Speaker 1: This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
Speaker 1: show is sponsored by G three Aparo. I views expressed
Speaker 1: in the following program are those of the sponsor and
Speaker 1: not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor or iHeartMedia. Who
Speaker 1: is Mark Weber. He's a self made business executive here
Speaker 1: to help you find your success from the New York
Speaker 1: City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His global
Speaker 1: success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational.
Speaker 1: He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark his classic
Speaker 1: proof that the American dream is alive and well, here's
Speaker 1: your host of always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Speaker 2: Mark Weber. You always need an out, You need an
Speaker 2: escape route. You always need options, You need choices. You
Speaker 2: always need a plan, and you need another course of
Speaker 2: action if that plan doesn't work out. In life, you
Speaker 2: need an exit strategy. In business, it's all about managing money,
Speaker 2: and most money is tied up an inventory. Inventory having
Speaker 2: the right stuff at the right time. Inventory might be product,
Speaker 2: it might be people, could be ideas. Managing the use
Speaker 2: of inventory is critical for maximizing your profit. If there's
Speaker 2: a problem, it's there for controlling the extent of your losses.
Speaker 2: The risk takers are gamblers. The best of them are
Speaker 2: well educated, experienced navigators that rely on data and the
Speaker 2: information at hand. A conservative investor in inventory will never
Speaker 2: grow as large as the risk taker, but the road
Speaker 2: taken might be a lot less bumpy for both of them.
Speaker 2: The same information is on hand to make decisions. Just
Speaker 2: approach is different either way. Business is fraught with choices
Speaker 2: navigated by the best intentions, and it has been proven
Speaker 2: making sure you don't have too much inventory of that
Speaker 2: which does not sell wins. Too much of a miss
Speaker 2: against what you think the people want, loses loses and loses.
Speaker 2: In a fashion world, you need an exit strategy. I'm
Speaker 2: reminded often that it's not what you sell at times
Speaker 2: that helps you keep your profitces what you choose not
Speaker 2: to sell. Having too much inventory or surplus will kill
Speaker 2: any business. Fashion, not like fine wine, doesn't improve with age.
Speaker 2: You design it, you manufacture it, you sell it, you
Speaker 2: ship it, then display it for sale. Then pretty much
Speaker 2: you cross your fingers and you hope you guess right.
Speaker 2: Think about automobiles, too many choices, too many models, too
Speaker 2: many colors, too many of the wrong items on the
Speaker 2: lot will not sell. It was never easy. Gauging people's
Speaker 2: wants and needs and preferences. Anticipating their wallets today tougher
Speaker 2: than ever. Combustion engines yeay, Hybrids okay? Electric yikes? How
Speaker 2: do you know? How do you know? If you're a dealership?
Speaker 2: How many to buy of each let alone? What colored
Speaker 2: to buy? Now? Jaguar, one of my favorite car companies,
Speaker 2: closed their company for two years and it's now set
Speaker 2: to re emerge as a luxury all electric company in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. All I have to say is good
Speaker 2: luck with that. You want the truth, you can't handle
Speaker 2: the truth. We're not ready for electric. The decision making
Speaker 2: is deadly. Jaguar and automobile companies, they need an exit strategy.
Speaker 2: Business needs a what if? Business needs an exit strategy.
Speaker 2: Life and business in this regard go hand in hand.
Speaker 2: You need a plan, we need options or alternatives. We
Speaker 2: need the facts, and you'll always need an off rep
Speaker 2: and that offramp is an exit strategy. I live in
Speaker 2: an apartment. Someone has to hold an exis set of
Speaker 2: keys for me in case I get locked out A
Speaker 2: check into a hotel. What's the first thing I do
Speaker 2: you ever think about when you check into a hotel.
Speaker 2: What's the first thing you do? Well me, I opened
Speaker 2: my door. I look for the exit signs. I look
Speaker 2: for the stairways. God forbid, I need to escape or
Speaker 2: get out. I need to know where those exits are.
Speaker 2: In money, we all learned you can't put all your
Speaker 2: eggs in one basket. If you haven't learned it before COVID.
Speaker 2: You need canned food just in case, bottled water just
Speaker 2: in case. If all fails, you got it covered. If
Speaker 2: you're a homeowner, if you can afford it, you get
Speaker 2: a generator. I remember the first time I had a blackout.
Speaker 2: I had a generator kicked on. You'd never know I
Speaker 2: was without power because I wasn't. I looked out the
Speaker 2: window down the block, and I said, is this only
Speaker 2: happening to me? The whole block was out. The power
Speaker 2: goes down, The lights in the neighbors are out except
Speaker 2: for yours. You had an exit strategy. In business, you
Speaker 2: can't exist with one customer. People change. You have a
Speaker 2: new buyer. It doesn't like you, it doesn't like your products.
Speaker 2: He walks away. What do you do? Close your doors?
Speaker 2: You're done? No, no, no, You have to have alternatives.
Speaker 2: Eat an exit strategy tonight, I'm taking this exit, this
Speaker 2: exit ramp, this exist strategy, my Laura co host, my
Speaker 2: son Jesse Weber.
Speaker 3: Hey, Hey, I am impressed by this conversation. I like
Speaker 3: this conversation. I gotta I gotta give you credit on
Speaker 3: this one. You just came it up. You come up
Speaker 3: with interesting ideas to talk about. You know, look, the
Speaker 3: big heads, the big talk show heads, they always just
Speaker 3: talk about what's happening in the news. I always say,
Speaker 3: you take creative content. You have to come up with
Speaker 3: something original. I like this one. I'm gonna give you
Speaker 3: credit for it.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. I guess I'm not just a
Speaker 2: pretty face. Even though I'm obnoxious.
Speaker 3: We're going back to that one. You can't get rid
Speaker 3: of that one. One person thinks you're Well, let me say,
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, one person thinks you're obnoxious and
Speaker 3: you can't get over it. I can't. I can't say
Speaker 3: there's not other people who probably think you're obnoxious and
Speaker 3: just haven't vocalized it. But one person has come forward
Speaker 3: officially and called you obnoxious and you can't get over it.
Speaker 2: Well, you didn't really defend me either there or either
Speaker 2: just now again I'm sensitive.
Speaker 3: Em mister, I don't like humans. You should care less.
Speaker 2: It's not that I care. I don't care. But if
Speaker 2: I'm going to put time and effort into something, I
Speaker 2: want to be rewarded with appreciation.
Speaker 3: Look, we buy and large get relatively no negative comments
Speaker 3: on this show. We get a lot of accolades. The
Speaker 3: majority of people who talk to us, who send us messages,
Speaker 3: it's all positive. So cheer up or give up. You
Speaker 3: want to talk exit strategy, do something else if you're unhappy.
Speaker 2: Anyway. Okay, you know, daddy, you're not obnoxious. You're a
Speaker 2: good guy.
Speaker 3: Is that would that make you feel better? You're not obnoxious,
Speaker 3: you're a good guy. You're a good guy. Don't let listen.
Speaker 3: You want to talk about something, you want to talk
Speaker 3: about negative comments. I get the comparisons people have made
Speaker 3: about my appearance on social media, on YouTube. You could cry.
