovation within
your assortment?
So I think that it depends onwhat product you have.
What your customer is lookingfor Depends on what product you
(10:45):
have, what your customer islooking for and how you're
closing that feedback loop andfeeding it into your assortment
and your CTM calendar concept tomarket calendar.
Go to market calendar and areyou really looking at real time
insights.
Gautham (10:58):
Lisa, let's pick up where you just stopped right.
You talked about the CTMconcept to market calendar and
the go to market calendar.
When it comes to merchandising,oftentimes the cycle time is
very long.
Right it takes.
I will let you tell how long ittakes, um, because it's it's
rapidly evolving.
What, in your opinion, is a wayto keep reduce these times?
(11:18):
How do you deploy digitaltechnology and I know you work
with some companies maybe thatmight have deployed these things
so that you can actually testthese products faster, bring it
to market faster and reduce thetime, therefore reducing the
chance for failure?
Liza (11:35):
I would say there's three things.
The first thing is having asimplified product creation
calendar.
Whether it's your concept tomarket calendar, your product
creation calendar, your calendarthat's going to get you to
market, simplify that calendar.
Have very clear milestones withaccountabilities,
responsibilities acrossfunctional teams and break down
(11:58):
those silos so that those teamsare actually talking about the
same customer, are actuallytalking about the same customer.
And then the second thing Iwould say is being okay with
having various start and stopdates of product creation, and
what I mean by that is I call itAI acceptable inequality, where
we have to accept that not allproducts are equal, so they just
(12:20):
should not be created in thesame way.
A basic black t-shirt comparedto an innovative windbreaker
that folds up and packs, I don'tknow, those products today are
created in the same way usingthe same product creation
calendar.
They do not need to be.
You can start and stop themoments in different points on
the calendar.
The third thing I would say isimplement a multi-track calendar
(12:43):
where you have differentcalendars leading up to the same
timeline but having multipletracks for multiple types of
product.
Whether you have this basict-shirt, that basic t-shirt does
not need to go from concept tomarket, with physical sampling
and fit and all the things thatwe would do with this
complicated windbreaker that Imentioned earlier.
(13:05):
In fact, you could digitallycreate that entire block because
you already have the tech pack.
You already know the fit.
You most likely have a set ofdigitized colors.
That particular item can gofrom Concept to market digitally
.
So I think that there are manyways to talk about a
(13:27):
multi-track-shirt, right.
What about more on-trend?
Gautham (13:46):
kind of things.
Are the companies trying to dothis utilizing the digital
ecosystem and the technologyavailable today?
Liza (13:53):
They are and I think when we think about speed to market,
we think about fast fashion andultra fast fashion.
We know that they're doing this.
They're doing this in differentways, with a maybe a more
vertical supply chain, investingin raw materials a lot earlier,
but there's a lot of companiesthat are doing this today and,
(14:14):
from a testing perspective, Iknow that PVH absolutely tests
this model.
They did it with Calvin Klein.
Carhartt is a great example thathas incorporated digital
product creation and has alsothis is another thing I talk
about.
A lot is evolving your vendors,factories, innovation partners,
(14:35):
from service providers toactual partners, and Carhartt
actually does a great job withthis.
We were just talking to Mark.
He's the head of tech designthere.
They do a great job.
They talk about it at PIApparel as well.
It's a very known thing thatthey're great at doing this and
I love to talk about thembecause I think that there is so
much value in creating productdigitally with the right
(14:58):
partners and getting yourvendors on the same page as you,
on the same journey to reduceoverdevelopment of materials,
reduce physical sampling,excessive and unnecessarily
protose.
So there is a lot of companiesdoing this.
I think Inditex does this verywell.
Gautham (15:17):
I love that right.
It touches on thesustainability angle as well as
reducing failure in an industrywhere margins are razor thin.
Let me just quickly ask onemore question, if you will, and
you spoke previously about aperson you might be the only
person I know who worked inretail at the age of 13, because
you love your product and youtalked about the excitement of
(15:40):
retail and being your ownproduct.
I want to switch from ago-to-market strategy to a
consumer kind of perspective,which is how you've been.
You were born and brought up inLondon, I guess in England, and
then you've been to Africa,you've been into the US, you've
been in Canada, so 30 countries,right.
What do you see?
That is, global companies doingdifferently from the US-based
(16:01):
companies and commonalities, sodifferences in commonalities.
Liza (16:05):
I would say that, no matter the region, the vertical
or the product that we'reselling, no matter where in the
world we are, the customer stillwants the same thing.
And the customer wants greatproduct.
They want right product, righttime, right place.
They want great customerservice.
They want product that's goingto last, not product that's
(16:25):
going to fail.
And this is a common threadacross any vertical, any product
, whether you're luxury oryou're off price or you're fast
fashion, customers don't expectthat they're going to buy a
product, invest their dollarsinto a product and it's going to
fail them.
I would almost flip it and saythat's the similarity.
(16:47):
The difference is that canrange when you talk about the
type of product.
So I'll give you an examplewhen my last industry role was
Ralph Lauren and I was head ofbuying for the Lauren brand for
Northern Europe, and I'll tellyou that what I would curate
from Ralph Lauren for the UK wasvery different to what I would
curate for one of myScandinavian countries.
(17:10):
If you did another deep divewithin the UK, for example, what
I would curate for centralLondon would be very different
than what I would curate for myDublin customer.
The customer they want thisthing, which is they want great
product at a great price and allof that fun stuff.
But I think that when you gointo their regions and you start
(17:32):
to really think about, okay,how are customers dressing, what
are they dressing for?
What kind of jobs do?
Rich (17:38):
they have.
Liza (17:39):
What is their level of outdoor activity?
There's so many things that youcan talk about to find what are
the differences across regionsacross the globe, but I think
it's more important to talkabout similarities.
What are we really going for asretailers?
To drive success and profit, itis to connect with your
customer, to connect withcommunity.
(18:01):
These are the things that areimportant today.
Gautham (18:03):
You have talked about this and I love the way you
framed it, right Like find thesimilarities and find scale.
You also said at the beginningand I wrote this down, your
second period point, working atRalph Lauren, localizing while
being global and you said itnonchalantly but it's very hard
to do having that globalperspective while being local.
(18:24):
What is the strategy from acorporate perspective?
How do companies achieve this,having a global footprint
yourself?
Liza (18:35):
I would take it down in a sense and talk about the op
model and how are we buildingthese teams?
Ralph Lauren, like otherdesign-led brands, like Nike,
like Tommy, with a global team.
They have a decentralized model, which means you have a global
merchandising team based in yourcorporate office, in this case
the US, and then you haveregional teams that are sitting
(18:57):
in those regions to developrelationships with the buyers,
with the sales teams and then,of course, with the customers.
So you learn about what arethose differences with those
customers how do they like todress, function, more fashion,
how is fit different, if theylike florals or if they like
(19:17):
stripes?
These are things that you learnwhen you're in the region.
I will really give props andflowers to Ralph Lauren for
teaching me that.
How important it was for me tobe in the region, in the stores,
talking to my customers,styling them, spending time with
them, cashing them out.
(19:37):
I was out of buying.
It didn't matter who I was.
If I didn't know who mycustomer was in every single
region, then I couldn't make agood decision on my ice.
So, even though with RalphLauren we have that global merch
team, because we wanted to makesure that Ralph Lauren
aesthetic and that seasonalstrategy was very clear.
Rich (20:00):
So let's talk about the consumer for a minute.
Liza (20:02):
Over the course of your career, what do you think has
been the biggest shift thatyou've seen in consumer behavior
?
More tools.
We have apps.
We have apps that tell us howtransparent a product is.
(20:25):
We have so many more and I saywe, because we're all consumers
too right we expect so much morefrom our brands.
We expect so much more from theretailers that we choose to
shop, because we have globalchoices, thousands and thousands
of retailers and brands outthere.
This means that brands need tochange the way they show up,
(20:48):
which is showing up with moreauthenticity, more transparency.
They need to really earn thatloyalty from the customer
because customers expect more.
And I bring up customer servicea lot because I think this is
how brands can really make adifference with their customer,
even if they didn't serve up theright product at the right time
(21:09):
, if they had great customerservice that aligned with how
the customer expected them tobuild a relationship with them
and build out that trust.
I think that's where retailersand brands can really win is if
they invest in their salespeopleand their brand ambassadors in
training and customer serviceand product knowledge.
(21:30):
Being customer obsessed is adifferentiator today.
To me.
