C-Suite
Some CEOs are hired to be caretakers—to maintain what was built before them and sustain a
measured pace and trajectory. Robertson, who earned a fashion merchandising degree from Auburn, is the sort of CEO retailers turn to when they’ve grown stale and need to shake up the snow globe. She introduced new merchandise strategies during her time as CEO and president of the McRae’s department store chain, worked Down Under to reinvent large but struggling Australian retail chain Myer, reduced Old Navy’s design-to-store supply chain window by 20 weeks as its president, and negotiated exclusive licensing agreements as president of Sean John. As CEO of Stein Mart, she redirected the chain to pursue younger clientele, re-evaluate its in-store experience, and recalibrate its marketing toward the digital realm. After effecting change as a vice president, chief merchandising officer, president, and CEO in the retail sector for more than 30 years, Robertson is experiencing it in a new way. The executive is now a student, having joined the Harbert College’s online MBA program this year (more on that later). Some of her new classmates may have confused her for a faculty member during orientation last December—“They Googled me,” she says. “Even some of the faculty said, ‘Tell me again why you’re here.’”—but the move is in keeping with someone who is energized by new challenges.
HARBERT MAGAZINE: You started your career as a buyer. When did you realize that leadership would be your path?
HM: Is managing change the toughest aspect of leading a company?
DAWN ROBERTSON: I started out the day after I
of turnarounds, and they’re not for the faint of heart. Understanding change in a turnaround versus a very traditional company are very different pieces. I didn’t understand that until I did them. In a turnaround situation, it’s urgent. You can get everybody on board and help them understand they have to change now. In a company that has been around a while, managing that rate of change is critical—and understanding when too much is too much. It has been probably one of the hardest things to do in this new [retail] environment, because if you don’t change you’re not going to be around. But convincing people of that is hard because they’ve done it the same way for so long.
graduated from Auburn in the Macy’s training program in Atlanta. When I was in Atlanta, I had a senior vice president . . . he said to me, you’re going to be really successful in this business, and here are the things you need to do to get there. It began to give me the idea I could do it. I wanted to be a buyer. I went through the training program and became one. I discovered I was good at it and became a division merchandise manager. When I changed companies and moved to Connecticut, the CEO became my mentor. I became a senior VP and I was a senior VP a long time, 12 years. I had to keep anniversarying my numbers and keep doing the same job. Often, you get promoted by moving, moving, moving, moving. But when you’re in the same company and have to be better every year, it’s a lot tougher. Then I became a CEO and I didn’t know anything about being a CEO. It’s learning on the job and there’s no one to help you. I had two children, a 3-year-old and one in the fifth grade. You learn on the job and you learn from your mistakes. A really critical piece is learning from your mistakes. The biggest learnings I had were when I went abroad and ran a company in Australia [Myer Stores]. I learned what I didn’t know about leadership—a lot about listening. They’re from all over the world and think differently than we do. I thought I knew all about leadership, but I learned it’s very different. They don’t believe in hierarchy, so it’s a very even business environment. They have to believe in you. They believe in the tall poppy syndrome. If you’re too tall, they’ll cut you off at the knees. I hired a professional coach, a New Zealander, as a CEO coach. He taught me how to slow down—how to listen and understand what people were about.
DR: I think it’s the hardest thing today. I’ve done a lot
HM: When you’ve come into turnaround situations, how do you go about securing buy-in? DR: Primarily, it’s about getting the senior leadership to trust you. Once they trust you, they will follow you. You can show them the facts, where you’re going to go and how you’re going to get there, but if they don’t trust you they won’t follow you. That’s the one consistent piece. You have to understand first who’s on the team and who’s not. You find that out. You find a couple of people embedded in the team who are going to give you good feedback so you know what’s happening. From there, you begin to identify what all the issues are.
HM: You oversaw the creation of Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com—the early stages of e-commerce for both department stores. When you’re building something from scratch and there’s no point of comparison, are you in a constant test-and-learn mode? »
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