Name: Abercrombie & Fitch CEO leadership tip: be yourself and ask lots of questions
Uploaded: 2020-01-31
Duration: 5 min 38 s
Description: Fran Horowitz says open communication has generated great ideas.

Glen, when people describe your leadership they say you are a very good listener. I'm guessing that that is deliberate on your part but what a great skill to have as a CEO? I really I really pride myself in being what they call me at Abercrombie, which is the leader of the people. I made sure, since the day I walked in, that I'm very genuine, I'm very approachable. I mean, a great example. I go to the cafe every morning. I go get my own coffee. I go get my own lunch. It's amazing what you learn from the associate, when you're just chit chatting online and then listening to what they have to say. I am a good listener, I always try to take up everything in and make sure I'm making the right decisions as we move forward. Actually I hear that you make sure that wherever you go, you create a situation that your employees are doing most of the talking and you're doing The listening I've heard about this fire side chats that you have. Every single quota with your employees. Tell us why these conversations are so important to you. One of the first things I learned about when I got to the company. Is how much the associates really needed more communication. They were very curious to understand where we were going, what we were doing. So communication and making sure the associates were educated on what was happening. Was a huge priority for me. So we introduced in the firesides live QA And trust me, the HR team was a little bit nervous about that and making sure that you know that everything was the edges were going to be appropriate and okay, but I insisted on it. And it's really turned out to be a very valuable experience for everybody. What do you get out of it? I learned what's top of mind for them what they're thinking about making sure that we're covering the issues that are that are top of mind for them today. In fact, just last week i was in Shanghai, and we did our very first Global Fireside. So we did simulcast around the world. We had all 3 of our offices online all at the same time, from Shanghai to London to Columbus, and it was fantastic. What was fantastic about it? Just that it helped everybody understand that we really truly are a global company. And that we could all be online together all at the same time even though the time zones were different. We were all speaking the same language. We were together. We were unified. We were talking about What was working in the company what the opportunities were. So it's a really special moment for everybody. So it sounds like you've created a very open and collaborative culture which is very different than the atmosphere at the company when you came five years ago. How has this helped you as you're reinventing Abercrombie? Well I think I live on the basic premise that great ideas come from everywhere. So if you're open to listen and you're making sure that you're bringing in all the great ideas, the ideas don't have to start at the top, they don't have to start at the bottom. They really do come from everywhere and from within. And that helped us really discover and open some opportunities that we may not have realized if we didn't have this open environment which people can communicate. Can you give an example of one of those great ideas? Very early on, many many years ago, when I did one of my first European trips that was in Germany, I was in the stores touring and our stores were notorious for being very dark and the sales manager said to me Can I show you what the store looks like if I turn on the stocking lights? And I kind of looked at her and I'm like, What are the stocking lights? And she said, those are the lights we use at night when we when we felt the merchandise into the store. I said, Sure, let's do it. It looks like she went running into the back. She turned the lights on and literally the customer in the stores started applauding They could see the product. They were excited they could talk and see the associates face to face. And from that day forward, we turned all the lights on throughout Europe and they've been on ever since. Sort of an aha moment. An aha moment. Absolutely. People say that your favorite word is balance. What does that mean to you? It is, You're laughing I am laughing because I'm glad that everybody knows that I made a point to make sure everybody knows it's my favorite word. Balance is the most important thing you can have in your life. That means balance, when you're setting your financial strategies and your plans. Your balance in how you set out your day, making sure that you're doing things for yourself as well as for work. Balance matters everywhere all the time, no matter what you're doing. How do you think your view on balance influence your workforce, given that more than half of your employees are women? I think it motivates them. I think it motivates them and helps them understand that your total life matters. It's not just your work life but your personal life matters as well. And that's not just for the women. That's for the men as well. I think they appreciate the fact that I keep that balance. They see me leave campus at a reasonable hour they see me going to yoga. They see me doing things with my family. They see me bringing my family to campus and helping experience what Abercrombie is all about. But yet they know I'm a hard worker. I understand that you're a big believer in mentoring. So what do you tell the women who Work at Abercrombie. What advice do you give them about getting leadership jobs and how to help them fulfill some aspirations they have maybe to be CEO one day? It's very important to be yourself, to be genuine, to ask questions, to be thorough in what you do, to be strategic. I mean it takes lots of things balanced out through what you're doing but you have to have good strategy, you have to be Curious, you have to be optimistic you have to look forward into the future to see what's happening. So really striking a balance between all of those things .>> What about you, friend, you've had a very successful career. You've worked at many retailers, and Taylor Bloomingdale's. I'm sure you had a lot of mentors along the way. What's the best leadership advice that you ever received? And how did it shape your style of leadership? I would say the best leadership advice I ever got came early in my career. At that point I was at Bloomingdale's and I would say it came from Mike Gould, he was the CEO at the time. He was also a leader of the people. He was very genuine. He said, " Make sure that you stay close to your people. Understand who they are, what is important to them both inside and outside of work. Make sure you're approachable. Make sure that you can communicate with them ." I would say that has resonated with me and has really stayed with me along my whole career. Career. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Abercrombie  & Fitch CEO leadership tip: be yourself and ask lots of questions

Leadership

Fran Horowitz says open communication generates great ideas.

Abercrombie  & Fitch CEO: be yourself and ask questions

Fran Horowitz says open communication has generated great ideas.