It should be standard process,like that's table stakes, but
it's not.
Rich (21:38):
It is not that today and it all lands in the spectrum
because it's the notion of acustomer willing to forgive you
for not hitting a trend or forpossibly making a mistake if
they are endearing to your brand.
I'll only speak for myself.
I don't know what what Gotham'stimeline is, and I don't know
(21:59):
whether Paul is going to getinto teaching, but I would
imagine that in five or 10 yearsI'm going to be pulling out
this podcast episode and usingit with students.
So I want you to go on recordwith make your boldest, most
radical prediction for howconsumer behavior will change a
decade from now.
Liza (22:17):
Customers will expect to be part of the design and
assortment building process.
That was my prediction.
Rich (22:24):
I like that prediction.
Paula (22:26):
And I do want to add one thing.
We're already seeing that ShoesI mean, they've been doing that
design your own shoes Even fromthe kid level.
At my son's daycare there's somany kids that went in and
designed their own shoes at likefour years old.
So like why a four-year-oldneeds to design their own shoes.
I don't know, but it's adorableand I love it and, like
everyone's happy.
Liza (22:46):
And you're right, it is happening now.
I mean, I did it with my Nikes,right.
But I do think that we'reseeing a level of, I guess,
excellence in things like madeto measure or personalization,
customization, and that onlyleads to the statement that
customers want to be part of thedesign process.
They want to have a stake inthe game, and why shouldn't they
(23:07):
?
It gives them ownership, right,and it gives them pride and joy
.
I mean there's a store in NewYork called Proper Cloth I don't
know if you've been.
I went in with my husband.
This is when, I think we first,when we moved to New York last
year.
It was a phenomenal experienceand I was like wow, because it
was made to measure.
(23:28):
The customer was given thatchoice of fabric, how much they
want to spend.
They were in the driver's seatof that journey.
When I saw how busy it was, Iwas so impressed.
I mean, look at other retailerslike Proper Cloth, Indochino
right, they're growing.
I mean they could use some.
Like Proper Cloth, Indochinoright, they're growing.
I mean they could use some help, but they're growing.
(23:48):
And the premise and the conceptis there.
So I think that as we see morebrands and retailers enter the
world of customization, ofpersonalization of product,
because we're already seeingthat from a marketing
perspective, we're going to seea lot more customers be part of
that design process.
Gautham (24:08):
Lisa, you and I have chatted before and you know I
always say retail is a peoplebusiness and I love the fact
that you talked about humans andthe customer service, the way
retail is heading these days.
We're seeing technology comingin to help and, in certain
instances, replace humaninteraction.
(24:28):
Now, in the vein of what Richwas asking, forward looking, how
do you see this?
Human technology interactions?
Especially here I'm askingabout robotics.
You see self-servicerestaurants.
You see robots coming andbringing you food which draws a
lot of attention, but after acouple of times they're like, ah
no, I don't want that, I likethe human interaction.
(24:49):
Where do you see five yearsfrom now?
How is that level of technologythat's going to act as an
interface with the customer andcustomer?
Liza (24:59):
So I actually get interviewed about this a lot,
which is funny.
It starts with what do youthink of self-checkout and
Costco memberships using thescanner?
So I think there's aninteresting thing at play today,
where brands and retailers aregoing all in on technology to
(25:21):
solve their problem, whateverproblem they're having, or
either it's like to automate orto reduce resources or to, you
know, save money somewhere.
The challenge is that thereisn't a balance of tech and
touch.
We have to have a balance oftech and touch.
I've we've written about this.
I've talked about it in a fewpresentations that I've done.
(25:43):
When brands use technology tosolve their problems but they
haven't actually asked thecustomer how do they want to
check out with them, how do theywant to shop with them, how do
they want to engage with them,that's when you start to see
friction and unhappy customer.
Now, that's obviously a B2Cexample.
(26:04):
I'm seeing that we still needthat balance of tech and touch
on the corporate side, where wehave the example I talked about
earlier with digital productcreation, that not all product
is created equal, and what Itermed AI as acceptable
inequality.
That's where I also see thatbalance of tech and touch, where
some product should be createdwith technology, and it should
(26:28):
be done.
Some product needs a balance oftech and touch where, let's say
, you've onboarded a newmaterial, you still need to fit
it, even though you candigitally create it after you
fit the product.
I think that is where we need tosee more brands and retailers
go is the balance of tech andtouch Taking into consideration.
(26:49):
If you're B2C, how does yourcustomer want to shop with you?
How do they want to interactwith you?
When we think about technologysolving problems or automating
or getting faster to marketwhatever we're trying to solve
for the outcomes that retailersare going for we still need to
take that balance intoconsideration, because at some
(27:11):
point, you still need a human tocome into the process.
What we don't want is manualintervention.
What we don't want is culturesnot shifting and processes not
being innovated, but technologybeing thrown at the workforce.
Rich (27:28):
Yeah, and I'll do a quick footnote to that because I love
the connection between this andyour personalization prediction
for 10 years, because I agreewith you.
I think that's what a lot ofretailers make the mistake of is
moving from one point all theway over to the other side of
the equation, thinking thetech's going to solve, and
(27:51):
forgetting that for somecustomers they really want
self-checkout, some want to pickup at the curb, some want to
shop at midnight and some wantto be held.
And allowing the customer topersonalize the journey and
their product and theirexperience is what a lot of
retailers I think aren'tfiguring out the balance of
right now.
(28:11):
So I love the connectionbetween those two answers you
have.
Paula (28:15):
So I'm going to pivot and I'm going to go to the advice
section.
Are you ready for that?
Yeah, I'm going to impact manylives here, yeah, so I have to
ask because you know you don'tsee a lot of women reach the
higher levels and especially asalso as a minority woman, which
(28:35):
I also am we see culture play apart in women dropping out of
the workforce.
We see motherhood play a partof women dropping out of the
workforce for good reason.
Right, there is no good or bad,it's just those are decisions
that are made.
What advice do you have forwomen, especially this new
generation, or people early intheir career, women early in
(28:56):
their career, when they comeacross these obstacles?
How did you do it to overcomethat?
Liza (29:02):
Well, I sit on this board called Women of Color Retail
Alliance.
The reason I joined thisorganization was because some of
the things that I experienced,alongside some of the stats that
I was seeing, where 60% ofwomen make up the retail
workforce, yet less than 6% ofwomen of color are in the
(29:24):
C-suite and these stats reallyhit home when we look at the
leadership and you don't seeanyone that looks like you.
Now I know one of the questionsthat you had ready for me, but
I'm going to maybe answer it now, because this kind of ties in
was what was some advice that Ihad received early on in my
career?
(29:44):
This was the worst advice Ireceived and it was at the start
of my buying career and I wastold that I retail was not for
me and that I should not be abuyer and I was 25.
This was my first like I wasbuying assistant fresh out of I
think I'd moved from the UK backto Canada for this job and I
(30:05):
was told that I should find anew career.
When I look back on that nowand I didn't listen, but when I
look back on that that daysticks out to me because when I
look at the team and the seniorbuyer that told me this.
She was a white woman.
The entire team was all whitewomen.
I was the only one that lookeddifferent.
(30:28):
I quit, but I found I gotanother job, but I did quit and
I went to my VP and I told herthat, look, I'm going to go, I
need to quit.
She's like I brought you fromLondon for a reason.
She's like we love you here.
She didn't know that this buyersaid this to me.
Now, this is something thatreally stuck to me and one of
the reasons why I joined thisboard Women of Color Retail
(30:51):
Alliance because I wanted togive women of color a voice and
I wanted to tell them thatthey're not alone.
And I think that's really toughbecause in many cases, it's
just we're the first or we'rethe only one, but what we're not
told is we are not alone.
There are many of us, and thatis what is, I would say, the
(31:11):
piece of advice that I wouldgive to women, women of color,
even men of color that we're notalone.
Paula (31:17):
You know, we may be singled out, we may be told that
we don't belong and it's greatadvice for even neurodivergent
people, because we all operatein different ways and it's just
important to know that.
Yeah, you're right, I mean,we're not alone and I do want to
follow that up.
So that story resonated with meand thank you for being
vulnerable and sharing that.
I had someone tell me somethingvery similar, so his comment
(31:39):
inspired me because it pissed meoff so bad.
I was like I will show you.
But not everyone has thatreaction.
So what was your reaction andhow did you overcome those
comments?
Because that can bedebilitating for some.
