In a well worth reading profile of J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler today in the NY Times by Joe Nocera, I found one of the best “tells” a Half-Fuller could ever find about whether or not he or she is working in the right place.
Earlier in Drexler’s career he worked for a big department store, and he ultimately knew that job wasn’t for him when he observed:
“They look at you funny when you show too much passion”
Think about that one the next time you make a big pitch in front of your bosses, or try to exhort your teammates to greater heights.
Passion is the magic elixir that separates good companies from great. It needs to be prevalent with nearly everyone in the organization, especially at the top.
Mickey Drexler’s passion for “anticipating what clothes people would want to wear before they even knew it themselves” is paying off in a big way for J. Crew (they are growing nicely in a down economy), and his teammates are all the better for it, because they sure aren’t getting any “funny looks” from him.
And their men’s shirts ain’t half bad either…… 
Popularity: 29% [?]
Subscribe By RSS
Subscribe By E-mail
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I worked for Gap in the Drexler era. He always was full of verve, and I remember a day when he visited the flagship store in Atlanta where I worked under the exciting title of “Denim Captain.” He immediately noticed my attire that was solely of the “new collection” and pulled me off my post and to the front of the store to greet customers during the busiest season of the year. It was both terrifying and flattering to be noticed by the big cheese!
Hi Liv – that’s cool that you have “experienced” Drexler in action. “Verve” is a great word for him. So how did the customer greeting go, denim captain?
All the best!
Terry