{"id":1737,"date":"2015-05-29T14:36:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T18:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/?page_id=1737"},"modified":"2015-07-01T09:41:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T13:41:51","slug":"retails-power-couple","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/summer15\/retails-power-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail\u2019s Power Couple"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE NEXT TIME<\/strong> you find just the right outfit at Macy\u2019s or JCPenney or Neiman Marcus or Barneys, you can thank Allen Questrom (BSBA\u201964, Hon.\u201915)\u2014if it weren\u2019t for him, many of America\u2019s best-known shopping meccas would be consigned to history.<\/p>\n

In a 40-year career, Questrom earned a reputation as the master of retail turnaround\u2014among the accolades bestowed on him by the press are \u201cmerchant prince\u201d and \u201cretail legend,\u201d even, he says, the \u201cMother Teresa of retail.\u201d<\/p>\n

That renown was cemented during a close to two-decade period when Questrom saved four venerable names in close succession. From 1988 to 1990, he was the president and CEO who restored Neiman\u2019s profitability and reputation for stellar customer service. From 1990 to 1997, he was the chairman and CEO who led Federated Department Stores out of bankruptcy, acquired rivals Broadway Stores and Macy\u2019s, Inc., and repositioned Federated to become a bigger and better Macy\u2019s. In 1998, he was the chairman, president, and CEO who led Barneys New York out of bankruptcy and renewed its high luxe luster, and finally, between 2000 to 2005, he was the chairman and CEO who turned around the failing JCPenney Company and made its clothes cool again.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>
\nWith his wife, Kelli (Hon.\u201915), a natural fashionista and fashion promoter, he helped set trends from fashion for the home to the latest in menswear.<\/p>\n

He did it, in part, by asking questions\u2014lots of questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d talk to the elevator operators, I\u2019d talk to the greeter at the front door, I\u2019d talk to the people in the distribution center. I\u2019d ask them, \u2018What\u2019s going on, how do we do this better?\u2019 They all had useful ideas. There\u2019s not one person in a company who can\u2019t make a contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also made sure to lay down the law in the boardroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason businesses get into trouble is not the people who work there, but generally the boss\u2019 lack of focus or understanding of the company culture,\u201d says Questrom, who says he rarely fired anyone. Most top brass didn\u2019t have a sharp strategy, and he\u2019d tell them, \u201cWe\u2019re going to identify five objectives to focus on\u2014memorize them. When we talk, let\u2019s make sure it\u2019s about those five issues, because they\u2019re going to be the key to getting our business to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strategy, he says, \u201cstarts with walking around our stores and our competitors\u2019 stores, talking to people.\u201d Sales assistants would figure the guy in the suit and tie asking all the questions was probably just a mid-level boss\u2014they rarely saw them\u2014and would show Questrom everything, good and bad. The strategy worked equally well in competitors\u2019 stores, where sales associates enjoyed the attention and assumed he was a colleague.<\/p>\n

His goal was to get his employees believing in the business again and in their role in the renewal process. \u201cYou want to share the strategy with everyone in the company. They have to see it as\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0company or they\u2019re not going to give the effort their all.\u201d<\/p>\n

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF LUCK<\/h3>\n

Questrom may have inherited the conviction that he could fix just about anything from his father, a self-employed machinist in Waltham, Massachusetts, who never failed to make broken things work again. Clocks, toys, even airplanes\u2014if it broke, he could fix it. His son didn\u2019t plan on following his father into the machine business, and apart from an early dream of becoming a pilot (his eyesight didn\u2019t make the grade), never had a burning career goal. Questrom says his primary motivation for going to college was to please his doting grandmother, who pestered him into making the commitment: \u201cGot to make grandma happy.\u201d Early on, he says, he saw the importance of family values and a strong work ethic.<\/p>\n

At Boston University\u2014chosen because he could commute to campus by train\u2014Questrom paid his own way with money earned from evening and weekend jobs, including one that required him to drive trucks filled with hazardous waste down to New York City. Kelli Questrom would also earn her way through school, although with a bit more glamour: she supplemented her full scholarship by playing guitar and singing in clubs. (In between, she was waiting tables and becoming a pretty good cook by watching the chefs\u2014after all, she says, \u201cthe first appeal of food is its presentation.\u201d)<\/p>\n