Speaker 3: People make fun of me all the time. They hate
Speaker 3: the things. Oh my gosh. One So I think the
Speaker 3: funniest thing that ever happened was during COVID. I was
Speaker 3: doing a lot of shows. You had to do home
Speaker 3: shows from home. There was no studio, so I was
Speaker 3: home and no one was getting a haircut and I
Speaker 3: had a little bit of a stubble, and somebody wrote, man,
Speaker 3: Jesse looks like nos man. This guy looks like he's
Speaker 3: been on a three day Bender's so bad. Some guy,
Speaker 3: some guy I had makeup on.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: I was on TV and they put a little bit
Speaker 3: too much makeup on and they did a side by
Speaker 3: side comparison between me and a an orange with teeth.
Speaker 2: It was like Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Like a cartoon character. It was bad. And then you know,
Speaker 3: people say all terrible things about me when they don't
Speaker 3: like what I have to say. But listen, you gotta
Speaker 3: have thick skin.
Speaker 2: I do, generally speaking, but I haven't gotten over from
Speaker 2: that yet. And you were very kind to me. Your
Speaker 2: reaction last week was all the reasons why I'm noxious.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna move on anyway.
Speaker 3: Tonight's show, Well, all says allot I'll say is this.
Speaker 3: Look when you talk about exit strategy, right, one thing
Speaker 3: I'll say about that, wouldn't you be the first to say,
Speaker 3: before you run, before you split, you should try and
Speaker 3: win by being excellent, Right, wouldn't you say that?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 3: Look, I think I think you're great at this. Uh,
Speaker 3: even if you are obnoxious. Which I don't think you are.
Speaker 3: But even if someone thinks you're obnoxious doesn't mean you're
Speaker 3: not great at what you do here.
Speaker 2: Even if I am, I'm not. Never mind, I'm getting
Speaker 2: up the subject anyway, even if I am, I'm not. Okay, Thanks, listen,
Speaker 2: Mommy and I went outfl way to make sure you
Speaker 2: had an exit strategy, and you executed it brilliantly.
Speaker 3: So wait, wait, wait, it's almost like the Godfather, right.
Speaker 3: You had a conversation with my father about my future.
Speaker 3: You had a conversation about my future with my mother.
Speaker 2: But no, I can't talk to you, mommy about your future.
Speaker 2: Who can?
Speaker 3: And of course, look, I here's what happened. Here's what happened.
Speaker 3: I was I was a very good student in high school.
Speaker 3: First year of college I slacked off. I slacked off terribly.
Speaker 2: It was bad.
Speaker 3: It was really bad. And I knew I had to
Speaker 3: shape up or ship out, and.
Speaker 2: So I really really slack off. Or college was so different.
Speaker 2: You don't know how to navigate.
Speaker 3: I think I was a part of I was on
Speaker 3: my own. I didn't know how to navigate. I didn't
Speaker 3: I just didn't. I was having too much fun. I
Speaker 3: was so bad my first year, I never went to
Speaker 3: the library. And so you kind of like you and
Speaker 3: Mommy made it very clear. You said, this is a
Speaker 3: great opportunity not a lot of people get. You made
Speaker 3: it to this school. I went to the University of Michigan.
Speaker 3: Don't squander it. And it woke up at me. I
Speaker 3: worked incredibly hard from then on out, and I didn't
Speaker 3: know what I was going to do. And I didn't
Speaker 3: want to go to law school. I was, I would say,
Speaker 3: forced to go to law school. But you and Mommy
Speaker 3: had a very very good vision. It was, you can
Speaker 3: take this legal degree. You don't have to be a lawyer,
Speaker 3: but it will help you throughout whatever you do. And
Speaker 3: I followed that vision. I followed that.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, you had no idea what you You
Speaker 2: had no idea what you wanted to do. At least
Speaker 2: we gave you a path.
Speaker 3: That's true. That's true, you gave me a path. I
Speaker 3: was a little I wanted to do business in college,
Speaker 3: and then I took accounting and I realized that was
Speaker 3: like Chinese to me. So I couldn't figure that out.
Speaker 3: But no, but we went to law school. It was
Speaker 3: the best decision. You and Mommy were right because it
Speaker 3: allowed me to do an entry point into everything that
Speaker 3: I'm doing right now. So your path, you and Mommy's path,
Speaker 3: was the right decision, and it was a great exit strategy,
Speaker 3: or it was executed brilliantly as you say, so, thank you.
Speaker 2: How about you, I've got a great strategy. I've got
Speaker 2: an exit strategy for me. What got me thinking about this,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you. The other day I watched the movie Casablanca,
Speaker 2: great movie, and I was thinking. I watched the end.
Speaker 2: In the end, hey Louis, this is the beginning of
Speaker 2: a beautiful friendship. And I'll never forget that line. In fact,
Speaker 2: when I was very young, thirteen years old, I got pneumonia.
Speaker 2: And in those days, when you got pneumonia, you went
Speaker 2: to the hospital, except in my case, my mother wouldn't
Speaker 2: send me to the hospital. We had a doctor. He
Speaker 2: would come every day to visit me, take care of me,
Speaker 2: and they kept me home. But for three months all
Speaker 2: I did was watch movies and read books. I became
Speaker 2: an avid reader when I was thirteen years old to
Speaker 2: change my life. I read novels, I read all kinds
Speaker 2: of books, and when I got back to school, I
Speaker 2: was a reader. It was amazing. But I also watched
Speaker 2: every movie that it was ever done, and I never
Speaker 2: forgot Castablanca. I loved it. I thought it was great.
Speaker 2: Humphrey Bogart, Rick Ilfsea amazing movie. But he always had
Speaker 2: a back door the visa strategy to get out of
Speaker 2: town if he had to, which got me thinking about
Speaker 2: exit strategy this week, and I started to think about
Speaker 2: this in general. I had one of the most important
Speaker 2: situations in my life when I worked for PVH. I
Speaker 2: was a young guy. I grew up in the ranks.
Speaker 2: I had so many different assignments. I excelled it mostly
Speaker 2: all of them, and the twenty five assignments later, and
Speaker 2: thirty years later, my boss walks into my office and
Speaker 2: he says to me quietly, I'm going to retire. I said, no,
Speaker 2: you're not. We're having too much fun. This is finally
Speaker 2: where we want to be. You're to see I'm the president.
Speaker 2: You're going to retire. He says, I had enough. I'm
Speaker 2: going to retire. I started top with this nonsense, and
Speaker 2: he looked at me and said, this is not nonsense. Mark,
Speaker 2: I'm going to retire. I said, well, for the record,
Speaker 2: I don't believe you. We have it too good. You
Speaker 2: don't work all that hard. Me and our other guy
Speaker 2: who pulling the heavyweights for you. Right now, you're not retire,
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to retire and I'm going to
Speaker 2: make you CEO. And I said to him, you know,
Speaker 2: I've been here for a long time. I've been the
Speaker 2: president of the company for seven years. I've been on
Speaker 2: the board for those same seven years. And tell you
Speaker 2: the truth, I don't ever feel good about the board.
Speaker 2: I don't feel they loved me. I never did feel
Speaker 2: they loved me. I never felt that they would give
Speaker 2: me your job. She said, well, they're going to give
Speaker 2: you your job. It's going to take some work. They have
Speaker 2: the right to interview everyone there is in the world
Speaker 2: and decide who, in fact, would be the best CEO
Speaker 2: for this company. I know that you are the person.
