Lululemon, Takashi Murakami And Ayobami Adebayo
Good morning everyone
Today, we will dive straight into stories of yoga, art, and love.
/ Strategy
Chip Wilson’s story is fascinating.
The son of a Phys Ed teacher and a seamstress, today his 9% shareholding of athletic wear business, Lululemon means that he is a dollar billionaire. Founded by Wilson in 1998, the business did $3.8 billion in revenue during 2019.
This How I Built This episode describes his journey.
As I reflected on his story, it occurred to me how many of the pillars of his success were embedded in the very essence of his life.
Lululemon is a technical athletics apparel business. His parents’ occupations meant that he carried both the DNA and the nurture for this business. Wilson recounts that when he wanted to spend time with his mother, he would sit at her feet while she sewed.
He was a big man and so his first foray into the fashion industry was to make clothing that was comfortable for him. The late 70s had men wearing very short shorts. He wanted something more comfortable. He had to learn the technicalities of garment manufacture.
He was a sportsman and was plagued by the rashes caused by seams, so looked to improve their performance. In his words “fashion followed function”.
What parts of your history, your story could you integrate into your future vision?
What is in the DNA and history of your business that you could make more intentionally explicit in its current strategy?
He brings this lesson home even more strongly when he explains his dilemma after selling his first business. He was contemplating his next move and contemplating leaving fashion. At that point, he asked himself whether he was really going to throw away his 18 years’ experience in creating technical athletic clothing. He decided not to.
The word ‘pivot’ has done a disservice to the benefits of integration. The real power as one evolves one life and business is developing an understanding for how you can leverage what your history into your next moment. It is never lost, almost never wasted.
Wilson explains how he got interested in yoga. He says that if he hears about something 3 times in quick succession, he investigates further. In the early mid-90s that took him to a yoga class. He recounts that how over a short period, the number of people in the class kept growing and he kept seeing more about yoga.
He scans his environment. He could see that everyone was wearing rather shabby gym wear. He read an article that 60% of college graduates would be women in that year. And so, he starting to weave together these disparate data points into the business that became Lululemon.
At several points in Guy Raz’s interview, Wilson emphasizes that he is a ‘passionate product guy’.
However, to say that he was solely product focused would do a disservice to his marketing nous.
Whenever Lululemon opened a new store, it would first open a low-cost store and target yoga instructors in that city. Only once they had built that word of mouth buzz and could see that the sales volumes would support a larger investment, did they open a high street retail locale.
For those of you who are considering bringing investors into your business, listen from the 36th minute. Investors can bring a lot of good. They can also bring heartache. Wilson shares some of his experience. It is always good to carry some caution with optimism.
All in all, it’s a great story of experimentation to learn, hyper-alertness to the environment to spot opportunities, and a commitment to excellence.
/ Self
Globally acclaimed artist, Takashi Murakami this week announced that he was facing bankruptcy. More than a few of his pieces have sold for over $2mn and he has collaborated with some of the world’s most prestigious fashion brands, so this is a more complex story than COVID-impacted revenues.
That aside, he said this, which resonated with me, “It has to do with the question of what an artist’s job is. I, for one, believe that it has solely to do with how, after they are dead, they manage to leave behind works and a way of life that could be deemed as iconic of their era.”
Leaving something behind ‘iconic of an era’, is a large challenge for any life. A more achievable ambition for most of us, is that our life leaves behind works and a way of life that is deemed to be iconic of us.
We can all aspire to do that. To live with the intention that we inspire others. That can be as simple as passing on a favourite recipe, sharing with one’s grandchildren the family’s history, it might not win acclaim at a Sotheby’s auction, but it is still art.
/ Soul
A few weeks ago, I was tired and needed inspiration. I contacted my local bookstore The Book Lounge. What I wanted was not available.
I then received another mail from them. It said, “Hi Karl, if you would like some reading material sooner, let us know a couple of titles you have loved, and we can recommend from stock. Warm regards, Megan.”
Within a few hours I had received a reading list much better than anything I had ever gotten from an algorithm-led recommendation engine.
One of the books Megan recommended was a debut novel by Nigerian author, Ayobami Adebayo. Stay With Me is a heart-breaking story of the pain and love at the heart of a marriage.
Here is a taste, “If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when its in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean its no longer love.”
I hope that you are well. See you next week.
Karl
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(This letter was initially published on July 5 2020)