As graduation neared, Questrom still didn\u2019t have a \u201cspecific mission,\u201d he says, and landed in retail because of a forward-looking professor and a healthy dose of luck. Questrom wanted to become a ski instructor after graduation, but Allen Beckwith (Hon.\u201979), his retail elective professor at BU, suggested the renowned executive training program at Abraham & Straus, the Brooklyn\u2013based division of Federated Department Stores. Beckwith landed him an interview, and when the winter of 1964 failed to deliver a big punch of powder, Questrom\u2019s fate was sealed.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHE\u2019S ALWAYS EMBRACED THE IDEAS THAT THERE\u2019S NO END TO WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE IF YOU DON\u2019T CARE\u00a0WHO GETS THE CREDIT AND THAT UNBOUNDED SUCCESS IS A RESULT\u00a0OF SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE SMARTER THAN YOU ARE.<\/span>\u201d<\/h4>\n
KELLI QUESTROM<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

He rose quickly through the ranks at Federated, and by 1980, was head of the newly acquired Rich\u2019s division in Atlanta. He took over the Bullock\u2019s, Bullock\u2019s Wilshire, and I. Magnin divisions in Los Angeles four years later. Even in those early years, he was earning a reputation for turning flagging divisions around. When he joined the family-run Rich\u2019s, it was performing at the bottom of the Federated pile; it soon had profits outstripping all the other stores. \u201cA lot of the time,\u201d Questrom says, \u201cthe problem is that people who have grown up in a company haven\u2019t looked outside the company to see if there are better ways to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, he\u2019d encounter another faltering retailer with a long history of family ownership: Barneys New York. Questrom helped the luxury department store chain, which was in bankruptcy protection between 1996 and 1999, establish a firmer foundation. During his tenure, Barneys also launched its COOP stores, a bridal shop, and a maternity line. He was the first outsider to run JCPenney in its nearly 100-year history. In the year before he took over as chairman and CEO, the chain\u2019s stock had dropped 80 percent;\u00a0Bloomberg Business<\/em>\u00a0said its \u201cfashions are tired, its prices unreasonable.\u201d After four years of Questrom\u2019s leadership, JCPenney was leaner\u2014periphery businesses were sold\u2014and more centralized and efficient. It was also trendier, gaining customers, and meeting its financial goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re willing to take on the tough problems and confidently stick with it,\u201d he says, \u201cpeople take notice, and with each small success, you and your employees gain confidence and a reputation for innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE MAKING OF A CEO<\/h3>\n

There was another dose of good fortune in 1964\u2019s snowless weather. It was at Abraham & Straus that Questrom would later meet his future wife.<\/p>\n

Kelli Questrom says that as a child she \u201cwas a quick study of fashion and design.\u201d Her family didn\u2019t shop at the upscale Montaldo\u2019s specialty store in her hometown of Denver, Colorado, but she enjoyed browsing its aisles. Just as Questrom was guided into retail by a farsighted educator, so too was Kelli. Her retail professor recommended her for Abraham & Straus\u2019 coveted junior executive training squad, which exposed college students to the world of retailing during the summer between junior and senior year. Kelli finished her stint with a job offer. Just 10 months later, a day after graduation, she started as director of youth marketing. She and Questrom met in the employee cafeteria, says Kelli, and soon built a \u201cvery strong peer-supported friendship.\u201d He taught her about operating statements and flash sheets; she taught him about advertising and sales promotion.<\/p>\n

The partnership later became an enduring romance, but a pattern of professional cross-pollination had been set. Kelli\u2019s interest in architecture and design helped inform Questrom\u2019s approach to store design, wardrobe fashion, and fashion for the home; her natural fashion sense helped him anticipate a nation\u2019s changing tastes. One story claims her as an early inspiration for Ralph Lauren\u2019s now-famous menswear-as-womenswear look. Kelli says she \u201chad purloined and altered to fit me\u201d some of her husband\u2019s Ralph Lauren Polo clothing. At the time, she was an editor at\u00a0Mademoiselle<\/em>\u00a0magazine and wore the transformed clothing when covering one of the Ralph Lauren fashion shows. The designer spotted her (her Borsalino hat adding to the innovative look), discovering the Annie Hall look before the eponymous lead in Woody Allen\u2019s 1977 romantic comedy gave it its enduring name. Lauren later offered Kelli a job marketing his new womenswear line (she took the job) and wearing it as if it had been made on her\u2014which it had been.<\/p>\n