Speaker 2: I know. I've worked with you all these years. I
Speaker 2: know how special you are. I know that you can
Speaker 2: do the job, and it's the right decision for the company.
Speaker 2: And if I have to convince some other board members
Speaker 2: who may not agree, I'm going to do it. But
Speaker 2: you're going to become the next CEO. So I remember
Speaker 2: thinking about it. I went home and talked to my
Speaker 2: wife about it, and they said, you know, there's no
Speaker 2: way they're going to make me CEO. And she said,
Speaker 2: if your boss says he's going to do it, he's
Speaker 2: going to do it. Mark he never lets you down
Speaker 2: and he's never wrong. Said, okay, you may be right.
Speaker 2: So I started going through the process. At the times,
Speaker 2: there was a new regulation called Sarbanes Oxley. It's either
Speaker 2: two congressmen or two senators or somebody. They put together
Speaker 2: a focus on making sure companies did the right thing.
Speaker 2: The banking situation in early years destroyed a lot of companies,
Speaker 2: destroyed the banking system, and they wanted to make sure
Speaker 2: that all the regulations were in place. The doutch your eyed,
Speaker 2: cross your t's, and the company started interven you for
Speaker 2: the position of CEO. And it was really really peculiar.
Speaker 2: What made it mostly peculiar is I had been there
Speaker 2: my whole career. They knew everything about me, They saw me,
Speaker 2: they knew me. I didn't know whether they were stalling
Speaker 2: or not. At one point I heard that they were
Speaker 2: interviewing people on the outside, and now I got really upset.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to be involved in a beauty contest.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be sitting there and find out
Speaker 2: one day they made a decision to hire someone else
Speaker 2: and I'm stuck. Now, what lessons do you take out
Speaker 2: of this? Maybe some maybe know, but I tell you what.
Speaker 2: In my career, I've done some smart things, and this
Speaker 2: might have been one of the best, if not the best,
Speaker 2: for me. I started to think about my exit strategy.
Speaker 2: What would happen if, in fact I couldn't be the
Speaker 2: CEO my boss goes off into the sunset. We were
Speaker 2: words and music. We had the greatest relationship in the
Speaker 2: history of business. We complimented each other. We could have
Speaker 2: done each other's jobs. He was smarter than me, I'll
Speaker 2: grant him that, but I also had something to contribute.
Speaker 2: But we were great. And I said to myself, if
Speaker 2: he leaves and I haven't become CEO, what's going to
Speaker 2: be of me? I'd have to work for some stranger
Speaker 2: after all this time, I'm gonna have to convince him
Speaker 2: that I'm a good guy, that I'm a capable guy.
Speaker 2: I wanted no part of that. I couldn't believe that
Speaker 2: I'd have to do that. And the reality is I
Speaker 2: worked hard enough long enough successful enough that I said
Speaker 2: to myself that if my CEO left and I wasn't
Speaker 2: to become the CEO, I wanted to walk away with dignity.
Speaker 2: And I asked to see my boss and I sat
Speaker 2: down with him and I said to him, look, I'm
Speaker 2: really worried about you retiring. First of all, I think
Speaker 2: you're out of your mind. We're having too good of
Speaker 2: a time. Our performance is extraordinary. Were covering and doing
Speaker 2: everything we said we do. Why do you want to leave?
Speaker 2: Suse I'm young and I want to try something else
Speaker 2: while i'm young. I said, well, I respect that, but
Speaker 2: here's what's a problem. If you walk away and they
Speaker 2: don't make me CEO, I don't want to be here.
Speaker 2: And I coined the term right then and there. I
Speaker 2: want to walk away in the sunset with you. I
Speaker 2: want the opportunity to walk away, and I want to
Speaker 2: be paid for my serverance because I'm going to stick around.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'm prepared to stick around forever as long
Speaker 2: as you're the CEO. But after all this time, I
Speaker 2: want the opportunity to walk away. And let's call it
Speaker 2: a sunset contract. He said, Look, I hear you. I
Speaker 2: don't understand why you have a problem. If you don't
Speaker 2: get CEO, just don't behave act poorly, make it unpleasant.
Speaker 2: They'll fire you and get everything you're entitled to. And
Speaker 2: I remember how angry I got it him. I started
Speaker 2: to scream. I said, I'm here for thirty years, I've
Speaker 2: been on the board for seven I've done everything right.
Speaker 2: My career has been impeccable, and you're telling me, after
Speaker 2: the service I've given this company, if I'm not given
Speaker 2: a job that I think I was trained and groomed for,
Speaker 2: I can't leave the company with diggnity. What are you
Speaker 2: out of your freaking mind? I didn't use the word freaking,
Speaker 2: but he said, whoa, you know, calm down, let me
Speaker 2: see what I could do. And he went and he
Speaker 2: met with the compensation committee, and over the course of
Speaker 2: time they started to talk. I met with the compensation
Speaker 2: committee and I told him how serious I was. Look,
Speaker 2: i'm here, I'm your number two. I've been his number
Speaker 2: two for seven years. As long as I was here,
Speaker 2: you never had to worry. You knew where we were
Speaker 2: going as a company. Now the CEO's leaving, I am
Speaker 2: the logical choice. You don't want to make me CEO.
Speaker 2: Then I don't want to stay with you. You don't
Speaker 2: love me. I don't love you, but I am prepared
Speaker 2: to stay if you make me the CEO, or I
Speaker 2: am prepared to stay for as long as he stays.
Speaker 2: That gives you a sense of security that you've always had,
Speaker 2: and I'll continue to give to you. And to my luck,
Speaker 2: to my luck, to my great fortune, maybe to the
Speaker 2: fact that I was smart. The Board of directors granted
Speaker 2: me what I called the Sunset contract, that if in
Speaker 2: fact my boss just that one person left and they
Speaker 2: didn't make me CEO, I would get the full bennets
Speaker 2: of my contract and I could execute walk away into
Speaker 2: the Sunset with dignity. And that was my exit strategy.
Speaker 2: Now lo and behold months to my surprise when the
Speaker 2: interviewing was done, when the anger subsided of me. When
Speaker 2: I would have these meetings with one on one with
Speaker 2: board members, I said, the questions you're asking me are ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I've been here forever. I'm an open book. You saw
Speaker 2: me sit on the board for seven years, You've heard
Speaker 2: me speak. I shouldn't be requiring. They were very kind,
Speaker 2: and they said, we understand, but we have to do diligence.
Speaker 2: I then found out that they were interviewing other people
Speaker 2: and I was pissed. So I went back to my board.
Speaker 2: I now have my Sunset contract and I said, there,
Speaker 2: my boss, listen, if this company's going to do a
Speaker 2: beauty search, you're going to tell me it's Sarbaine's Oxley.
Speaker 2: That's nonsense. You're allowed to name a CEO from inside
Speaker 2: who you know as well as you know me. I
Speaker 2: want to walk away. I'm in Barras. If you guys
Speaker 2: don't love me, I'll walk away. You'll retire. I'll give
Speaker 2: you some time. I'll train the new guy, but then
Speaker 2: I'm walking away. Tell you that right now, either end
Speaker 2: the beauty contest or I'm out of here once again.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm lucky. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I'm smart. I often say I don't know whether I'm smart.
