Tuesday, September 21, 2010

J.Crew's Mickey Drexler as "The Merchant"

"Thanks!" to so many of you, including SA, Shannon, Monica, as well as wellfedfred (in this post), Tom (in this post), ajc (in this post), & Frudoc (in this post), who shared the following article from the New Yorker (click here to read in its entirety).
The Merchant. It’s all about the eye—and the numbers.
By Nick Paumgarten
September 20, 2010

PROFILE of J. Crew chairman Millard (“Mickey”) Drexler. “Can I have your attention, please?” A dozen or so times a day at J. Crew headquarters in Manhattan, a voice comes over the intercom with a low-fidelity reverb that brings to mind a muezzin’s call to prayer. The voice belongs to Millard Drexler, the chairman and C.E.O. of J.Crew, who is known to everyone as Mickey.

Wherever Drexler is, he can disseminate his voice via cell phone; an assistant patches him in. In the nineties, Drexler, who is now sixty-six, became known as Merchant Prince, for his transformation of the Gap from a shaggy little jeans chain to a gigantic but fairly nimble purveyor of the stuff everyone wears. He helped transform the way Americans dress. In 2002, however, amid a decline in the Gap’s fortunes, Drexler was fired. He wound up, less than a year later, at the helm of J.Crew, a much smaller company. Its subsequent revival, as a business and a brand, has given him some measure of vindication and extra eminence, as well as wealth of another magnitude.

Drexler grew up in the Bronx and he attended Boston University business school, then worked at Abraham & Straus and Bloomingdale’s. Describes his relationship with his father. J.Crew’s investment meetings, known as “finalization,” for the 2010 holiday line took place over two days in May. Drexler peppers the merchants with questions, in a kind of commercial catechism designed both to refine the decisions being made and to instruct his charges in the rigors of merchandising.

J.Crew was founded as a mail-order business in 1983 by Arthur Cinader. In the late nineties, the company foundered, and Cinader sold a majority stake to the Texas Pacific Group, which went through several C.E.O.s before hiring Drexler, who has gradually tried to elevate the brand. Mentions Donald Fisher, the Gap’s founder.

Drexler has a unique blend of supreme self-confidence, which enables him to acknowledge flaws or fears, and deep insecurity, which causes him to obsess over them. Describes the men’s finalization meeting. Drexler is gregarious but not highly social. He believes that a lot of people have piled up disgusting sums of money for producing or building nothing—for merely investing. In the stock market’s heady days, his own net worth exceeded a billion dollars.

Recently, J.Crew has been complementing its wares with selections from other, more time-tested names, such as Timex, Red Wing, Ray-Ban, and Belstaff. The goal is for J.Crew to festoon its own brand, assert a kind of kindred spirit, and accentuate its claim to classic Americana. Mentions Minnetonka and Quoddy. Drexler sweeps into J.Crew stores with regularity. Describes his visit to a store on Grand Avenue, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in May. ...
Although some of the points made were repeats of previous interviews (like from the June 12th "WSJ Declares Drexler as "The Retail Therapist"" post), it is still an interesting read.

What are your thoughts on the article? Do you like Mickey Drexler more or less after reading this article? Any points you found particularly interesting or note-worthy? If so, please share! :)

7 comments:

  1. This article is also similar to an article five or six years ago in New York Magazine:
    http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/biz/features/10489/

    It's a long article and interestingly was after Mickey had been there just a year and things were really taking shape.

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  2. It's interesting to see how well crafted the PR is. Also interested to see the shift back to Mickey at this point w/the most recent articles in June & now Sept. He seems like an inspiring & motivating leader. Very different than a boss. I hope there are many people who are excited to work for the company and look forward to going to work. It's great to have a job, but so much better to love going to work or at least looking forward to it. I have to say I cannot imagine random intercom messages, but I also cannot imagine having to use those headset things the SAs wear in the store either. I guess the employees get used to their respective static. As for the intercom and his lack of an office, it must create a feeling of transparency for the employees, as well as accessibility or at least the perception. Interesting stuff.

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  3. Article ends at "Describes his visit to a store on Grand Avenue, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in May." and then ends! Link doesn't work. Sad face :(
    That's one of the Crews that I frequent.

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  4. Meow,
    I used to go to that JCrew all the time. It is small but nice and always had one or two sale gems for me in my size~!

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  5. Meow & Genny,

    I live in the Mpls area, did either of you receive a red card yet. I haven't but hope I do!

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  6. Nick Paumgarten is a GREAT writer. If you follow his pieces for the New Yorker, you've probably been caught up more than a few times in the profiles he writes, which usually do a splendid job of balancing the person's pros and cons. It creates a dynamic portrait of the subject along the way.

    That said, that I found this article to be rather vanilla speaks to Mickey's highly protected image. I don't think it's as much J.Crew's PR as his own will to be in complete control of what is said about him. Note how he won't allow his wife to speak on record. I wonder if it's all his years in the business, or something more personal, but he does not seem to let much be said off the cuff.

    I wonder what Paumgarten's personal thoughts are on how the profile came out. I'm thinking of writing a letter to the editor.

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  7. Meow, it's a very long article. I tried to scan or cut & paste the pages that described the visit to the Grand Avenue store for you, but it's very protected. In summary, MD and JL decided the store was not living up to its potential in terms of sales, helpfulness, and display, and decided to make changes. Given the lags between research, writing, and publication, I wonder if they did?

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