Liza (31:53):
Oh, yeah, I mean, I don't think you can really overcome
comments like that, but it candefinitely propel you to grow
and to prove people wrong, right, and I think that my story
resonates with people and that'swhy I tell it, because I want
people to think that, like Isaid, that they're not alone,
that they have a voice.
(32:14):
Right, and I think today'sgeneration I mean teaching Gen Z
has been eye opening, because Ifind that they're so much
braver than I was at that age,so much braver, and I love to
see that and I'm like, keep itup.
So you know, I just think thatit's important for me to share,
(32:38):
to use my voice.
I know that there's a lothappening in diversity and the
funding of diversity andinclusion programs.
All the more reason for me totalk about this, to be involved
in helping women of colorachieve their rightful place in
retail and retail leadership,and the fact is, it's the
(33:01):
business case that I'm making.
Diversity works, having adiverse point of view, looking
like your customer.
That matters, right?
I mean we could definitely win.
Let me know when you want totalk about brands that are
selling to women and looking toincrease women's apparel but
they keep hiring men to do it.
I think that's a problem.
Rich (33:22):
Well, I want to have you extend that a little bit,
because if you look at what'sgoing on with DEI and if you
take DEI programs out of theequation, out of the
conversation, diversity is justa smart business decision, and
the advice that you were givenso many years ago is counter to
(33:44):
the advice that we should begiving today.
So I want to give you theopportunity to expand upon the
smart business decision thatcompanies would make to embrace
greater diversity in everymagnitude of the word.
Liza (34:01):
So when I talk about diversity and inclusion and
equity, the way that I talkabout it is by giving an example
.
So when I was at Accenture andI've seen this with every big
firm is that they go to the sameschools to recruit.
Right, they go to the sameschools to recruit.
They're recruiting the sametype of people.
They're sending those newrecruits to go get more recruits
(34:23):
so that that pool of talent isthe same.
They've learned the same things.
They look at worldviews in thesame way.
They come from the same MBAclass.
That tells me that theirrecruiting practices are not
diverse, as in, they're notlooking outside of their normal
(34:45):
recruiting pool.
And the same thing goes forretail Retailers look to the
same place to find talent, butthey're not looking hard enough,
they're not expanding theirsearch to find more diverse
point of views.
And I'm not saying that we haveto all have this.
(35:05):
Like you know, token brownperson, token black people,
token everything.
That's not what I'm saying.
I think that we have to havediverse opinions.
Point of views and cultures andall of the things that connect
us better to our customer, and Ithink that's where the
(35:25):
investment needs to be made.
Who is the customer?
How can we find more leadersthat can relate to our customer
so that we can sell moreproducts, so that we can make a
better product?
That's why I think it's a greatbusiness decision.
Rich (35:38):
There's a marketer that I have tremendous respect for,
drew Neiser.
He has the CMO huddle.
If you've ever seen him onLinkedIn, if not, follow him
More B2B, but very much worthfollowing.
And during the pandemic he hadhad a one or two day seminar.
He's one of the first ones tokind of pull together that kind
of full day seminar, and the feethat he charged went to Black
(36:02):
Girls Code and after one of thesessions he and I stayed behind
and we talked about diversityand I gave him the typical
executive answer of you know, Ibelieve in diversity and I'm
trying to hire diversity, butdiversity doesn't exist within
retail.
Nobody's in it.
And he let me get away with theanswer for about five or six
minutes and then he said hey, Ihave a question for you.
If you had a new idea for aproduct and your current
(36:24):
manufacturing base wasn'tcapable of making it, what would
you do?
And I said, oh, I'd go to theends of the earth.
There has to be a manufacturerout there somewhere that can
make this.
And he paused and he said sowhy aren't you doing the same
with talent?
And that is a big reason whythis podcast is important and I
will have the recorded goal thatin 10 years you're going to be
(36:47):
right about personalization ofthe experience and product.
And in 10 years, when I retirefrom retail, I want a leadership
team that looks a lot differentthan the leadership team I
inherit.
We can compare notes in 10years.
Liza (36:59):
Oh, we will.
Gautham (37:00):
You said that the younger generation are brave.
They are brave because thepeople before them right.
It's their way to overcome andevery generation makes it more.
I hope makes it more stable andbalanced for future generations
.
But I love the story.
I want to ask one question.
(37:20):
I've taught many years with theMason and Nord UCF and people
come from diverse backgrounds.
Right, many of them arefirst-generation students,
people who come from backgroundswhich are a little bit more
atypical from the schools thatyou just spoke about.
How do they like?
How do they build theirconfidence?
Like?
(37:41):
The biggest challenge for mehas been to inspire them to say
like hey, guys, you can do thisRight, like so.
And now I know you're teachingtoo.
So what do you do to inspirethem to have confidence, to
tackle the Goliaths, if you will?
Liza (37:56):
Yeah.
So one of the things that I didwhen, when I first taught the
class.
So I taught fashion, marketingand digital technology at FIT
what I decided to do is everywork and my classes were early
they're like eight and nineo'clock and I had three and what
I did was I said you have tocome to this class prepared to
(38:18):
talk about retail news everymorning before we start.
You have to eat.
You can come up in a group, Idon't care Alone, whatever.
You have to take a news storyand talk about it and let's talk
about your opinion, get adiscussion going.
At first they were so nervousthey would come up in these like
giant groups by the end of theterm I would have.
(38:38):
We spent so much time doing thisand we I had students that were
so shy that would come up to meafter and they're like you know
, professor, you like gave methis confidence and this voice
that I that it was okay, that Ihad an opinion, that people
wanted to hear what I had to say, and that helped their
confidence in a huge way.
(38:59):
I still get messages about thisand then just teaching them how
to navigate networking that hasbeen the value in that.
I think, was more than meteaching their class.
I think I gave them this thetools that they didn't know they
needed around networking andbuilding relationships, and to
(39:22):
me, that is the most underratedand undervalued skill that a
person can have.
Is that the ability to buildrelationships and network?
Gautham (39:31):
I was hoping you would say that.
I was hoping somehow you wouldbring that up.
So thank you, I don't have to.
When I say, people don'tbelieve it.
When other people, moreesteemed people, say it, people
might believe it.
Paula (39:43):
We're not taught this stuff.
I don't know how you wereraised as a child, but I know my
co-hosts and a lot of us werenot taught this.
So for you to take the time andto teach them really impacts
their life.
Because you're not taught tonetwork.
Uh, it really.
It changes people's lives.
All right, are you ready forthe rapid fire?
(40:04):
So all right, okay, first thingthat comes to your mind.
Don't overthink it.
Do you have a specific walk-onsong?
Liza (40:14):
Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke or Superstition, Very good.
Paula (40:18):
Love it.
Gautham (40:19):
I'm going to go off script.
You said 30 countries you livedin.
Which is your favorite?
Liza (40:24):
That's hard, I know.
Home is UK right, it's alwaysLondon.
It's always UK Favorite city.
We did a short stint in Algarve.
I know it's an area, but it isa little town in the Algarve.
That was my favorite.
Gautham (40:41):
The reason I asked that was because I'm building a list
of places to go to, so I'mtrying to ask more people.
Liza (40:48):
Send me a note anytime.
I was in Iceland last week.
Rich (40:52):
Yeah, we were comparing notes.
I was following the shoppingjourney and the hiking journey.
I will ask a 2.5 and say what'sthe next country on your bucket
list.
Liza (41:03):
I would like to go to Sardinia because I'm obsessed
with anything that is aroundItaly.
I have not been to Sardiniabecause I'm obsessed with
anything that is around Italy.
I have not been to Sardinia.
I would like to go to Sardiniaand Morocco.
Rich (41:16):
I want to go to Morocco we talked about that and when you
go, I have a guide for you.
Paula (41:19):
Yes, okay, I have to ask.
We only asked three, but I hopethat you will allow me this
fourth one.
You've traveled all theseworlds, all of these worlds, all
these countries, which aredifferent worlds Favorite food
or favorite meal?
Favorite meal is wine and fries.
You're so relatable.
I love it.
Okay, thank you so much, lisa.
(41:40):
This has been remarkable.
Just again, thank you for yourtime and for the investment that
you make for women of color,for people, for neurodivergent,
for anyone that may be differentto enter into the industry and
to see someone like them at thetop of the executive level, to
be inspired by that.
Thanks for having me.
This was fun, wow.
So we knew that Lisa was goingto be fantastic, just given her
(42:04):
background, but I loved thetopics that she touched on about
women, about diversity, abouttechnology, about the consumer,
about the data Guys.
I could go on and on.
