Name: Helena Foulkes' Journey to Becoming Hudson’s Bay Company CEO
Uploaded: 2018-05-15
Duration: 18 min 31 s
Description: CVS Health’s former VP discusses the transition to her new role.

Welcome Helena. Thank you, Patty. Hi everyone. It's nice to be back with you. Helena has been a long time member of the most powerful women community. This is indeed her first sit down interview since she became CEO of Hudson's Bay on February 17, 2018, I believe it was. And counting. Yes. [ LAUGH ] She is almost at her hundred- day mark. Right. And she has had all sort of fun, she's had all sorts of adventures. I'm gonna start though jumping off of Tory Burtch's wonderful remarks. Good. Helena will say the ambition word. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] When you were Helena Bonano, growing up the oldest of five children in Providence, Rhode Island, were you ambitious? Yes. [ LAUGH ] Course I was, but we didn't say that word, so I understand Tory's discomfort. I was very ambitious. I grew up in a family with high expectations. My dad worked, ran a company, and my mother stayed home. And actually, I would say more of my ambition came from my mother than my father, because my mother was born, I always say, my mother was born five years too early. If she had been born five years later, she would have had a rocking career, and she really wanted that for all of us. It was a big part. I'm one of four girls and a boy. And she really wanted all of us to have a career. So you went to Harvard and then you took a job at Goldman Sachs. Yes. Briefly, and then at Goldman Sachs if only they could have kept her. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] And then you were at Tiffany briefly. And then you decided to go to Harvard Business School. Right. And so tell me about, how were you thinking about your choices coming out, and your ambition coming out of Harvard Business School? Well, maybe I'll go to Goldman Sachs, because when I was in college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I went to a session on Goldman Sachs at Harvard and I was really impressed. And I learned so much there but one of the things that, for me, that I really took away was that the people who made it to the top of a place like Goldman Sachs, my impression anyway, Dean and I could be wrong Was they would go home on the weekends and they would think about cool new financial derivatives. [ LAUGH ] And I was like, that is really not me. But what I did tap into when I was at Goldman was, I discovered that maybe I loved marketing. Because I worked on selling the deal, we took the Spanish telephone company public in the United States. And I loved selling that deal and telling the story of why it made sense, and so at the end of that I decided I wanted to tap into that. And I also wanted something that I could hold onto. I needed something more tangible. So Goldman was amazing. They hooked me up with Tiffany's and I had a relatively boring finance job at Tiffany. But I really got to know the merchants. And I was just so impressed with the merchants. And for me what was exciting about retail was, it was this amazing marriage of data, cuz I'm actually a math geek, and intuition. And so, for me it felt like it tapped into something that was exciting for me. And so for my Whole career. And as I advise young women I'm always trying to think about tapping into what makes you spark and what your special strengths are. And sometimes I was good at that, and sometimes I Because I wan't but it has been a threat for me through my career. When Helina, when I tried to look it up today and I couldn't find it but I said to Helana when you got out of Harvard business school and joined CVS In July of 1992, yes she spent most of her career at CVS. How big was CBS? And you believe it was about? $ 4 billion in sales. $ 4 billion in revenue. So this will surprise everyone in the room. CVS Is number eight on the Fortune 500. It is a $ 186 billion company. So Helena rode that from 4 billion to a $ 186 billion, and, $ 184 billion, excuse me. Okay, don't round down. $ 184 billion. [ LAUGH ] It's $ 186 billion by now. But Helena also had a lot to do an we're gonna get to HBC in a minute but you rode and you drove, you drove that growth in very significant ways and this is a very general question, but what did you learn at CVS about About building a fast- growth company. Mm, I always tell people that it is so exciting and fun to be an entrepreneur in a big company. And I really had that gift. So I was going up the ranks of merchandising, which was the traditional route and our former CEO Tom Ryan came to me and said I'd love you to start a loyalty program. He said I don't really know what it should do yet, I have some ideas, but I'd love you to do it. Now my first reaction was ooh am I doing a bad job, is this some sort of ploy to get me To move, but I also always tell people that if your CEO asks you to do something, you should say yes. So I did, and it really unleashed, for me, something I didn't know about myself, which is, I love being an entrepreneur at a big company. And it was so fun, to have all these amazing resources, and smart IT people, and Just smart smart people but. What year was that? That was 1997. So, extra cares. Yeah. Who