Speaker 2: That's for others to decide. I know I'm well trained
Speaker 2: and it all helped me well. And in the end,
Speaker 2: the boy gave me the chance to be the CEO,
Speaker 2: and I had my exit strategy, which was the point
Speaker 2: of tonight's show, and that one was about me. When
Speaker 2: we come back, I want to talk to you about
Speaker 2: the company back in a moment.
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Speaker 2: The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well
Speaker 2: as the handbigs and the shoes. I, for one, wear
Speaker 2: men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a
Speaker 2: modern guy. I want to look current, I want to
Speaker 2: look the way I want to feel. I go out
Speaker 2: at night, I'm in black and Carl Lagafel is my buddy.
Speaker 2: Calls are great, they fit great, and they have little
Speaker 2: tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the sleeve
Speaker 2: or button at the neck or on the shoulder. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of details that go into Carlagafel because he's
Speaker 2: always been, he always had been one of the world's
Speaker 2: great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on.
Speaker 2: I can't speak enough about it except to say to you,
Speaker 2: you want to feel good about yourself. You want to
Speaker 2: know that you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that
Speaker 2: fits you well. Carl Lagafeld Paris at Macy's Orcarlagafel dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Speaker 1: Mark Hover.
Speaker 2: Tonight, I'm talking about exit strategy. We all need what
Speaker 2: f's you have a plan that doesn't go well, what
Speaker 2: do you do? You always need an out, You need
Speaker 2: an escape route. You need some kind of vision of
Speaker 2: where you're going. And if you can't get to where
Speaker 2: you're going, what are you going to do next? Give up?
Speaker 2: In life? Same thing, There's always ups and downs. You
Speaker 2: always need a plan, you need an out. My wife
Speaker 2: told me that when we were very young. We need
Speaker 2: an exit strategy. You need a plan. You always need
Speaker 2: to get out. My favorite example of all I said before,
Speaker 2: if I go into a hotel room, most people look
Speaker 2: at the bathroom, look at the condiments that they left behind,
Speaker 2: look for the chocolate, see if the bed is so
Speaker 2: off the pillows. Not me. I walk into a hotel
Speaker 2: room and I look at it real quick. I know
Speaker 2: whether I like it or not. But I open the
Speaker 2: door and I look for the exits. I want to
Speaker 2: know where the stairwells are. For God forbid, I have
Speaker 2: to go out. So that's what I'm thinking about tonight,
Speaker 2: having an exit strategy, and a couple of questions and
Speaker 2: lessons learned. This one first one I want to give
Speaker 2: this about style. I at one time was a shirt expert,
Speaker 2: and I was around when they started coming out what
Speaker 2: we're called fitted shirts or taped shirts or slim fit shirts.
Speaker 2: Everybody had a different name for them, and it was
Speaker 2: a new invention because up until that point, all the
Speaker 2: shirts that were made had generous fit. The idea of
Speaker 2: a tapered waist or a loose shirt was just the
Speaker 2: fashion in the rage and over the history of time
Speaker 2: there was always shirts that were just wider and bigger.
Speaker 2: And now a guy named Henry Grethel, I'll give him
Speaker 2: a call out. Henry Grethel, I admired him as the
Speaker 2: president of Manhattan Shirt Company, came out with a collection
Speaker 2: of shirts called Henry Grethel and they were amazing. They
Speaker 2: were very fitted, tapered for the day and age. They
Speaker 2: came in a very small package and they became incredibly important.
Speaker 2: And they Manhattan Shirt with the Henry Grethel label were
Speaker 2: the only ones doing it. They had the world by storm.
Speaker 2: I'll take a minute to think about it. I think
Speaker 2: Heidi Slimane, famous guy was at the yor was at
Speaker 2: Eve's Son Lauran. He put the Cint Lauran instead of
Speaker 2: Eve Saint Lauran. Actually, he is credited with inventing the
Speaker 2: slim fit sit now. Could you imagine any company today
Speaker 2: without a slim fit suit. You can't. One of the
Speaker 2: great men's pant companies in the world, I'll give you
Speaker 2: two of them, whether it's Stockers or Hagars. They're aimed
Speaker 2: at men, all sizes, ages and a price point. They
Speaker 2: have slim fit pants and they have generous foot pants.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a different point of view without one or
Speaker 2: the other. Could you imagine what those companies would be like?
Speaker 2: Which brings me back to shirts. Henry Grethel Manhattan Shirt
Speaker 2: comes out with slim fit shirts and becomes fifteen percent
Speaker 2: of the business. Everyone else is lacking behind. It was
Speaker 2: fashioned forward. They had great looks, great fit, great colors,
Speaker 2: great everything, and left everyone behind. So everyone, like myself
Speaker 2: at van Usen, like the Arrow Shirt Company, like everyone
Speaker 2: who was out there making shirts, every designer shirt came
Speaker 2: out with a slim fit line. And I'll never forget
Speaker 2: as I watched the designers and all these companies, they
Speaker 2: took all the energy, all the excitement, all the newness
Speaker 2: and put it in slim fit. And I remember at
Speaker 2: the time talking to the heads of sales, and I
Speaker 2: was talking. I wasn't a big shot then, I say,
Speaker 2: I'm worried because we're being directed to put all the
Speaker 2: great stuff in the fitted line, and you're forgetting the
Speaker 2: full cut line. What's that going to look like. I'll
Speaker 2: come back to them in a minute. Lessons learned many
Speaker 2: years later, I am running a shirt company. It's part
Speaker 2: of what I'm responsible for running. I had a CEO
Speaker 2: and I was corporately responsible for Thomas Pink, the British
Speaker 2: shirt company made in Germany Street in London. They too
Speaker 2: had a beautiful full cut business. They built the entire
Speaker 2: business on it. And then they came out with slim
Speaker 2: Fit and they started pouring all the great designs, all
Speaker 2: the fashion into slim Fit, and I said time out.
Speaker 2: I remember meeting with Jonathan Heilbron, the CEO, British guy.
Speaker 2: I loved him. He's a great guy. Him and I
Speaker 2: worked really really well together. In fact, there's a lesson learned.
Speaker 2: When I first met him, I said to him, look,
Speaker 2: Elvi Image brought me in. You report to me. We
Speaker 2: don't know each other and we have to get along.
Speaker 2: I want to make a deal with you. I want
Speaker 2: to be able to say anything I want to say
Speaker 2: to you about design, about processing, operation and you not
Speaker 2: take it personally. I'm going to let you make your
Speaker 2: own choice unless I have something that I feel very
Speaker 2: strongly about that I can't live without changing. But basically
Speaker 2: that's not going to happen. I want to tell you,
Speaker 2: without any difficulty, I don't want to be uncomfortable anything,
Speaker 2: And in turn, I want you to tell me no.
Speaker 2: I want you to tell me anything you want to
Speaker 2: tell me, and I won't take it personally. And if
Speaker 2: you and I could work that way together, it'll be brilliant.