But really, to my podcast BFFs,tell me what are you guys
thinking?
Gautham (42:20):
I will go first in the sense that I want to bring up
one point which is sure, thecontent was amazing.
I expected that, but what stoodout to me was articulating, the
eloquence in which she spoke onextremely difficult topics and
the lack the ability to speakthe point of view right, and
(42:44):
that's something that I hope thefuture generations actually all
generations take note of andexecute on.
So, yes, we will talk about thecontent, but I want to start
off with that, the intangibleaspect first.
Rich (42:56):
I was genuinely pissed off when she was recounting the
story of being told at a youngage that she didn't belong in
retail age.
That she didn't belong inretail and thankfully she didn't
follow that person's very badadvice.
For retail to succeed, it'sjust good business sense to
(43:17):
build diverse teams from everyimaginable definition of
diversity.
I found myself angry at thatpoint with whoever said that,
thankful that she made her waythrough it and hopeful that we
are improving and that in five,10 years when I step away, that
(43:38):
we will have made somesignificant progress.
Gautham (43:40):
Many of us have been said we can't do things, or
things that have put us down,and I think like to continue
with your point right.
It's what she said about how itlights a fire in you.
That, I think, is perhaps themost important takeaway in that
conversation.
Like you can let it make it astumbling block and push you
(44:02):
down, but can it light a fireand set you on a path for
success?
And I think I enjoyed thelessons learned from a content
perspective a lot.
Right, the go-to-marketstrategy how do you actually
keep focus on the end consumer?
I thought were really importantaspects.
(44:22):
I also love the question youasked Rich about forward-looking
.
How does personalization comeinto play?
I thought she covered a gamutof things in a short period of
time.
I'm curious what was yourhighlights for both of you?
What stood out from a contentperspective?
Paula (44:39):
yeah, I.
For me it was.
It's all about the consumer, sowe've said that over and over
again.
Me, it's bedtime over here andmy son loves to be heard.
Rich (44:51):
And I want to keep that on the podcast so your friend can
keep talking.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Paula (45:01):
So for me it was we've talked about it before and it's
about the consumer.
So it's all about the endclient.
Whether you're in retail,whether you're in technology,
whatever industry you're in,we've got to think about our end
client in mind, because that'sgoing to drive value and it's
going to drive quality, and wecannot sacrifice quality.
Rich (45:21):
Yeah, and I'm going to profess that I had a nerd moment
.
It's been a while since I'vedone product development.
I love product development andso hearing her talk about it
kind of made me a little bitweepy eyed.
For that, paul, I will editthis out if you want me to, but
when you sent the note to me andsaid what is digital product,
my nerdiness and your curiositycombined, because you had
(45:42):
somebody talking about it from apoint of expertise.
I loved her answer on beingable to track core products and
fashion innovative productsdifferently.
Paula (45:53):
Very proud of my ignorance and very proud of the
things I do know.
Gautham (45:56):
And part of the podcast is to expose people to these
opportunities.
Right, it's not just digitalproducts Now you can 3D print
them and you can actually have aprototype in you with reducing
the cycle time dramatically sothat you can actually shorten
the whole window to a few monthsif needed.
So I was excited I mean it wasa really good conversation
across very, very diverse picks.
(46:20):
I want to touch upon one lastthing that stood out to me,
which was the networking aspect.
I've been in the business ofeducation for about what 12 or
13 years now, and I think whatseparates the winners from
people who take a little bitlonger time to get to be winners
is that the ability to networkoff the gates, right, using the
(46:40):
college time to actually networkand build those connections.
And it's amazing that peoplelike Lisa take the time to teach
students and I've been really,really lucky to have people to
help me build that in mystudents to actually get out,
get network.
It's a skill and it takes timeto develop.
It's not overnight, you know,and it's wonderful to all the
(47:01):
people from the industry who docome and spend time with the
future generations to help buildtheir networks, because that,
to me, really does shorten yourperiod or time to success.
Rich (47:12):
And I have to make sure that I capture this on the
podcast After I stoppedrecording.
She answered the question ofwho she would invite to dinner
and Stevie Wonder, prince andAlexander McQueen would be one
heck of a dinner to go to and Ijust want to give her credit in
(47:32):
the postscript for that.
I want to be at that dinner,even if it's just serving the
wine and the French fries.
So I'm honored to have Liza on the show today because
she is a woman that has startedher own business.
Diverse woman traveled manycountries, lived in many places.
I believe that she will be aninspiration to a lot of the
younger listeners because shereally embodies that
perseverance and give back andpractice what you preach.
(00:25):
But, rich Gotham, I want toknow what you guys think.
Rich (00:28):
So I've had the opportunity to chat with her.
I think I met her maybe a yearor two ago through Rethink
Retail and we were on a brandinnovators panel together or a
discussion group, and so I'vehad the chance never to really
work with her, but to haveconversations about retail and
the panels that she's been on,and then, obviously, in
(00:49):
following her LinkedIn andreading, I would say, actually
the word I'm searching for isimpactful.
You know, she she dives into anissue, not with the intent of
just creating noise or creatingcontent, but really trying to
create impact with what she'strying to say and what she's
thinking.
So I'm looking forward todigging in and getting to know
her a little bit deeper.
Gautham (01:07):
So I have known Lisa for a few years.
Rich, I am on this crusade tobring executives into the
classroom to make retail moreaccessible, and Lisa was one of
the people who had spoken to mystudents a while back and I
still remember the studentswalked away very impressed
(01:29):
because they got to understandthings such as concept of market
, how long it takes and how youcan think globally but act
locally, locally, and these areconcepts that, for me, we're
teaching movements that are usedsubsequently, and I'm hoping
she will also touch upon thebalance between human
(01:51):
interactions and technology, andI think this is going to be my
theme for this whole podcast.
What's the balance?
We'll see if she brings upthose points of view, but I'm
excited to hear her speak andpick her brains on retail.
Paula (02:05):
To Retail Relates.
Lisa is the principal andco-founder of Retail Strategy
Group, where she partners withretailers and brands to drive
profitability and enhanceorganizational effectiveness.
Her impressive client rosterincludes big names like Columbia
and Mountain Hardware, underArmour and Land's End.
Lisa's insights are highlysought after and her expertise
(02:26):
has been featured in toppublications such as Forbes,
bloomberg, the Wall StreetJournal and the New York Times.
Before founding the RetailStrategy Group, lisa served as
the merchandising SME inAccenture's retail strategy
practice and has over 20 yearsof experience in retail
merchandising and productcreation with iconic companies
like Ralph Lauren, club Monacoand Holt Renfrew.
(02:48):
With a global perspective, lisabrings a unique richness to her
work.
She has lived in numerouscountries around the world,
including Canada, the UK andAfrica, which we will have to
talk about.
That Moving a remarkable 30times in her life Wow, talk
about always being the new kid.
Most recently, she called NewYork City home while teaching
fashion, marketing and digitaltechnology at FIT.
(03:10):
Lisa, welcome to the show.
We are honored to have someoneso global and another woman here
on the show, so thank you formaking the time.
Oh, thanks for having me.
Liza (03:22):
It's my pleasure.
Paula (03:23):
I'm so excited to do this with you guys, so we're excited
to dive in.
I'm just going to ask the firstquestion.
Your bio is going to be in theshow notes, Something we like to
do instead of just having yourun through.
You know, tell me aboutyourself.
We like to ask what were thethree most pivotal moments in
your career that led you towhere you are today?
No pressure.
Liza (03:43):
I would say that my first one is working at Harrods.
Harrods was somewhere where wewould go as a family.
You know, when I was growing up, I was born in the UK so I am
British but also Canadian andthen in the 80s we lived in
Africa.
We were in it's called Zaire atthe time it's DRC now and so
(04:04):
every summer we would go back toLondon and see my family and my
grandma, but Harrods wassomewhere we always went and so
I would say working at Harrodswas a very proud moment for my
family because we grew up withthat store.
So I would say first was workingat Harrods.
I really learned the importanceof customer service within the
(04:26):
customer journey.
The second point I would say isworking with Ralph Lauren.
Now, I worked with Ralph Laurena lot.
In fact, I started my career atRalph Lauren at Harrods, which
is we can talk about that laterand I started on the shop floor,
and what I learned from workingon the shop floor and then
continuing my career with thebrand was that I really really
(04:48):
understood the value of having abrand point of view throughout
every part of every ethos of abrand.
So what I learned at RalphLauren was truly localizing
assortments while playing homageto the brand point of view.
