Q&A BY GREG
DUTTER
SOUND STRATEGY
K a r l M o e h r i n g , C E O o f Wa s h i n g t o n S h o e C o m p a n y, m a k e r s o f C h o o k a , We s t e r n C h i e f a n d S t a h e e k u m , o n t h e p o w e r o f c o r p o r a t e c u l t u r e , m a n a g i n g t h r o u g h supply chain chaos and marching toward the $100 million sales goal.
FOR THE RECORD, Washington Shoe Company is a 130-yearold, fourth-generation-run, family-owned business. That’s a lot of accumulated footwear and family history—years and years layered like sedimentary rock. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Kent, WA-based company was firmly set in its ways. And in some respects it was, which is something CEO Karl Moehring has addressed since taking the day-to-day reins from his father, Robert Moehring, in 2015. From a top-down approach, Moehring believes if Washington Shoe Company is to continue to grow and thrive in the years ahead, it must be able to adapt to a rapidly changing industry landscape—and the best way to do that is to develop a corporate culture that attracts, retains and rewards top-notch talent. “I’m really passionate about our culture, and I’m always willing to try new things to make it an even better place to work,” Moehring says. “I geek out on that stuff. I read as much as I can about it in books and in magazines like the Harvard Business Review, and when I’m socializing with our team, I’m always asking, ‘Hey, what do you think about trying this, doing that, etc.’” One such recent read was No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings, which is about Netflix’s culture and how the streaming service focuses on talent density by paying top dollar to attract the best people, as well as its practice of 360 feedback throughout the organization so employees can voice concerns and ideas. “We’ve incorporated 360 feedback into our culture—everyone can pipe up any time, and we also hold quarterly events,” Moehring says. “We’re from the Northwest, so we’re kind of passive-aggressive. We want to break that mold a bit and be a little more New York style.”
Another recent read was Delivering Happiness, the late Zappos founder Tony Hsieh’s corporate culture manifesto on the power of a joyful workplace. Moehring says the books are yin and yang in regard to their philosophies on creating a good corporate culture. “Tony’s is more about how everyone should have a good time, all the time, whereas the other one puts a little more bite to it: We want to you
10 footwearplusmagazine.com • february 2022
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