Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi sits down with powerhouse executive Mindy Grossman to discuss the pivotal moment she walked away from a highly successful role with zero safety net.
like Warnaco
and Linda Wachner.
Oh my God. Well, she was the toughest boss in America at the time.
Yeah, she was on the cover. Yeah.
But, you know, that was a big decision for me. I, you know, I'd been working for Tommy Hilfiger, who I adore is still a close friend, and it was when he was a rocket ship when Silas and Lawrence came in with Tommy and Joel and acquired the company.
And I kept getting a phone call.
Would I go and be the president of Chaps Ralph Lauren? And I go, I'm in this great place. I'm not. Finally, they called and said, would you just meet with Ralph?
And his partner, Peter Strom at the time. And I said, you know, yes, I will.
And I went and I met with them, and Ralph is very convincing and inspiring.
And I said, you know what? There's not a single woman who has run a men's wear company, not one.
And I know how to turn this business around.
I want to be a CEO. I know I could do this. So I decided to take the role.
I knew that, you know, it was a division of Warnaco and Linda was a very unique boss.
But I said, I know I can do this. And when I took over the company, it was doing about $20 million losing money, and in three years it was doing $200 million making a lot of EBIDA.
And I had gotten promoted to not only being the president of Chaps, but I was running the entire men's wear portfolio at the company.
But after three years, my contract was up.
I came home one night, I said to my husband, I'm resigning tomorrow.
I don't have another job, but I know I'm doing the right thing because the values of the company do not align with my values.
And if I stay, I'm basically complicit.
And this is not who I am and what I want.
And I went in the next morning, and I had my daughter was about three, so I had work. And I went to resign and she said to me, uh, are you resigning?
I said, yes. And she said, you either have another job, you're independently wealthy, or you're stupid.
And I said, or D, none of the above.
And I was escorted out by security that afternoon, and there I was standing on Park Avenue between 37th, 38th. I said, I know I made the right decision for me.
And the next day, Ralph and Peter called me. said, look, we're devastated you were leaving. Look at what you did to the business, but if you're going to work anywhere, we want you to come work for us.
We're not even sure of the role. We're going to make you the head of new business development for Ralph Lauren. and we want you to work on potential new business opportunities.
And so I made the decision to go and I spent a year looking at a lot of different things and ended up writing the business plan for Polar Jeans company, found the licensee, and then they asked if I would go be the CEO and start it up, which I did.
And I like to say I now have such respect for entrepreneurs because I know how hard it is to do a startup and I didn't have to worry about raising capital, right?
Right? Yeah.