Speaker 2: And sure enough it was. Him and I had one
Speaker 2: of the best working relationships I ever had because I
Speaker 2: cleared the air right up front, and there's a lesson
Speaker 2: in there, even though that's not worth particularly what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about right now. I want to go back to
Speaker 2: slim fit shirts. So they launched slim fit shirts at
Speaker 2: Thomas Peak, and they put all the fashion up front,
Speaker 2: and I said to him what I learned at Van
Speaker 2: use it. If you put all the fashion in slim
Speaker 2: fit and you forget your full cut business, you're going
Speaker 2: to alienate your full cut customer who you built your
Speaker 2: business on. These are the people that are out there
Speaker 2: counting on you to keep them happy. You don't want
Speaker 2: to put all the new designs. If you come up
Speaker 2: with a white collar on a pinstriped shirt, you want it,
Speaker 2: and full cut you want it and fit it. You
Speaker 2: want to give both customers a choice at the best fashion.
Speaker 2: And we did it. And why did we do it
Speaker 2: because I learned my lesson in Van use it. Because
Speaker 2: when we put all the energy into then our slim
Speaker 2: fit shirt was called Hennessy did amazing, came from nowhere,
Speaker 2: became twenty five percent of the business almost overnight. But
Speaker 2: it wasn't all incremental value. Our full cut business suffered
Speaker 2: while we built a smaller business and fitted shirts because
Speaker 2: we didn't keep the full cut current and we had to.
Speaker 2: So I warn you Thomas Spink and they did the
Speaker 2: same thing, and for a moment, only a moment in time,
Speaker 2: our full cout business suffered. And then we added the
Speaker 2: fashion right after my conversation with them. And I'm not
Speaker 2: taking credit for helping them other than to say it worked.
Speaker 2: We kept fitted vibrant, we came full cut now vibrant,
Speaker 2: and the business grow. And the point is you don't
Speaker 2: have to throw away the baby with the bathwater. You
Speaker 2: want to go into a new business. Give it your best,
Speaker 2: but at the same time protect it. Which brings me
Speaker 2: to cars, which I said before. You look at all
Speaker 2: the automobiles right now. If the EVS, all the energy
Speaker 2: and excitement and styling is going into the EVS, it
Speaker 2: is the dumbest thing I ever saw in my life.
Speaker 2: All the new lights up front, the new shapes of light,
Speaker 2: the side panels, all the interior decorations, all going into
Speaker 2: the ev and the full cut. In this case, the
Speaker 2: regular gas combustion engines are getting a little tired and
Speaker 2: they're not putting the energy into it. So in terms
Speaker 2: of where you're going as a business planner, I asked
Speaker 2: you to consider an exit strategy. Why not have it
Speaker 2: all if you can have it all. If you said
Speaker 2: to me, I'm going out of all combustion engines like Jaguar,
Speaker 2: good luck, Jaguar, I don't believe in that. I'm worried
Speaker 2: for them. I can't imagine, you know. I look at
Speaker 2: the Hummer. I've had three Hummers in my career. I
Speaker 2: bought three of them. I loved the Hummer. It was big,
Speaker 2: it was safe. My Jesse learned to drive the Humber. Jesse.
Speaker 2: How great was the Hummer.
Speaker 3: When we had the Hummers, Oh man, the Hummer was fantastic.
Speaker 3: First of all, I was sixteen, seventeen years old and
Speaker 3: high school driving a Hummer. Nobody else had it. It
Speaker 3: was how should I say? It helped me a lot socially.
Speaker 3: Let's just say that it was a great car. Now
Speaker 3: do you remember what happened when I had the Hummer?
Speaker 2: Well? I remember I bought the Hummer because I didn't
Speaker 2: think you could drive worth a lick. I was SKay.
Speaker 3: I passed the road test the first try. But but
Speaker 3: I will tell you with the Hummer, right, the H
Speaker 3: two massive car I had my license for a week
Speaker 3: ended up smashing into a park car when I was
Speaker 3: backing up. Didn't see where I was going, and bam
Speaker 3: picked the car up and dropped it on the ground.
Speaker 3: And I remember I went up to the guy's house
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood. I was like, I'm so sorry I
Speaker 3: hit your car. He's like, I got hit by a Hummer. Awesome.
Speaker 3: He was happy, But I just thought to pay it.
Speaker 3: But it was, uh yeah, it was a great car. Amazing.
Speaker 2: So how did we settle it? You know? I had
Speaker 2: to remember.
Speaker 3: I don't even remember I don't think it was that
Speaker 3: much damage actually, despite the fact that he was hit
Speaker 3: by a hummer. But what I will tell you is
Speaker 3: the car was awesome. Parking it was tricky. It was
Speaker 3: so wide. Didn't we have to take up like two spots?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: It was huge, But you know, Gary Nod, I knew
Speaker 2: exactly what I was doing.
Speaker 3: I knew exactly what I was doing.
Speaker 2: It was great a minute. So Mommy and I made
Speaker 2: a deal. She would teach you to park, I would
Speaker 2: teach you how to drive. We're both busy, so we
Speaker 2: divided in conquered. The day of your road test, I'm
Speaker 2: taking you to the road test, and I'm giving you
Speaker 2: a chance to drive. And then I said, let's practice parking.
Speaker 2: You couldn't park. You couldn't park, And I said, what
Speaker 2: are you doing? He said, Well, Mommy said, I should
Speaker 2: line up the mirror on my call with the with
Speaker 2: the door handle in this car. I said, that's the
Speaker 2: dumbest thing I ever heard. Every car is a different
Speaker 2: shape the door handles in. That's not how you park now,
Speaker 2: it just so happens. You figured it out. You passed
Speaker 2: on the first drive. But that was a nightmare.
Speaker 3: It was not great, but you jumped in and the
Speaker 3: last minute taught me how to parallel park, which, by
Speaker 3: the way, I don't think i've ever wrote parallel park
Speaker 3: since then. I don't find a lot of opportunities to
Speaker 3: parallel park, to be honest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the world changed, the world changed, but the car anyway.
Speaker 3: But the car was awesome, man, By the way, the
Speaker 3: car was awesome. And we had something that we never
Speaker 3: had before. We had a DVD machine in the back
Speaker 3: of the car. Do you remember that? So if me, yes,
Speaker 3: if I wasn't driving or somebody else was driving and
Speaker 3: I was the back, there was a DVD like the
Speaker 3: screen came down, you could watch a movie in the backseat.
Speaker 3: I thought that was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: It was back in the day. Anyway, let me get
Speaker 2: back to the point I'm trying to make. So now
Speaker 2: Humma comes out with a new version after six eight
Speaker 2: ten years of stopping great looking car crab walk. I
Speaker 2: don't even know what that is. But they made it
Speaker 2: all electric. I am telling you, I know they're not
Speaker 2: selling cars. I see too many of them on the
Speaker 2: dealership by me, And no matter what, I would have
Speaker 2: bought the Hummer in three seconds. I don't care how
Speaker 2: many cars I had. I would have bought it because
Speaker 2: of the size, the safety, the speed. That has a
Speaker 2: thousand horse power, But it's one hundred percent electric and
Speaker 2: I just won't do it. So in your business planning,
Speaker 2: you can do whatever you want, but you can't forget
Speaker 2: that you need a plan. My greatest story of excess
Speaker 2: strategy has to do back in London, different brand, different
Speaker 2: set of circumstances. I was the CEO of Donna Karen DCN.
