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Mickey Drexler [1944-0] American

Rank: 103
Businessman, CEO of J.Crew Group

Millard "Mickey" S. Drexler is the current chairman and CEO of J.Crew Group and formerly the CEO of Gap Inc. He was a director at Apple Inc. from 1999 to 2015.

Design, Leadership

Quote	Tags	Rank
I find, in merchandising and design and creative, a business school degree isn't particularly helpful.	Design	101
People put 'study abroad' on their resume. I actually like when they don't study abroad because that means they aren't entitled. What about study abroad will make you a better J.Crew associate?		102
I'm looking forward to partnering with TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. This transaction is a clear endorsement of J. Crew and the hard work and dedication of all of our associates.		103
I think it's in my mind, and it's driven me my entire life, and it is to offer customers tasteful clothes at good value, meaning it lets the world - or more of the world - afford to dress well.		104
I always wanted to have my own company. It was a psychological issue.		105
I would like Madewell jeans to be the Levi's of its generation.		106
I look at companies as price-players or quality-players. The only way to go with J.Crew was quality.		107
I love to work. I have a passion for what I do.		108
I loved the fact that if you put goods on the floor, you could watch them sell.		109
The first thing you see when you walk into a store is color.		110
When I started at Bloomingdale's as a buyer, Alexander's was a discounter across the street, and every time Alexander's had something that we had at Bloomingdale's, we'd have to meet price. I didn't really want to be in a business where I had no control over my inventory, the value of my inventory.		111
In a business, you have a vision, and you follow the vision. You have to execute. And then you have to learn how to run a good business. And I think if you look at the characteristics of any successful fashion business, it's all about that.		112
Every single day, I'm curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things.		113
When I was young in the business, I felt anything I wanted to buy personally and professionally was always too expensive.		114
Everything has a trend to it; I don't care if it's appliances or engines. I always ask, 'What has a company done in the past five years that somebody's noticed?'		115
If you don't care about the lapel or the buttons or the fit, then you are doing a disservice to the consumer. We're all inside the tunnel, speaking the language of business, but we need to speak the language of customers.		116
It takes a long time to get a reputation for quality. There are people in our industry, they're basically copiers. Look at the cars on the streets. They all look alike. But if you put quality into a product, then have it validated, you have huge credibility.		117
Data is very important, but you have to be good at reading the data in an emotional way. If you look at a selling report, there's an emotional trend to what's selling.		118
Growing up, I always wanted a bedroom of my own.		119
People like consistency. Whether it's a store or a restaurant, they want to come in and see what you are famous for.		120
If you think you know the consumer better than anyone, then you're in real trouble. So we take a close watch. You spend time in stores.		121
I couldn't stand not controlling my own product from how it's manufactured to how it's sold.		122
Steve Jobs, if he had lived, was gonna design an iCar. I think cars have an extraordinary opportunity for cool design.		123
Creativity runs on automatic, no matter what's happening in other parts of my life. I can't help myself. It's been in me, and it evolves in me over the years. It's a condition in me.		124
A merchant is someone who figures out how to select, how to smell, how to identify, how to feel, how to time, how to buy, how to sell, and how to hopefully have two plus two equal six.		125
We buy and sell goods. We buy low and sell higher - that's what we all do to make a profit. But I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.		126
I think I was the youngest, fastest-promoted buyer in the history of Bloomingdale's.		201
I didn't like the name 'personal shopper.' That makes it sound like too much of a commodity and not personal enough.		202
The No. 1 thing is the product. The goods have to be good, but I care about how you feel about it.		203
Service drives a lot of my decisions.		204
When you say something, and a thousand people are hearing it, you hope you leave an impression.		205
Christopher Columbus discovered America in a blue-and-white sailor shirt, and since then, men have been wearing blue and white shirts.		206
You know what ends up on the markdown racks? All the weird colors. Guys don't wear orange or citron.		207
Don't be buying out of emotion. Buy less if you love something but feel it's a risky item. We don't want overstock. And remember: No profit, no fun!		208
I define leadership as: Emotionally, you own your business. You own it with passion. And you either have or you don't have an economic investment. But when you have all three of those, you are the boss from Day One, and you care every single day more than anyone.	Leadership	209
You have to build a team, but someone's got to lead, and someone's got to be unpopular at times.		210
Apple has beautiful design, beautiful product, incredibly functional. But mostly, it's about picking product, getting behind it, marketing it, and introducing it to a customer. What they've done just inspires me.		211
I don't size up their grades or their board scores. Because in America today, that's just an advantage certain people have. I size up the give and take, the speed of thinking, what I perceive as ambition. I say, 'Tell me about your high school jobs.' And I love people who worked in coffee shops who were waiters and waitresses.		212
Training is expensive, and a lot of kids don't get trained, perhaps. So I also identify with the kid or the person who has grown up in environments like I've grown up in.		213
I call them associates; I don't like the word 'employee.'		214
I like someone who's focused and can tell me what they've done well and not well and who's very open, honest, and self-aware.		215
If you get someone right out of college - and I meet a lot of them - you're not going to get a lot of experience at all, so you have to feel the ambition and desire, which is based on a lot of factors.		216
You banter, and you talk, and you get a sense of the speed of thinking and flexibility... It's not terribly scientific, but I interview a dozen or two dozen people a week, and I get a certain vibe reasonably fast.		217
Hong Kong has always been a dynamic and exciting and high-energy city, and it has that New York thing going on, and people here care about how they look.		218
You can't separate the clothes from the stores, from the environment.		219
My management style is there is no such thing as non-important people in the company.		220
My office has no walls. You can't be removed from your team to be successful. You have to be respectful of others.		221
The person is a resume, not what's on a piece of paper. Whoever gives advice about resumes in college should be dismissed. Titles don't matter. GPAs don't matter, nor does what school you go to.		222
I hire a lot of waiters, waitresses. Someone who's successful has a background that's not predictable.		223
Gap was essentially the American wardrobe that was well-priced, and it was attractive, and it was happy, and it had great color, and it has jeans, and I think we did the same with Old Navy. And I think we do the same with J.Crew at a much higher level, Madewell at another level.		224
My personal opinion about the world is that it's homogenized.		225
The British invented the classic look. Men's apparel was created in London, the great English style. You have to respect this country's suits, shirts, shoes, luggage.		226
What is fashion? I don't know.		301
Celebrities have nothing to do with style.		302
I grew up in the Bronx. I used to remember going to all these fancy stores in Manhattan to run errands or whatever, and I felt intimidated, like they did not talk to me because I was from the Bronx. I never want anyone to be intimidated by fashion. Fashion is fun or, at least, should be.		303
We have secured names and trademarks with either loose ideas or intentions, or with our imaginations. Sometimes things come of it, or they don't.		304
There are too many retailers. There are too many brands. There are too many designers. There are too many discount stores, and the predator online companies are selling discount like crazy.		305
I never wanted to compete on price in my history because on price, you don't always win.		306
I've yet to see a correlation in my industry between great social media and great numbers.		307
It is our job as always to focus on what we can control in the business.		308
First, as I've always said, it all starts with product, which means having the right assortment, styles, and fits. Second is price, where we strive to offer the best quality, style, and design at a fair value. This is critically important, given the highly promotional environment we are operating in. And third, traffic.		309
Customers don't just want to shop: they want to feel that the brand understands them.		310
If you get a pant that fits the woman, as all women know, you get a loyal customer for life.		311
While 2015 was challenging, we implemented many strategic and operational initiatives to improve our business and better position J.Crew for the future.		312
Fashion is guaranteed to never always be right.		313
Do it, do it right, pay close attention to the product, and over time, you will win.		314

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