And then the last one I wouldsay was working with Nike.
I learned about consulting, butI also learned about what is my
(05:16):
value proposition as a formerretailer within the world.
The wild world of consultingwith a big firm and working with
Nike was just awesome to workwith such a large, matrixed
organization and seeing so muchopportunity.
So I would say those are thethree.
Rich (05:30):
So I'm going to jump in and ask this question because
you said shop floor and we havehad a long debate over how
widely used that term is.
Gautam started using it.
I used it because I was inmanufacturing at one point.
The question is is this whatyou always envision doing with
your career?
And I don't want to just assumethat it is because you started
(05:52):
on the shop floor quickly.
Liza (05:54):
But I will sidestep here because I am pretty sure that I
worked illegally when I was 13on in retail.
I was one of those people I waslike I begged to work in the
store.
I loved I love the excitementof being around product and
(06:18):
really making customers happyand solving their problems.
So I started with this thedream of being around product at
a very young age.
But I initially thought I wasgoing to be a fashion designer.
I went to school for fashiondesign and I switched over to
fashion buying and marketingafter my first year, realizing
(06:39):
that I was really good at thebusiness stuff.
Yeah, I guess I thought I wasgoing to be a designer but then
started this amazing career inbuying.
Paula (06:46):
So that's funny that you should say that you started in
fashion design, because that'sbeen a topic of conversation as
well between the three of us asto like, what do people major in
and how do they get into retail.
And you know why aren't theremore like retail, focused like
careers in college that areliterally retail?
So I'm glad that you calledthat out because that is a
(07:07):
really it's a traditional careerpath, from what I understand.
I'm not a retail, so I'm comingat this as a layman, but it
seems like some people that gointo fashion design end up going
into the retail route on thebusiness side.
So we you're a successful womanand I admire you a lot, not
just for your successes but tobe able to hold all of that
together.
But is there a failure that hastaught you a lesson that you'd
(07:32):
like to share?
Liza (07:32):
really anchored in listening to customer feedback
and using insights to developthe right product assortment at
the right time.
So when I worked with ClubMonaco a number of years ago in
(07:53):
Canada, we had a store calledCaban and we had eight stores
across Canada.
It was part of Club Monaco,owned by Ralph Lauren.
There was a trend back in thatday of sleepwear and loungewear.
In every assortment it was just, it was wild.
So I'm like, okay, we need todo this right.
So we developed a line ofsleepwear.
(08:14):
It bombed.
It did not sell.
I sold it all on Markdown.
It was awful, it was awful.
But what I learned was that inmany cases, we chase trend, but
trend is not always what ourcustomer wants.
So what I learned from thisexperience was about closing the
feedback loop to build betterassortments, which in turn,
(08:37):
builds better process for manyof the brands I work with today.
Are we really listening to ourcustomer?
Are we really giving them whatthey want, what they expect to
see from us?
I don't think we should alwaysfollow a trend.
I think that we should drivetrend also.
So I think that there's a lotof lessons learned just from
that assortment that totallybombed.
Rich (08:57):
Okay, I'm going to hit a follow-up on that, because you
actually hit kind of two trendsin one, pun intended the idea of
driving a trend and the idea ofnot always following trend, but
the fundamentals.
We've seen retailers that havegone out of business by chasing
trends and their businessbecomes very cyclical and you
(09:19):
have a list of them, I'm sureand they don't have a
foundational business to basethat on.
I actually want to ask aquestion before I turn it over
to Gautam for the lesson how doretailers build a trend today?
How have you seen that besuccessful?
Liza (09:36):
So I talk about insights and closing the feedback loop a
lot, and I think that haseverything to do with listening
to the customer.
What are they looking for?
What problem are they trying tosolve, Whether it's an apparel
problem, an outfit problem, afootwear problem or a CPG
problem.
What are we trying to help themsolve for?
And, taking all that intoconsideration, thinking about
(09:59):
your fundamentals, which is yourassortment plan, how are you
building that assortment?
Are you testing before you diveright in?
There are many ways to tap intoa trend without setting yourself
up for failure, and I thinkthat does come down to how are
you building your assortmenttoday?
Do you have a very clear ideaof your brand point of view and
(10:23):
what you stand for?
What does the assortmentarchitecture look like when
we're talking about season listsversus core and basic against
fashion, and how much are youspending on innovation within
your assortment?
So I think that it depends onwhat product you have.
What your customer is lookingfor Depends on what product you
(10:45):
have, what your customer islooking for and how you're
closing that feedback loop andfeeding it into your assortment
and your CTM calendar concept tomarket calendar.
Go to market calendar and areyou really looking at real time
insights.
Gautham (10:58):
Lisa, let's pick up where you just stopped right.
You talked about the CTMconcept to market calendar and
the go to market calendar.
When it comes to merchandising,oftentimes the cycle time is
very long.
Right it takes.
I will let you tell how long ittakes, um, because it's it's
rapidly evolving.
What, in your opinion, is a wayto keep reduce these times?
(11:18):
How do you deploy digitaltechnology and I know you work
with some companies maybe thatmight have deployed these things
so that you can actually testthese products faster, bring it
to market faster and reduce thetime, therefore reducing the
chance for failure?
Liza (11:35):
I would say there's three things.
The first thing is having asimplified product creation
calendar.
Whether it's your concept tomarket calendar, your product
creation calendar, your calendarthat's going to get you to
market, simplify that calendar.
Have very clear milestones withaccountabilities,
responsibilities acrossfunctional teams and break down
(11:58):
those silos so that those teamsare actually talking about the
same customer, are actuallytalking about the same customer.
And then the second thing Iwould say is being okay with
having various start and stopdates of product creation, and
what I mean by that is I call itAI acceptable inequality, where
we have to accept that not allproducts are equal, so they just
(12:20):
should not be created in thesame way.
A basic black t-shirt comparedto an innovative windbreaker
that folds up and packs, I don'tknow, those products today are
created in the same way usingthe same product creation
calendar.
They do not need to be.
You can start and stop themoments in different points on
the calendar.
The third thing I would say isimplement a multi-track calendar
(12:43):
where you have differentcalendars leading up to the same
timeline but having multipletracks for multiple types of
product.
Whether you have this basict-shirt, that basic t-shirt does
not need to go from concept tomarket, with physical sampling
and fit and all the things thatwe would do with this
complicated windbreaker that Imentioned earlier.
(13:05):
In fact, you could digitallycreate that entire block because
you already have the tech pack.
You already know the fit.
You most likely have a set ofdigitized colors.
That particular item can gofrom Concept to market digitally
.
So I think that there are manyways to talk about a
(13:27):
multi-track-shirt, right.
What about more on-trend?
Gautham (13:46):
kind of things.
Are the companies trying to dothis utilizing the digital
ecosystem and the technologyavailable today?
Liza (13:53):
They are and I think when we think about speed to market,
we think about fast fashion andultra fast fashion.
We know that they're doing this.
They're doing this in differentways, with a maybe a more
vertical supply chain, investingin raw materials a lot earlier,
but there's a lot of companiesthat are doing this today and,
(14:14):
from a testing perspective, Iknow that PVH absolutely tests
this model.
They did it with Calvin Klein.
Carhartt is a great example thathas incorporated digital
product creation and has alsothis is another thing I talk
about.
A lot is evolving your vendors,factories, innovation partners,
(14:35):
from service providers toactual partners, and Carhartt
actually does a great job withthis.
We were just talking to Mark.
He's the head of tech designthere.
They do a great job.
They talk about it at PIApparel as well.
It's a very known thing thatthey're great at doing this and
I love to talk about thembecause I think that there is so
much value in creating productdigitally with the right
(14:58):
partners and getting yourvendors on the same page as you,
on the same journey to reduceoverdevelopment of materials,
reduce physical sampling,excessive and unnecessarily
protose.
So there is a lot of companiesdoing this.
I think Inditex does this verywell.
Gautham (15:17):
I love that right.
It touches on thesustainability angle as well as
reducing failure in an industrywhere margins are razor thin.
Let me just quickly ask onemore question, if you will, and
you spoke previously about aperson you might be the only
person I know who worked inretail at the age of 13, because
you love your product and youtalked about the excitement of
(15:40):
retail and being your ownproduct.
I want to switch from ago-to-market strategy to a
consumer kind of perspective,which is how you've been.
You were born and brought up inLondon, I guess in England, and
then you've been to Africa,you've been into the US, you've
been in Canada, so 30 countries,right.
What do you see?
