dispatches from the new world of work

Mickey Drexler/J.Crew

I could teach an entire MBA course using as source material the 20 September 2010 New Yorker profile of J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler—titled "The Merchant: It's All About the Eye—And the Numbers."

In shorthand form, I have extracted a list of some of the items that are central to Drexler's approach. I present them here, and as a PowerPoint slide.

Bias for instant action/Towering impatience with in-action

Impatient but not brutal

Relentless/Speed-of-light experimentation; more ASAP if works, drop if not

Vibrates with energy (literally)

Always on the prowl—anywhere, everywhere—for ideas

Lots of team-standing-around-making-instant-assessments-decisions—all contributing

Likes working with women more than men because F more intuitive than M

Dresses like the brand—at 66

Offense, not defense

Communicates all the time [removes fear from hearing "famous" CEO]. Everyone, including most junior, made part of the decision-making team

Listens attentively regardless of age/seniority

Obvious in his transparent respect for young employees

Trusts intuition plus fanatic about the numbers

Expects everyone to know their numbers cold from memory

Always aware of "the business case"—as well fashion-master

Aggressive pricing

MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around

Open with everyone, from youth to folks at Earnings Call

Constant customer contact/Dialogues with customer/Reacts instantly to customer feedback

Willing to act (experiment) based on one datapoint

Engages with most junior people

At 66, comfortably uses "hot" words like "Cool" "Wow"

There is no doubt that these notions are especially fit for retailers. Yet I will unequivocally assert that this list with little modification applies to any flavor of business.

(For what it's worth, I'm also attaching this in PowerPoint.)

Tom Peters posted this on 10/28/10.