collects the like longest. [ LAUGH ] Scence for CBS, right. That's thanks to Halina folks. And It probably is the most sort of admired loyalty, one of the most admired. It's one of them. I mean, from a retail perspective, it's, I think, the largest. We have 70 billion active members. I still say we. And it's something I'm very proud of and I, it was really fun to work on but it's also what other things that you only achieve great results because you have an amazing team but I learn a lot about pushing through barriers and getting stuffs done and I have. I had a lot of great advisors, and one of them said to me something that I think I still hold true to, which is, essentially, you have to keep putting points on the board. Don't wait so long for perfection for this thing because you're going to lose the attention and energy and enthusiasm of a top team. So I focus really early on about producing something that was tangible And then refining it and making it bigger. And it was a constant journey, it still is. It's the fun thing about doing things like that. So early, you tell me. You got a call from a headhunter. Before Christmas, after Christmas, what was the, you landed in February at HBC, how did this happen? Yes. So can I say your name? Yes, okay, I got a call from Melanie Cusin- In late October. She's sitting right here in the front table, she's amazing. And let me step back and say that I had spent 25 years there, and I absolutely loved CBS and I still do. And I always say, and I not only Worked there. I poured myself into it for 25 years. And I gave birth to four children along the way. And I mean, it was totally intertwined in my life. And all along the way, I would always say to people that when you're in one company that long, it's never a perfect journey. I had a lot of moments That were not fun and that's true in anyone's career and someone gave me advice long time ago, and she said when you're in a down moment pick a date whether it's six or nine months pick a date on the calendar. And have that be your date, and you'll decide at that date, if you're still feeling this unhappy, cuz then you should do something. And I do that many times with CBS. It's just the whole complexity of my life. But every time I got to my six or nine month window It had resolved itself, and in many ways I think that there's a muscle that we build for those of us who've been places long times. Because we get through the hard stuff and we come out on the other side And we realized the strength that we had. But anyway, I had gone through that about a year before I left CBS, and that day came, and it was the first time where I just felt like I needed a change. And I must also say, I don't know if this was unique to women. But for me it wasn't just a professional move, it was a whole life move. I had raised my four children. The last had gone away to college, and I suddenly felt so free. And I thought, I can do whatever I want. And my husband's a professor and he was willing to go along with whatever ride. So it was a very liberating time. And Melanie called me and I knew barely anything about Hudson's Bay. But I knew a lot about Saks and Lord and Taylor and- [ LAUGH ] Saks on Fifth. Big fan. So that piece for it was very alluring, and I would say that I was also intrigued because as Melanie laid it out. What was interesting to me about Hudson's Bay is they had just announced. Two really out of the box moves. One was the fact that Lord & Taylor would now go on Walmart. com's website. And I thought, wow, that's a radical move. And I like that, I like radical thinking. And the second was that they had just done a big real estate deal with WeWork Which is a company that's really revolutionizing workspace and thinking about partnering with we work in some other buildings. So for me that signal that this was a company that was willing to think differently. And And they announced they were selling their flagship store? They just had. Yeah, and that was like a $ 280 billion deal or $ 280 million deal. Eight hundred fifty million. $ 850 million deal. Yeah. Lauren Taylor is selling the building to eighty hundred and fifty million to rework. Right. Yeah, that's radical. Radical >> That is radical .>> So you come in there February 17th you decide to take the job and you were a candidate, maybe the movement was slow you tell us, but you were a candidate to be the next CEO of CVS. Did you want to be a CEO somewhere. Yes. [ LAUGH ] I did. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] So was the view like why wait. Yeah, it was that. And, again, I absolutely adored my time at CVS and I felt this incredible, I think this is a female thing, too, I felt this incredible loyalty to my team. I really struggled with leaving my team. I felt like I was in it with them. But I needed a change, and I felt like the path would take too long at CVS, and I thought well, I don't know if that's a selfish thing to think, but it It was a very hard decision. So you arrive on February 17th and this is a company that has not grown as it should. No. It has Had loses for a couple of years, consecutively, and is in need of a turn around. And since you have been in there, this is so hard to be brief, I know. Yeah. What is your formula? How are you looking