That is, global companies doingdifferently from the US-based
(16:01):
companies and commonalities, sodifferences in commonalities.
Liza (16:05):
I would say that, no matter the region, the vertical
or the product that we'reselling, no matter where in the
world we are, the customer stillwants the same thing.
And the customer wants greatproduct.
They want right product, righttime, right place.
They want great customerservice.
They want product that's goingto last, not product that's
(16:25):
going to fail.
And this is a common threadacross any vertical, any product
, whether you're luxury oryou're off price or you're fast
fashion, customers don't expectthat they're going to buy a
product, invest their dollarsinto a product and it's going to
fail them.
I would almost flip it and saythat's the similarity.
(16:47):
The difference is that canrange when you talk about the
type of product.
So I'll give you an examplewhen my last industry role was
Ralph Lauren and I was head ofbuying for the Lauren brand for
Northern Europe, and I'll tellyou that what I would curate
from Ralph Lauren for the UK wasvery different to what I would
curate for one of myScandinavian countries.
(17:10):
If you did another deep divewithin the UK, for example, what
I would curate for centralLondon would be very different
than what I would curate for myDublin customer.
The customer they want thisthing, which is they want great
product at a great price and allof that fun stuff.
But I think that when you gointo their regions and you start
(17:32):
to really think about, okay,how are customers dressing, what
are they dressing for?
What kind of jobs do?
Rich (17:38):
they have.
Liza (17:39):
What is their level of outdoor activity?
There's so many things that youcan talk about to find what are
the differences across regionsacross the globe, but I think
it's more important to talkabout similarities.
What are we really going for asretailers?
To drive success and profit, itis to connect with your
customer, to connect withcommunity.
(18:01):
These are the things that areimportant today.
Gautham (18:03):
You have talked about this and I love the way you
framed it, right Like find thesimilarities and find scale.
You also said at the beginningand I wrote this down, your
second period point, working atRalph Lauren, localizing while
being global and you said itnonchalantly but it's very hard
to do having that globalperspective while being local.
(18:24):
What is the strategy from acorporate perspective?
How do companies achieve this,having a global footprint
yourself?
Liza (18:35):
I would take it down in a sense and talk about the op
model and how are we buildingthese teams?
Ralph Lauren, like otherdesign-led brands, like Nike,
like Tommy, with a global team.
They have a decentralized model, which means you have a global
merchandising team based in yourcorporate office, in this case
the US, and then you haveregional teams that are sitting
(18:57):
in those regions to developrelationships with the buyers,
with the sales teams and then,of course, with the customers.
So you learn about what arethose differences with those
customers how do they like todress, function, more fashion,
how is fit different, if theylike florals or if they like
(19:17):
stripes?
These are things that you learnwhen you're in the region.
I will really give props andflowers to Ralph Lauren for
teaching me that.
How important it was for me tobe in the region, in the stores,
talking to my customers,styling them, spending time with
them, cashing them out.
(19:37):
I was out of buying.
It didn't matter who I was.
If I didn't know who mycustomer was in every single
region, then I couldn't make agood decision on my ice.
So, even though with RalphLauren we have that global merch
team, because we wanted to makesure that Ralph Lauren
aesthetic and that seasonalstrategy was very clear.
Rich (20:00):
So let's talk about the consumer for a minute.
Liza (20:02):
Over the course of your career, what do you think has
been the biggest shift thatyou've seen in consumer behavior
?
More tools.
We have apps.
We have apps that tell us howtransparent a product is.
(20:25):
We have so many more and I saywe, because we're all consumers
too right we expect so much morefrom our brands.
We expect so much more from theretailers that we choose to
shop, because we have globalchoices, thousands and thousands
of retailers and brands outthere.
This means that brands need tochange the way they show up,
(20:48):
which is showing up with moreauthenticity, more transparency.
They need to really earn thatloyalty from the customer
because customers expect more.
And I bring up customer servicea lot because I think this is
how brands can really make adifference with their customer,
even if they didn't serve up theright product at the right time
(21:09):
, if they had great customerservice that aligned with how
the customer expected them tobuild a relationship with them
and build out that trust.
I think that's where retailersand brands can really win is if
they invest in their salespeopleand their brand ambassadors in
training and customer serviceand product knowledge.
(21:30):
Being customer obsessed is adifferentiator today.
To me.
It should be standard process,like that's table stakes, but
it's not.
Rich (21:38):
It is not that today and it all lands in the spectrum
because it's the notion of acustomer willing to forgive you
for not hitting a trend or forpossibly making a mistake if
they are endearing to your brand.
I'll only speak for myself.
I don't know what what Gotham'stimeline is, and I don't know
(21:59):
whether Paul is going to getinto teaching, but I would
imagine that in five or 10 yearsI'm going to be pulling out
this podcast episode and usingit with students.
So I want you to go on recordwith make your boldest, most
radical prediction for howconsumer behavior will change a
decade from now.
Liza (22:17):
Customers will expect to be part of the design and
assortment building process.
That was my prediction.
Rich (22:24):
I like that prediction.
Paula (22:26):
And I do want to add one thing.
We're already seeing that ShoesI mean, they've been doing that
design your own shoes Even fromthe kid level.
At my son's daycare there's somany kids that went in and
designed their own shoes at likefour years old.
So like why a four-year-oldneeds to design their own shoes.
I don't know, but it's adorableand I love it and, like
everyone's happy.
Liza (22:46):
And you're right, it is happening now.
I mean, I did it with my Nikes,right.
But I do think that we'reseeing a level of, I guess,
excellence in things like madeto measure or personalization,
customization, and that onlyleads to the statement that
customers want to be part of thedesign process.
They want to have a stake inthe game, and why shouldn't they
(23:07):
?
It gives them ownership, right,and it gives them pride and joy
.
I mean there's a store in NewYork called Proper Cloth I don't
know if you've been.
I went in with my husband.
This is when, I think we first,when we moved to New York last
year.
It was a phenomenal experienceand I was like wow, because it
was made to measure.
(23:28):
The customer was given thatchoice of fabric, how much they
want to spend.
They were in the driver's seatof that journey.
When I saw how busy it was, Iwas so impressed.
I mean, look at other retailerslike Proper Cloth, Indochino
right, they're growing.
I mean they could use some.
Like Proper Cloth, Indochinoright, they're growing.
I mean they could use some help, but they're growing.
(23:48):
And the premise and the conceptis there.
So I think that as we see morebrands and retailers enter the
world of customization, ofpersonalization of product,
because we're already seeingthat from a marketing
perspective, we're going to seea lot more customers be part of
that design process.
Gautham (24:08):
Lisa, you and I have chatted before and you know I
always say retail is a peoplebusiness and I love the fact
that you talked about humans andthe customer service, the way
retail is heading these days.
We're seeing technology comingin to help and, in certain
instances, replace humaninteraction.
(24:28):
Now, in the vein of what Richwas asking, forward looking, how
do you see this?
Human technology interactions?
Especially here I'm askingabout robotics.
You see self-servicerestaurants.
You see robots coming andbringing you food which draws a
lot of attention, but after acouple of times they're like, ah
no, I don't want that, I likethe human interaction.
(24:49):
Where do you see five yearsfrom now?
How is that level of technologythat's going to act as an
interface with the customer andcustomer?
Liza (24:59):
So I actually get interviewed about this a lot,
which is funny.
It starts with what do youthink of self-checkout and
Costco memberships using thescanner?
So I think there's aninteresting thing at play today,
where brands and retailers aregoing all in on technology to
(25:21):
solve their problem, whateverproblem they're having, or
either it's like to automate orto reduce resources or to, you
know, save money somewhere.
The challenge is that thereisn't a balance of tech and
touch.
We have to have a balance oftech and touch.
I've we've written about this.
I've talked about it in a fewpresentations that I've done.
(25:43):
When brands use technology tosolve their problems but they
haven't actually asked thecustomer how do they want to
check out with them, how do theywant to shop with them, how do
they want to engage with them,that's when you start to see
friction and unhappy customer.
Now, that's obviously a B2Cexample.
(26:04):
I'm seeing that we still needthat balance of tech and touch
on the corporate side, where wehave the example I talked about
earlier with digital productcreation, that not all product
is created equal, and what Itermed AI as acceptable
inequality.
That's where I also see thatbalance of tech and touch, where
some product should be createdwith technology, and it should
(26:28):
be done.
Some product needs a balance oftech and touch where, let's say
, you've onboarded a newmaterial, you still need to fit
it, even though you candigitally create it after you
fit the product.