Speaker 2: Why are the responsibilities of LVMH And when the time
Speaker 2: I joined them for whatever reason other than jeans, there
Speaker 2: was no men's business. I grew up on Calvin Klein men's.
Speaker 2: I love their suits. I love this shirts, I love
Speaker 2: this sports. You know you're talking Calvin Klein, one of
Speaker 2: the world's greatest businesses. We have no men's business. In fact,
Speaker 2: the greatest advertising I ever saw for shirts in my
Speaker 2: life was Calvin Klein. What they did was different than
Speaker 2: anything else. Rather than models posing and you know, showing
Speaker 2: you their favorite smile, they took slices of life. They
Speaker 2: went down to a street on Wall Street. They had
Speaker 2: four models walking, they had ten models behind them. The
Speaker 2: models behind them were blurred out, but it was the
Speaker 2: real looking pictures of four guys talking to each other
Speaker 2: or walking down the streets in the suits and tied
Speaker 2: DK why it was in fact, when I came to
Speaker 2: the company and I started and decided to relaunch men's
Speaker 2: the first advertising I did, I took the former model
Speaker 2: of DK Y who's now in his forties, who was
Speaker 2: in forties at this time, Mark vanderlou put him in
Speaker 2: the ads like the old ads and recreated that slice
Speaker 2: of life advertising that meant so much to me. And
Speaker 2: during my entire time at the Donna Karen Company, whenever
Speaker 2: I was there, I had put up the advertising on
Speaker 2: my walls bigger than life than I loved it. So
Speaker 2: I decided to go back in the men's business and
Speaker 2: I was introduced to this fellow. To this day remains
Speaker 2: one of my favorite people of all times. His name
Speaker 2: was Michael Morris. He was an entrepreneur based in London,
Speaker 2: the UK. He had been the licensee for East Saint
Speaker 2: Laurent in Europe and therefore all the East Saint Lagan
Speaker 2: clothes and Europe at that time were coming out of
Speaker 2: his company and he became a multi millionaire gazillionaire guy.
Speaker 2: He is a few years older than me. He was
Speaker 2: very cool. He dressed well, very nineteen five dresser, but
Speaker 2: always hair slicked back, the pocket square, dressed well, always
Speaker 2: looked apart. Nice, great guy. He went to Wimbledon, he
Speaker 2: went to all the favorite restaurants. He belonged to the
Speaker 2: right gambling clubs. Whenever I go to London and hang
Speaker 2: with him, I was so happy hanging with him. I
Speaker 2: just enjoyed him. He enjoyed me, loved my children. The
Speaker 2: boys would come. In fact, anytime we had a runway
Speaker 2: show in New York, the boys insisted they sit next
Speaker 2: to Michael. Anywhere we went anything for dinner, Michael was
Speaker 2: with me. We became best of friends. And he was
Speaker 2: a great guy. And at one point in time he
Speaker 2: lost the wire cell license. That's how I met him
Speaker 2: because Nieves Solaruan decided they didn't want a partner in
Speaker 2: doing men swear, they wanted to do it themselves. They
Speaker 2: brought it back in house and Michael was without a job,
Speaker 2: and I met him. And now I'm being introduced by
Speaker 2: another friend of mine to Michael Morris, And you know
Speaker 2: I met him. He was a little two col Valier
Speaker 2: for me a little too entrepreneurial. Anything I said I
Speaker 2: want him to do, he would do. Money didn't matter.
Speaker 2: Whatever I asked them for Matt, it didn't matter, Just
Speaker 2: do it. I want this license. Tell me what you want.
Speaker 2: I'm going to build you a great business. Just stay
Speaker 2: out of my way. And when he said to stay
Speaker 2: out of my way, it made me a little concerned,
Speaker 2: because when you rent your brand to someone, you have
Speaker 2: an obligation to make sure that person does with it
Speaker 2: what you expect them to do. The way they treated
Speaker 2: who they sell, what the price points are made me
Speaker 2: a little fuzzy. Michael was a little fast and furious
Speaker 2: in his lifestyle, but that's okay. I loved him anyway
Speaker 2: and decided to give him the rights to dk y
Speaker 2: around the world. Big deal, big, big deal. But at
Speaker 2: the time I was a little less than comfortable. I
Speaker 2: had a sixth sense that said I needed to protect myself.
Speaker 2: Let's call it an exit strategy, the theme of tonight's show.
Speaker 2: And I was doing the negotiation with Michael Morris and
Speaker 2: my friend Jean Rothkoff, great friend of mine who is
Speaker 2: a licensing guy, said listen, I need protection for the company.
Speaker 2: I want to get this deal. I won't ask you
Speaker 2: for money up front. I want to ask you for
Speaker 2: a signing bonus. But when I'm going to ask you,
Speaker 2: at the time, our royalty was about three million dollars
Speaker 2: a year for the first two years, I want you
Speaker 2: to set up an LC for me, a letter of guarantee.
Speaker 2: What an ELS was. It was a guarantee of payment
Speaker 2: from a bank that should anything go wrong, should they
Speaker 2: break their contract, should they not offer collections that they
Speaker 2: probably agreed they would do, if they did not pay us,
Speaker 2: the royalty were own, I could draw it down on
Speaker 2: that LC, meaning take the six and a half million
Speaker 2: dollars at any given time if they didn't own up
Speaker 2: to their agreement. And they signed it and we agreed.
Speaker 2: Fast forward three years later, I get a call in
Speaker 2: New York from Michael Mark. I have a problem. I'm
Speaker 2: going bankrupt. What what do you mean You're going bank
Speaker 2: Look you know I bought the shoe company. It was
Speaker 2: the biggest mistake I ever made. I don't know anything
Speaker 2: about shoes. It's a money hole. I have to protect myself.
Speaker 2: If I have to get rid of the company. The
Speaker 2: only way I could do it is going bankrupt. And
Speaker 2: clean up all this mess and come back. And I
Speaker 2: want you to know I have a new financial backer
Speaker 2: behind me. The gentleman's from India. He gave me his name.
Speaker 2: He said, please Mark, when this happens, at least listen
Speaker 2: to me. I could be back in business in fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes after the bankruptcy is soft and I have the
Speaker 2: financial backing, and you know what I can do, I said,
Speaker 2: I'll consider it. About two hours later, I get a
Speaker 2: call from our lawyers in New York who tell me
Speaker 2: they just heard from our lawyers in London that we
Speaker 2: had a bankruptcy with Michael Morris and they want me
Speaker 2: to come to London. Why do they want me to
Speaker 2: come to London because the bankruptcy procedure is different in
Speaker 2: the United States. In the United States, just so you
Speaker 2: know those if you are interested in this, if you
Speaker 2: have a bankruptcy and someone has the license to your brand,
Speaker 2: you can't get your brand back. It stays with the licensee.
Speaker 2: So you have to fight your way through bankruptcy. Because
Speaker 2: the bankruptcy judges in the United States and the arbitures
Speaker 2: are interested in two things, getting the creditors as much
Speaker 2: money as they can. But they want the surviving company
Speaker 2: to continue to keep the workers employed. So that's what happens.