at this? [ LAUGH ] I have had, really, three things that I've been focused on. And one is creating an awesome culture, two is driving performance. And three, and part of what was so intriguing about the company, was thinking about, what should the long- term strategy of this company be? Were we a holding company of a bunch of great retailers? What did we bring, that made a special sauce? And In many ways I think what's been exhilarating about the experience is that company knows it needs to turn around. And so it wasn't like I had to convince people that this is bad, we need to do things differently. Everyone in the organisation knew it and so they really had embraced me. But it's also allowed me to I think move fast. I'm used to a world where we would think through things from lots of different lenses and we had the luxury of great performance in time. And I would say that, in this environment, I think Speedy decisions are really important. And I've also been really clear with the team that I don't have all the answers. People thought, maybe because I had this impressive retail background, that I would have the answer. I'd have the roadmap. We'll come in, we'll do it. And I've said to people I don't know what all the answers are. But I think you do and part of it's unlocking that. With all of you together. So I've really focused on inclusiveness, action, focused on what are the game changing moves we can make? We're all just filled with too many things to do everyday. Are we spending our time on the things that matter? And believe it or not, having a results orientation and I say believe it or not because the beauty of retail, one of the reasons I love it is you know how you're doing every day. Every morning I wake up and look at the sales, it's like a disease. And I love it, and it's really fun when it's going well but so there's a natural inclination to action and results. But I think that it was a culture that was starting to almost believe that it's just tough out there. Yeah, and you introduced what, five principles? What are those principles? Yeah. The first is to think like a customer, to have a customer at the table with every decision we make and that sounds basic but that, people are so excited about that because they knew we want doing things that we always customer focus, second was to have an action orientation, third was to focus on game changing ideas that we could work on. The fourth was to be inclusive and transparent in our decision making and the fifth was to focus on results. Speaking of acting quickly, I wanna mention one thing that's very important to everyone in this room who is running a company or on a corporate board, at the end of March, barely a month into this job HBO Hudson's Bakewell sacks and Lord and Taylor was very seriously hacked. It was Russians you figured out it was it was Russian hackers Russian attackers who seized the information of 5 million. Saks and Lord and Taylor credit and debit card holders. What is the lesson from what you experienced there? I would never want anyone to go through that. But for our team, I think in many ways it brought us together. And I'm really proud of how the organization responded. In fact, the FBI told us we were the fastest response to a breach they have ever experienced. And that is due to great planning on the part of the team well before I got there. They were prepared But in some ways it allowed me to model the principles I'm talking about. So the first one was be the customer champion. If you can be the customer champion in a middle of a data security incident it means that you have to be as transparent as you can be, with your frontline associate who were the ones really communicating with your customers. So While we may have had a bias, don't say too much, the lawyers are in the room and their protecting us. What we really went to and leaned into was sharing as much as we could say with confidence. And giving people access to a 1- 800 number and free credit monitoring and all the things we could do to say We're here for you, and we'll have your back if something happens to you. So, I would say that was one. Speed was another principle, and that happened a lot. Transparency and inclusiveness. So, I got the senior vice presidents of the team together probably. Three times within the first two weeks including a phone call unfortunately we had to have on Easter Sunday. But everyone was on the line because they care about the business, and we were talking about what was happening. So when they opened stores the next morning they'd be ready. So there are a lot of things that really came together for the team. It allowed me to see the great people in the organization who rose to the challenge and made so much happened. Never let a crisis get a waste. Yes. So, [ UNKNOWN ] the best, the biggest surprise I thought. I thought she had come down from Canada. [ LAUGH ] It's a Canadian based company, she's in Battery Park City. So she's a New Yorker now. [ LAUGH ] Helena, welcome to New York, welcome back to Most Powerful Women. Thank you very much, thanks. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Helena Foulkes' Journey to Becoming Hudson’s Bay Company CEO

CVS Health’s former VP discusses the transition to her new role.