I think that is where we need tosee more brands and retailers
go is the balance of tech andtouch Taking into consideration.
(26:49):
If you're B2C, how does yourcustomer want to shop with you?
How do they want to interactwith you?
When we think about technologysolving problems or automating
or getting faster to marketwhatever we're trying to solve
for the outcomes that retailersare going for we still need to
take that balance intoconsideration, because at some
(27:11):
point, you still need a human tocome into the process.
What we don't want is manualintervention.
What we don't want is culturesnot shifting and processes not
being innovated, but technologybeing thrown at the workforce.
Rich (27:28):
Yeah, and I'll do a quick footnote to that because I love
the connection between this andyour personalization prediction
for 10 years, because I agreewith you.
I think that's what a lot ofretailers make the mistake of is
moving from one point all theway over to the other side of
the equation, thinking thetech's going to solve, and
(27:51):
forgetting that for somecustomers they really want
self-checkout, some want to pickup at the curb, some want to
shop at midnight and some wantto be held.
And allowing the customer topersonalize the journey and
their product and theirexperience is what a lot of
retailers I think aren'tfiguring out the balance of
right now.
(28:11):
So I love the connectionbetween those two answers you
have.
Paula (28:15):
So I'm going to pivot and I'm going to go to the advice
section.
Are you ready for that?
Yeah, I'm going to impact manylives here, yeah, so I have to
ask because you know you don'tsee a lot of women reach the
higher levels and especially asalso as a minority woman, which
(28:35):
I also am we see culture play apart in women dropping out of
the workforce.
We see motherhood play a partof women dropping out of the
workforce for good reason.
Right, there is no good or bad,it's just those are decisions
that are made.
What advice do you have forwomen, especially this new
generation, or people early intheir career, women early in
(28:56):
their career, when they comeacross these obstacles?
How did you do it to overcomethat?
Liza (29:02):
Well, I sit on this board called Women of Color Retail
Alliance.
The reason I joined thisorganization was because some of
the things that I experienced,alongside some of the stats that
I was seeing, where 60% ofwomen make up the retail
workforce, yet less than 6% ofwomen of color are in the
(29:24):
C-suite and these stats reallyhit home when we look at the
leadership and you don't seeanyone that looks like you.
Now I know one of the questionsthat you had ready for me, but
I'm going to maybe answer it now, because this kind of ties in
was what was some advice that Ihad received early on in my
career?
(29:44):
This was the worst advice Ireceived and it was at the start
of my buying career and I wastold that I retail was not for
me and that I should not be abuyer and I was 25.
This was my first like I wasbuying assistant fresh out of I
think I'd moved from the UK backto Canada for this job and I
(30:05):
was told that I should find anew career.
When I look back on that nowand I didn't listen, but when I
look back on that that daysticks out to me because when I
look at the team and the seniorbuyer that told me this.
She was a white woman.
The entire team was all whitewomen.
I was the only one that lookeddifferent.
(30:28):
I quit, but I found I gotanother job, but I did quit and
I went to my VP and I told herthat, look, I'm going to go, I
need to quit.
She's like I brought you fromLondon for a reason.
She's like we love you here.
She didn't know that this buyersaid this to me.
Now, this is something thatreally stuck to me and one of
the reasons why I joined thisboard Women of Color Retail
(30:51):
Alliance because I wanted togive women of color a voice and
I wanted to tell them thatthey're not alone.
And I think that's really toughbecause in many cases, it's
just we're the first or we'rethe only one, but what we're not
told is we are not alone.
There are many of us, and thatis what is, I would say, the
(31:11):
piece of advice that I wouldgive to women, women of color,
even men of color that we're notalone.
Paula (31:17):
You know, we may be singled out, we may be told that
we don't belong and it's greatadvice for even neurodivergent
people, because we all operatein different ways and it's just
important to know that.
Yeah, you're right, I mean,we're not alone and I do want to
follow that up.
So that story resonated with meand thank you for being
vulnerable and sharing that.
I had someone tell me somethingvery similar, so his comment
(31:39):
inspired me because it pissed meoff so bad.
I was like I will show you.
But not everyone has thatreaction.
So what was your reaction andhow did you overcome those
comments?
Because that can bedebilitating for some.
Liza (31:53):
Oh, yeah, I mean, I don't think you can really overcome
comments like that, but it candefinitely propel you to grow
and to prove people wrong, right, and I think that my story
resonates with people and that'swhy I tell it, because I want
people to think that, like Isaid, that they're not alone,
that they have a voice.
(32:14):
Right, and I think today'sgeneration I mean teaching Gen Z
has been eye opening, because Ifind that they're so much
braver than I was at that age,so much braver, and I love to
see that and I'm like, keep itup.
So you know, I just think thatit's important for me to share,
(32:38):
to use my voice.
I know that there's a lothappening in diversity and the
funding of diversity andinclusion programs.
All the more reason for me totalk about this, to be involved
in helping women of colorachieve their rightful place in
retail and retail leadership,and the fact is, it's the
(33:01):
business case that I'm making.
Diversity works, having adiverse point of view, looking
like your customer.
That matters, right?
I mean we could definitely win.
Let me know when you want totalk about brands that are
selling to women and looking toincrease women's apparel but
they keep hiring men to do it.
I think that's a problem.
Rich (33:22):
Well, I want to have you extend that a little bit,
because if you look at what'sgoing on with DEI and if you
take DEI programs out of theequation, out of the
conversation, diversity is justa smart business decision, and
the advice that you were givenso many years ago is counter to
(33:44):
the advice that we should begiving today.
So I want to give you theopportunity to expand upon the
smart business decision thatcompanies would make to embrace
greater diversity in everymagnitude of the word.
Liza (34:01):
So when I talk about diversity and inclusion and
equity, the way that I talkabout it is by giving an example
.
So when I was at Accenture andI've seen this with every big
firm is that they go to the sameschools to recruit.
Right, they go to the sameschools to recruit.
They're recruiting the sametype of people.
They're sending those newrecruits to go get more recruits
(34:23):
so that that pool of talent isthe same.
They've learned the same things.
They look at worldviews in thesame way.
They come from the same MBAclass.
That tells me that theirrecruiting practices are not
diverse, as in, they're notlooking outside of their normal
(34:45):
recruiting pool.
And the same thing goes forretail Retailers look to the
same place to find talent, butthey're not looking hard enough,
they're not expanding theirsearch to find more diverse
point of views.
And I'm not saying that we haveto all have this.
(35:05):
Like you know, token brownperson, token black people,
token everything.
That's not what I'm saying.
I think that we have to havediverse opinions.
Point of views and cultures andall of the things that connect
us better to our customer, and Ithink that's where the
(35:25):
investment needs to be made.
Who is the customer?
How can we find more leadersthat can relate to our customer
so that we can sell moreproducts, so that we can make a
better product?
That's why I think it's a greatbusiness decision.
Rich (35:38):
There's a marketer that I have tremendous respect for,
drew Neiser.
He has the CMO huddle.
If you've ever seen him onLinkedIn, if not, follow him
More B2B, but very much worthfollowing.
And during the pandemic he hadhad a one or two day seminar.
He's one of the first ones tokind of pull together that kind
of full day seminar, and the feethat he charged went to Black
(36:02):
Girls Code and after one of thesessions he and I stayed behind
and we talked about diversityand I gave him the typical
executive answer of you know, Ibelieve in diversity and I'm
trying to hire diversity, butdiversity doesn't exist within
retail.
Nobody's in it.
And he let me get away with theanswer for about five or six
minutes and then he said hey, Ihave a question for you.
If you had a new idea for aproduct and your current
(36:24):
manufacturing base wasn'tcapable of making it, what would
you do?
And I said, oh, I'd go to theends of the earth.
There has to be a manufacturerout there somewhere that can
make this.
And he paused and he said sowhy aren't you doing the same
with talent?
And that is a big reason whythis podcast is important and I
will have the recorded goal thatin 10 years you're going to be
(36:47):
right about personalization ofthe experience and product.
And in 10 years, when I retirefrom retail, I want a leadership
team that looks a lot differentthan the leadership team I
inherit.
We can compare notes in 10years.
Liza (36:59):
Oh, we will.
Gautham (37:00):
You said that the younger generation are brave.
They are brave because thepeople before them right.
It's their way to overcome andevery generation makes it more.
I hope makes it more stable andbalanced for future generations
.
But I love the story.
I want to ask one question.
(37:20):
I've taught many years with theMason and Nord UCF and people
come from diverse backgrounds.