Speaker 2: Even though it's your brand, you lose it to the
Speaker 2: bankruptcy court. You have nothing to say. In London. I
Speaker 2: was informed by our barristers, our legal counsel, that it's
Speaker 2: not the way it works in London. In London, there's
Speaker 2: an administrator whose sole responsibility is to support you for
Speaker 2: the future of the company. Whatever you want, they'll make happen.
Speaker 2: So they asked me to come to London to meet
Speaker 2: with these people, the bankers, and I said I would
Speaker 2: do it. A couple of days later, I fly to London.
Speaker 2: First thing I do. Then I to get dick Less
Speaker 2: to see me. I meet with Michael. He tells me
Speaker 2: what happened. He shows me who the people are, introduces
Speaker 2: me to his new partners if I give them a license.
Speaker 2: I said to him, I think about it. Michael. You
Speaker 2: know I like you and I believe in you. Let's
Speaker 2: see what happens. In the next two days. After that,
Speaker 2: my lawyer and I have dinner and drinks and he
Speaker 2: says to me, I need you to come tomorrow morning,
Speaker 2: first thing and meet the administrator. He wants to meet you,
Speaker 2: so I said, okay. After that, there is a Swiss
Speaker 2: pension fund who was one of Michael Morris's largest backers.
Speaker 2: They put their payroll and pension money in Michael's company
Speaker 2: and they lost it all. They want to meet with you,
Speaker 2: so I agree. Now, Remember it's Mark Weber from the
Speaker 2: City Projects. Being in London, being a master of the universe,
Speaker 2: involved in all these processes. I couldn't have felt bigger,
Speaker 2: high or whatever. First things first, I meet the arbitrator
Speaker 2: the next morning, Mark, I represent the London court system.
Speaker 2: I represent you. I'm here to make sure you get
Speaker 2: what you want. That's the way the law works. If
Speaker 2: you want to pick a new partner, you want to
Speaker 2: stay with the sk associates, with Michael's company, whatever you
Speaker 2: want to do, we're here to protect you, make sure
Speaker 2: you are completely in charge. Later tonight, I'm going to
Speaker 2: ask that you come to a meeting. We're going to
Speaker 2: have the Swiss pension fund there, We're going to have
Speaker 2: the three banks representing the losses here. They want to
Speaker 2: make a presentation to you on how to continue with
Speaker 2: the DKY license. I said sure. But in the interim,
Speaker 2: right after I met with the administry, I was taken
Speaker 2: to a building which just so happened to be the
Speaker 2: same building Michael Morris's company was in, and they took
Speaker 2: me upstairs to meet with a father and son who
Speaker 2: wanted to take over the dk andy license. And I
Speaker 2: was thrilled to meet them. I was excited, you know,
Speaker 2: father's son operating together, something that I always wished that
Speaker 2: I could have took me a radio show to get there,
Speaker 2: but that's what it was. And I met with I
Speaker 2: went to this showroom and basically speaking, they were a
Speaker 2: tiny company that their business really was odds and ends
Speaker 2: and underwear. And I'm looking at them, I said, do
Speaker 2: you realize what we have here? This is one of
Speaker 2: the most famous, accomplished brands in the world. We sell
Speaker 2: in every corner of the United States, in the world.
Speaker 2: It's a big business. It's clothing, it's shirts, it's suits,
Speaker 2: it's sportswear, it's jackets, shoes, this is a huge business.
Speaker 2: How do you intend to do this? Well, we have
Speaker 2: the financial back with them, I said, Okay, I hear you.
Speaker 2: I look at the guy from a Swiss pension fund.
Speaker 2: I said, I'm missing it. You want to back these guys,
Speaker 2: you want to sign a license agreement with me. You
Speaker 2: want to continue. They know nothing about the business. Well, Mark,
Speaker 2: you know we've identified them. We trust them, I said,
Speaker 2: I hear you. I'm glad you trust them. I trust them.
Speaker 2: The only thing is I don't believe they can do it. Mark.
Speaker 2: We really want you to consider it. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of money invested. They we want you. I said, okay,
Speaker 2: thank you. Listen, guys, it's nice meeting you. That night,
Speaker 2: we go to the Minister's office. We're in the financial
Speaker 2: section in downtown London. We go into a board meeting.
Speaker 2: I first meet with the advisor and he reminds me, Mark,
Speaker 2: whatever you decide to do, listen to them. But then
Speaker 2: you make the decision. We go into a boardroom. I'm
Speaker 2: telling you the boardroom is like a city block and
Speaker 2: representative I may work correctly. There were three banks, Wells Fargo, HSBC.
Speaker 2: And if you out there know what HSBC stands for.
Speaker 2: We see it all over the city, all over everywhere. HSBC.
Speaker 2: I'm going to shock you if you don't already know,
Speaker 2: it stands for Hong Kong shank I Banking Corporation. I
Speaker 2: never knew that until then, great bank. I have money
Speaker 2: in there. I like them anyway, I'm eating two of them.
Speaker 2: And then of course there's another bank I don't remember
Speaker 2: who in the Swiss pension fund and the head of
Speaker 2: Swiss pension. Front of all of these people start to
Speaker 2: present to me why I should go to this new
Speaker 2: company with the father and son, and I'm listening, I'm
Speaker 2: being polite, and they asked me what I think. I
Speaker 2: said to them. Look, i'll tell you what I said again,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're capable of doing the job. Let
Speaker 2: me rephrase that they're not capable. Now you're in my zone.
Speaker 2: You're in the banking world. I can't speak to what
Speaker 2: you do, but I'll tell you. I'm sure you're experts
Speaker 2: if you're sitting here. But when it comes to running
Speaker 2: an apparel company and managing a big business globally, I'm
Speaker 2: an expert. Those guys can't do it. But I have
Speaker 2: a question for you. Would you just consider hiring Michael Morris,
Speaker 2: Bring him into the company, put him at the head
Speaker 2: of it, and let him get it done. Bring in
Speaker 2: his people. Absolutely not, we want to do with He
Speaker 2: promised this and that we all lost money. I said,
Speaker 2: are you sure? They said, we're sure. I said, let
Speaker 2: me ask you a question. You guys owe me six
Speaker 2: and a half million dollars. When are you gonna pay me?
Speaker 1: Ah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's what we're here for. We don't want
Speaker 2: to pay you six and a half million dollars. We
Speaker 2: already lost a lot of money. I looked at them.
Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite things of all time.
Speaker 2: I stand up, I look at them. I said, I
Speaker 2: really respect you being here, But if I knew you're
Speaker 2: going to ask me to lend you six and a
Speaker 2: half million dollars, I would have told you to fly
Speaker 2: to New York rather than me fly here. What are
Speaker 2: you crazy? Why would I relinquish six and a half
Speaker 2: million dollars guaranteed based on a future that may not happen.
Speaker 2: They were shell shocked. I looked at my administrator. Do
Speaker 2: I have a right to ask for this money? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Mark at the end of this meeting, if that's what
Speaker 2: you want, you don't want to sign a contract with
Speaker 2: these gentlemen, you do not have to, and you will
Speaker 2: collect your six and a half million. Guys meeting over.