Kelli says her husband\u2019s leadership style informed her own: \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a corporate mind\u2014very much a team player. He\u2019s always embraced the ideas that there\u2019s no end to what you can achieve if you don\u2019t care who gets the credit and that unbounded success is a result of surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you are\u2014or who at least fill your voids. That takes confidence in yourself and in others and opens up endless opportunities for all players\u2019 earned success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWHAT GETS YOU READY FOR THE JOB OF CEO IS YOUR HANDLING OF MANY DIFFERENT CHALLENGES. YOU NEED A VAST ARRAY OF WORK EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO BUILD A WARDROBE OF SKILLS THAT ARE APPLICABLE TO PROBLEM-SOLVING.<\/span>\u201d<\/h4>\n
ALLEN QUESTROM<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been a team since the moment we met,\u201d says Questrom. \u201cAny successful partnership is about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We\u2019re still teaching and teasing each other and having a great time doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is lucky, because Questrom has always been totally focused on his career: he was famous for getting to work early to deal with administrative tasks, then spending much of every day walking the stores and markets. On weekends, he and Kelli would hit the main streets and malls, sizing up rivals. \u201cIt was really a seven-day-a-week job, but it didn\u2019t feel like work,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause if you love what you do, you\u2019ll never work a day in your life. We work not so much for the material benefits as for the joy of doing what we really like to do, and for the energizing pride that comes of doing something well.\u201d<\/p>\n

But none of it was done with the aim of one day running the whole show.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus was always doing each job and doing it well, and getting on to the excitement of the next one,\u201d says Questrom. \u201cI eventually became a CEO because I was always focused on making the company I was working for the most improved and admired company in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat gets you ready for the job of CEO is your handling of many different challenges. You need a vast array of work experiences in order to build a wardrobe of skills that are applicable to problem-solving. If I graduated from college or graduate school and suddenly found myself a CEO, I wouldn\u2019t expect to be truly qualified, because I\u2019d have missed all those essential learning steps. I may have the title, but the title\u2019s nothing\u2014call me anything you want, but it\u2019s what is supporting the title that counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE SKI SLOPES WIN AT LAST<\/h3>\n

Questrom\u2019s reputation as the retail rescue king required a lot of relocation: seven cross-country moves during his career. Kelli says the disruption gave her an opportunity to make a contribution to the pair\u2019s success\u2014and to burnish their turnaround reputation. At every move, she led the profitable renovation, restoration, or construction\u2014and prompt sale when it was time to move again\u2014of 10 architectural gems they\u2019ve called home. A Bauhaus home filled with red shag carpet by previous owner Motown impresario Berry Gordy was restored to its modernist elegance; a Hollywood Hills flat the Questroms built was later snapped up by pop star Madonna.
\n

<\/p><\/div>
\nSince retiring in 1986 after a \u201cblessedly early\u201d diagnosis of breast cancer, Kelli has dedicated much of her time to civic and philanthropic pursuits, serving institutions as diverse as the Greater Los Angeles Partnership for the Homeless and the national board of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. She\u2019s also been a trustee of the Aspen Art Museum for 7 years and the Dallas Museum of Art for 12 years, and is a member of the board of trustees of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. The Allen & Kelli Questrom Foundation has endowed educational programming at both the Aspen and the Dallas museums, as well as a free docented tours program for public and charter school students at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, an institution Questrom formerly served as a trustee; the couple are currently members of its National Committee. Kelli is also an advocate for preventive medicine, speaking by invitation on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

When he completed the JCPenney undertaking, Questrom officially retired, too, although he stays busy as senior advisor of Lee Equity Partners, counseling entrepreneurial start-ups, and sitting on a handful of corporate boards. This retirement, he says, is final. He stepped down a couple of times before, between turnaround assignments, to hit the ski slopes and travel with Kelli, but was enticed back by the thrill\u2014and peril\u2014of rescuing a famous retail name. Once, he even turned down an opportunity to run Columbia Pictures. \u201cI thought about it for about 24 hours and decided, I\u2019m going skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retail had made it into his heart\u2014skiing had never left it\u2014and taking on a smooth-sailing ship was never an option. \u201cWhen he was mid-career,\u201d says Kelli, \u201cthere was going to be a change of leadership at Bloomingdales\u2014and it had been very well run\u2014and I offered, \u2018Maybe you want to be chairman of Bloomingdales.\u2019 He said, \u2018Why? There\u2019s nothing wrong at Bloomingdales.\u2019 Allen always likes a challenge, and turning it into an opportunity that raises all boats for everyone with an oar in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE NEXT TIME you find just the right outfit at Macy\u2019s or JCPenney or Neiman Marcus or Barneys, you can thank Allen Questrom (BSBA\u201964, Hon.\u201915)\u2014if it weren\u2019t for him, many of America\u2019s best-known shopping meccas would be consigned to history. 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