BCBusiness

L aurent Potdevin is the rst to admit that he's a bit of a behind-the-scenes guy. "My passion is in building the best team the brand needs," says the French-Swiss CEO of Lululemon in accented but uent English, clad casually in a black cotton shirt, forest green khakis and slip-on black sneakers as we chat in late January in his Kitsilano oƒce. It's one of his rst sit-down interviews since joining the Vancouver-based apparel giant just over two years ago. "I'm not the CEO you're going to see in the press or every- where all the time. I'm pretty under the radar." While he may y under the radar with the press and pub- lic, the 49-year-old son of Pari- sian parents (his father was an engineer at CERN in Geneva when Potdevin was born) is a well-known commodity among employees, especially retail associates (who, in Lulu argot are "educators"; customers are "guests"). He visits most of the Vancouver stores on a weekly basis, always pops by locations while travelling for business or pleasure, and even worked the oor of the agship Robson location last Christmas Eve."I spent three hours at the cash. It's the best way to inter- act with people. They've made their decision, and then you can focus on them." Does he ever introduce himself to customers, or is he all Undercover Boss? "Well, once," he recalls, "to this woman who was run- ning in the SeaWheeze"—Lululemon's annual half-marathon, which attracts some 10,000 runners to Vancouver each August. "She came into the store and was buying a hundred-and-something dollars' worth of product and she had a gift card. And the gift card was $17 short. And she didn't have cash, didn't have anything else with her. And I said, 'Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it.' And she's like, 'You're going to get in trouble! Don't do that.' And I'm like, 'I'm the CEO of the company—it's our treat.' That's the one time I've done it. I put $20 in the cash register and that was it." Sure, the story makes the big guy look good, but the anecdote also gives you a sense of where Potdevin is taking Vancouver's global brand icon—now an almost-$2-billion enterprise with 9,000 employees and 354 retail locations on four continents. Since taking over in Jan- uary 2014, sales have increased over 25 per cent and more than 100 new stores have been opened. Last Christmas, when most retailers saw dismal results, Lulule- mon reported a "very successful" Cyber Monday-to-Christmas Day period, with 90 per cent of apparel sold at full retail price. In June 2015, Potdevin was ranked the top CEO in Canada in an anonymous survey of employees conducted by Glassdoor.com. (The question: "Do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company?" 93 per cent said yes.) And while the line of yogawear products is still critical to Lululemon's success, in the eyes of its new CEO, selling stu¨ is subordinate to the relationship the com- pany has developed with its customers and employees. Potdevin's move into the corner oƒce came at the tail end of one of the dark- est chapters in the 18-year-old company's history: the 2013 sheer pants contro- versy, founder Chip Wilson's "the pants don't work for some women's bodies" media asco, the running battle between Wilson, then- CEO Christine Day and the board. For Potdevin, job number one was restoring customer condence. "We had lost a little bit of love and loyalty that guests had for the brand. And I said, 'You know what? We're going to be guest-cen- tric rst. We are going to make the guest right—and if they're not happy with the product, we're going to listen and we're going to take care of them.'" As Potdev in explains it, what had happened to Lululemon was typical of fast-growing companies— including the two he'd previ- ously led, Los Angeles-based Toms Shoes (2011«2013) and Burlington, Vermont-based Burton Snowboards (2005- 2010). "I'd experienced that at Burton, I had experienced that at Toms: you grow incredibly fast and then you stumble. And then you have another in ection point." To reach that next in ec- tion point at Lululemon, Pot- devin had to not only ensure that quality was top-notch and customers were treated right but that employees had the condence to sell the brand. On that latter point, the CEO says he was surprised by what he found. "I was expecting to nd people within the com- pany who were demoralized or down after having been beaten down so much. And what I found was an ener®y inside the building and our stores—a positive approach, a passion, a level of engage- ment that I didn't expect to nd." The challenge was that "the brand, after the Chip debacle, had no voice," he says. "By virtue of being silent, it was the bad press that sort of took over." There were stories to be told—good stories, positive stories—but manage- ment had to give a "microphone" to cus- tomers and sales associates, as Potdevin PotdevIn sPent 15 yeARs wItH buRton, tHe LAst fIve As PResIdent And Ceo. "we HAd A bLAst buILdIng A bRAnd, A sPoRt And An IndustRy. we went fRom beIng tHIs CounteRCuLtuRAL teenAge boy smokIng doPe on A CHAIRLIft to buILdIng An oLymPIC sPoRt" 34 BCBusiness APRIL 2016

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