Speaker 2: I loved it. Even though that meeting was over, it
Speaker 2: wasn't over. And here's one of the greatest lessons I
Speaker 2: ever learned in my life, and let me give you
Speaker 2: the end of the lesson up front. In business, in life,
Speaker 2: you have to have your ducks in order. You have
Speaker 2: to know what you're doing. You have to do your
Speaker 2: due diligence, You have to be sure of the accidents
Speaker 2: you take. And you can never be emotional. You always
Speaker 2: have to do what's right for the company, or if
Speaker 2: it's about you, what's right for you. In this case,
Speaker 2: after everything was said and done, I made a decision
Speaker 2: to give the business to Michael Morris. I signed a
Speaker 2: new agreement with his partners from India. I got my
Speaker 2: six and a half million dollars and signed a new
Speaker 2: agreement with another ten million dollars because the royalties were
Speaker 2: taken up because of the new deal with the Indians
Speaker 2: and Michael. A week later, I get a call for
Speaker 2: Bernard Kuhn, who is Bernard Kuhn at the time chief
Speaker 2: legal counsel for LVMH. He gets on the phone. Hi, Mark,
Speaker 2: you and I have met, but we really have never spoken.
Speaker 2: I have to talk to you about an unpleasant happening.
Speaker 2: I said, okay, says I received a call from whatever
Speaker 2: his name was, the head of the Swiss pension fund,
Speaker 2: who said that you had a meeting with him and
Speaker 2: didn't treat him right. So I said to him, thank
Speaker 2: you for calling. I'm glad you're on the phone. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you what happened. Had a license agreement, he
Speaker 2: invested them. The license went bankrupt. They offered me an alternative,
Speaker 2: which I did not believe would work. Nor did I
Speaker 2: think the people that they were suggesting I go into
Speaker 2: business with had the capabilities of doing that. And it's
Speaker 2: not that I didn't think. I know these people were small,
Speaker 2: they were very nice people. They couldn't execute a global business.
Speaker 2: I made a decision not to give them and find
Speaker 2: another partner, and for that they owed me an additional
Speaker 2: six and a half million, which I collected on behalf
Speaker 2: of the company. Visit the facts and I give you
Speaker 2: the RUSS version, but I went to details. He said,
Speaker 2: thank you. I have to talk about it. I have
Speaker 2: to talk with them. I have to understand. I'll come
Speaker 2: back to you. A week later, get a call from
Speaker 2: Bernard Kunn and he says to me, mark On behalf
Speaker 2: of Bernard or no and myself. I want to congratulate
Speaker 2: you for the work you did on this bankruptcy problem.
Speaker 2: From what we have learned, you did everything right. We've
Speaker 2: spoken with the attorneys. Everything was done according to the
Speaker 2: laws of in London. And here you save the company money.
Speaker 2: You put us back in business, and we have the
Speaker 2: highest regard and the outmost respect for the decisions you made.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you. So there you go. Lessons,
Speaker 2: learn exit strategy, do the right thing. It'll pay off
Speaker 2: back in a moment.
Speaker 3: Always in Fashion.
Speaker 2: Spent a lifetime of my career building the van Usen brand,
Speaker 2: and I am so pleased that they're back with us now.
Speaker 2: Talking about suits, men were dressing up again and it's
Speaker 2: become cool to wear a suit. Suits can be won
Speaker 2: on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You could wear a
Speaker 2: suit formally to go out at night or to an event,
Speaker 2: wear a suit to the office with or without a tie.
Speaker 2: If you look closely, now fashion trends, suits are being
Speaker 2: worn with turtlenecks or mark next. The choices are endless
Speaker 2: and every one of them looks right. You could really
Speaker 2: really look the part. I believe that in packaging yourself
Speaker 2: this is important. Does the products you package and wearing
Speaker 2: a suit is one of those things that make men
Speaker 2: look their best Venuesing invented a new idea. It's called
Speaker 2: the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology,
Speaker 2: giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. Its wrinkle
Speaker 2: resistant fabric, it's cool moisture WICKI it makes it perfect
Speaker 2: for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new
Speaker 2: style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing,
Speaker 2: and I'm so excited that the ven using company is
Speaker 2: involved in this new technology and is embracing the whole
Speaker 2: idea of dressing up. Let's not forget venues and made
Speaker 2: it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the
Speaker 2: suit business follows strongly in its way. You can find
Speaker 2: vanues in cool Flex Men's stretch suits at jcpenny are
Speaker 2: online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great, you should
Speaker 2: go look at them. I love Polar fleece. It's lightweight,
Speaker 2: takes colors beautifully, it's comfortable, keeps you warm and even
Speaker 2: if it's warm out, it doesn't hamper you. It doesn't
Speaker 2: make you perspire. I love Polar fleece. I also love
Speaker 2: sweatshirts and sweatpants. Love them, love them, love them. I'm
Speaker 2: a big fan of khaki pants and a big fan
Speaker 2: of a golf clothes. And I'm a big fan of Izid.
Speaker 2: I used to be the head of Iszide. In fact,
Speaker 2: my company bought it and out of bankruptcy, and the
Speaker 2: CEO of the company asked me to come in and
Speaker 2: fix it. And he said to me, Mark, the future
Speaker 2: of the company's in your hands. Can you do this?
Speaker 2: And I said, I will do it. I put everything,
Speaker 2: my heart and soul into making Eyeside the powerhouse that
Speaker 2: it is today.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I left a long time ago, and the company just
Speaker 2: continues to thrive. Isaid is one of the great sweater makers.
Speaker 2: Pant make his shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polar shirt makers.
Speaker 2: They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,
Speaker 2: you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
Speaker 2: easy for you. If you're going to be casual, go
Speaker 2: in and look at Isaac. Now that doesn't say that
Speaker 2: they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits,
Speaker 2: Go find them. Isaoda is a collective brand that offers
Speaker 2: lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true it's
Speaker 2: a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun prices.
Speaker 2: Everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of all
Speaker 2: the brands that I'm involved with, and you can name them,
Speaker 2: think about PVH and LVMH and all the brands, Isaoda
Speaker 2: is the one that's most personal to me because I
Speaker 2: was involved in crafting the future of this brand. The
Speaker 2: clothes are great, They're doing well. Isaad dot com, isaadat jcpenny,
Speaker 2: Go look for it. I think you're going to be
Speaker 2: very happy. And ladies, those of you the shopping for
Speaker 2: the guys in your lives, take a look. I think
Speaker 2: they'll be very happy with your choices. Isaad for men,
Speaker 2: welcome back to it.
Speaker 1: Always in fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber everywhere.
Speaker 3: Oh use it.
Speaker 4: You're the only tonight.
Speaker 2: I've discussed exit strategy, whether it's life, business or whatever.
Speaker 2: We all need plants, we all need what IF's. Things
Speaker 2: don't go the way you plan, if things aren't happening
Speaker 2: the way you have. Everything needs to be thought through
Speaker 2: in advance. Smartest people I know always have an out.
Speaker 2: They always have a back door. They always have room
Speaker 2: to maneuver just in case. You must have an excess strategy.
Speaker 2: But it's yours for you alone. It's no one's business,
Speaker 2: but your own good night,