Right, many of them arefirst-generation students,
people who come from backgroundswhich are a little bit more
atypical from the schools thatyou just spoke about.
How do they like?
How do they build theirconfidence?
Like?
(37:41):
The biggest challenge for mehas been to inspire them to say
like hey, guys, you can do thisRight, like so.
And now I know you're teachingtoo.
So what do you do to inspirethem to have confidence, to
tackle the Goliaths, if you will?
Liza (37:56):
Yeah.
So one of the things that I didwhen, when I first taught the
class.
So I taught fashion, marketingand digital technology at FIT
what I decided to do is everywork and my classes were early
they're like eight and nineo'clock and I had three and what
I did was I said you have tocome to this class prepared to
(38:18):
talk about retail news everymorning before we start.
You have to eat.
You can come up in a group, Idon't care Alone, whatever.
You have to take a news storyand talk about it and let's talk
about your opinion, get adiscussion going.
At first they were so nervousthey would come up in these like
giant groups by the end of theterm I would have.
(38:38):
We spent so much time doing thisand we I had students that were
so shy that would come up to meafter and they're like you know
, professor, you like gave methis confidence and this voice
that I that it was okay, that Ihad an opinion, that people
wanted to hear what I had to say, and that helped their
confidence in a huge way.
(38:59):
I still get messages about thisand then just teaching them how
to navigate networking that hasbeen the value in that.
I think, was more than meteaching their class.
I think I gave them this thetools that they didn't know they
needed around networking andbuilding relationships, and to
(39:22):
me, that is the most underratedand undervalued skill that a
person can have.
Is that the ability to buildrelationships and network?
Gautham (39:31):
I was hoping you would say that.
I was hoping somehow you wouldbring that up.
So thank you, I don't have to.
When I say, people don'tbelieve it.
When other people, moreesteemed people, say it, people
might believe it.
Paula (39:43):
We're not taught this stuff.
I don't know how you wereraised as a child, but I know my
co-hosts and a lot of us werenot taught this.
So for you to take the time andto teach them really impacts
their life.
Because you're not taught tonetwork.
Uh, it really.
It changes people's lives.
All right, are you ready forthe rapid fire?
(40:04):
So all right, okay, first thingthat comes to your mind.
Don't overthink it.
Do you have a specific walk-onsong?
Liza (40:14):
Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke or Superstition, Very good.
Paula (40:18):
Love it.
Gautham (40:19):
I'm going to go off script.
You said 30 countries you livedin.
Which is your favorite?
Liza (40:24):
That's hard, I know.
Home is UK right, it's alwaysLondon.
It's always UK Favorite city.
We did a short stint in Algarve.
I know it's an area, but it isa little town in the Algarve.
That was my favorite.
Gautham (40:41):
The reason I asked that was because I'm building a list
of places to go to, so I'mtrying to ask more people.
Liza (40:48):
Send me a note anytime.
I was in Iceland last week.
Rich (40:52):
Yeah, we were comparing notes.
I was following the shoppingjourney and the hiking journey.
I will ask a 2.5 and say what'sthe next country on your bucket
list.
Liza (41:03):
I would like to go to Sardinia because I'm obsessed
with anything that is aroundItaly.
I have not been to Sardiniabecause I'm obsessed with
anything that is around Italy.
I have not been to Sardinia.
I would like to go to Sardiniaand Morocco.
Rich (41:16):
I want to go to Morocco we talked about that and when you
go, I have a guide for you.
Paula (41:19):
Yes, okay, I have to ask.
We only asked three, but I hopethat you will allow me this
fourth one.
You've traveled all theseworlds, all of these worlds, all
these countries, which aredifferent worlds Favorite food
or favorite meal?
Favorite meal is wine and fries.
You're so relatable.
I love it.
Okay, thank you so much, lisa.
(41:40):
This has been remarkable.
Just again, thank you for yourtime and for the investment that
you make for women of color,for people, for neurodivergent,
for anyone that may be differentto enter into the industry and
to see someone like them at thetop of the executive level, to
be inspired by that.
Thanks for having me.
This was fun, wow.
So we knew that Lisa was goingto be fantastic, just given her
(42:04):
background, but I loved thetopics that she touched on about
women, about diversity, abouttechnology, about the consumer,
about the data Guys.
I could go on and on.
But really, to my podcast BFFs,tell me what are you guys
thinking?
Gautham (42:20):
I will go first in the sense that I want to bring up
one point which is sure, thecontent was amazing.
I expected that, but what stoodout to me was articulating, the
eloquence in which she spoke onextremely difficult topics and
the lack the ability to speakthe point of view right, and
(42:44):
that's something that I hope thefuture generations actually all
generations take note of andexecute on.
So, yes, we will talk about thecontent, but I want to start
off with that, the intangibleaspect first.
Rich (42:56):
I was genuinely pissed off when she was recounting the
story of being told at a youngage that she didn't belong in
retail age.
That she didn't belong inretail and thankfully she didn't
follow that person's very badadvice.
For retail to succeed, it'sjust good business sense to
(43:17):
build diverse teams from everyimaginable definition of
diversity.
I found myself angry at thatpoint with whoever said that,
thankful that she made her waythrough it and hopeful that we
are improving and that in five,10 years when I step away, that
(43:38):
we will have made somesignificant progress.
Gautham (43:40):
Many of us have been said we can't do things, or
things that have put us down,and I think like to continue
with your point right.
It's what she said about how itlights a fire in you.
That, I think, is perhaps themost important takeaway in that
conversation.
Like you can let it make it astumbling block and push you
(44:02):
down, but can it light a fireand set you on a path for
success?
And I think I enjoyed thelessons learned from a content
perspective a lot.
Right, the go-to-marketstrategy how do you actually
keep focus on the end consumer?
I thought were really importantaspects.
(44:22):
I also love the question youasked Rich about forward-looking
.
How does personalization comeinto play?
I thought she covered a gamutof things in a short period of
time.
I'm curious what was yourhighlights for both of you?
What stood out from a contentperspective?
Paula (44:39):
yeah, I.
For me it was.
It's all about the consumer, sowe've said that over and over
again.
Me, it's bedtime over here andmy son loves to be heard.
Rich (44:51):
And I want to keep that on the podcast so your friend can
keep talking.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Paula (45:01):
So for me it was we've talked about it before and it's
about the consumer.
So it's all about the endclient.
Whether you're in retail,whether you're in technology,
whatever industry you're in,we've got to think about our end
client in mind, because that'sgoing to drive value and it's
going to drive quality, and wecannot sacrifice quality.
Rich (45:21):
Yeah, and I'm going to profess that I had a nerd moment
.
It's been a while since I'vedone product development.
I love product development andso hearing her talk about it
kind of made me a little bitweepy eyed.
For that, paul, I will editthis out if you want me to, but
when you sent the note to me andsaid what is digital product,
my nerdiness and your curiositycombined, because you had
(45:42):
somebody talking about it from apoint of expertise.
I loved her answer on beingable to track core products and
fashion innovative productsdifferently.
Paula (45:53):
Very proud of my ignorance and very proud of the
things I do know.
Gautham (45:56):
And part of the podcast is to expose people to these
opportunities.
Right, it's not just digitalproducts Now you can 3D print
them and you can actually have aprototype in you with reducing
the cycle time dramatically sothat you can actually shorten
the whole window to a few monthsif needed.
So I was excited I mean it wasa really good conversation
across very, very diverse picks.
(46:20):
I want to touch upon one lastthing that stood out to me,
which was the networking aspect.
I've been in the business ofeducation for about what 12 or
13 years now, and I think whatseparates the winners from
people who take a little bitlonger time to get to be winners
is that the ability to networkoff the gates, right, using the
(46:40):
college time to actually networkand build those connections.
And it's amazing that peoplelike Lisa take the time to teach
students and I've been really,really lucky to have people to
help me build that in mystudents to actually get out,
get network.
It's a skill and it takes timeto develop.
It's not overnight, you know,and it's wonderful to all the
(47:01):
people from the industry who docome and spend time with the
future generations to help buildtheir networks, because that,
to me, really does shorten yourperiod or time to success.
Rich (47:12):
And I have to make sure that I capture this on the
podcast After I stoppedrecording.
She answered the question ofwho she would invite to dinner
and Stevie Wonder, prince andAlexander McQueen would be one
heck of a dinner to go to and Ijust want to give her credit in
(47:32):
the postscript for that.
I want to be at that dinner,even if it's just serving the
wine and the French fries.
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