By Jenna Goudreau, Forbes.com
Special to Online Career Tips
In 1999, veteran retailer Kay Krill gave birth to triplets: Twin boys and women’s casual clothing store the LOFT, which she launched as the little sister brand of up-market chain Ann Taylor. Today she is CEO of parent company Ann Inc., and LOFT is a billion-dollar business. The 57-year-old is also a mom of teenage boys who always make it home for dinner.
Krill sat down with me to discuss the latest at Ann, what it’s like leading a company of 20,000 women, the truth behind the “having it all” paradox and the one piece of career advice that changed her life.
Jenna Goudreau: You’ve been with Ann Taylor for 18 years, and CEO for seven. How has professional women’s fashion evolved over that time?
Kay Krill: It used to be that women thought they needed to wear a suit to look professional. Those days are gone. Women are dressing in versatile separates rather than matchy matchy jackets and pants. Color has also been trending. A year ago it was more about colorful tops, and now it’s colorful bottoms. We’re also selling more dresses and skirts.
In the last three years, Ann Inc.’s e-commerce business has doubled. How has that evolved the way you do business?
Every quarter we’ve seen significant double-digit gains. It’s meaningful. In September, we launched a multi-channel initiative, also referred to as omni-channel technology. When a person is ordering online and the inventory is gone from the warehouse, the order gets seamlessly filled from the stores. Previously, it was a loss. Our motto: If she wants it, she gets it. We’re seeing huge upside. All of us in the industry have been talking about it. Macy’s is in midst of switching over, and Saks may do it next year.
You also lowered prices. Was that to boost unit sales?
Last year, Ann Taylor had crept up in price. For example, in dresses we were wildly successful in the $98 to $138 range, but it had gotten to be $150 and up. We were missing business, so we invested more in the lower range. That was a big win, and we did it across categories.
You’ve talked about how important it is to lead a purpose-driven company. How do you do that at Ann?
When I first became CEO, I flew in store managers to talk about what we could do better to be more successful. I thought we’d be talking about sweaters. What they said is: Why don’t we have a charity arm or a green initiative? Why aren’t we giving back? At that luncheon I scribbled on my napkin: Ann Cares…women, children and our environment. That fall is when I gave birth to Ann Cares, which came straight from the associate base. We’ve given close to $25 million in the past six years to St. Jude’s and breast cancer research.
The company is also investing $1.3 million by 2014 in the ANNpower Vital Voices Initiative, which gives grants and mentoring to high-school girls. Why is it important to you to develop young women?
We are a company of women. We are 93% women, with 20,000 working here. Who better than us to invest in developing the next generation of women leaders? We honor 50 girls each year who submit an idea to help their community be better. We provide leadership training, grants and mentorship to rising high school juniors and seniors. We’re trying to equip them with the knowledge they need to develop their projects.
Are girls getting enough leadership training in schools?
No, I don’t think so. They want more.
You’re one of few women to achieve senior leadership status. Why are there so few women at the top?
You know the statistics—less than 4% of us are female CEOs and only 15% are board members. I think women are opting out early on in their careers. They’re having trouble figuring out how to have a family and a career at the same time. I worked hard at that. I admired Shelly Lazarus, one of my favorite mentors, because she was the CEO of Ogilvy & Mather and a mother of four children. She figured it out.
What’s the secret?
She said you have to jettison the people and things out of your life that don’t matter, and focus on what’s meaningful for you. I can’t tell you how liberating that advice was to me. In order to do what I do every day—run a company, run a family, be a great mother and great friend—you have to focus on what’s important. I don’t love the statement: Women can’t have it all. Nobody can have it all! Men or women. But you can have what you want if you focus on it and figure it out.
What did you jettison out of your life?
I used to say yes to everything. Now I easily say no to things that don’t matter to me, personally and professionally. You really find out who your true friends are on a leadership journey—the ones who are really there to support you and cheer you on.
I have figured out how to be a great leader and inspire the women here: By walking the walk. I’ve got twin boys about to be 13 (I’ve got my seat belt on!), so I come in early in the morning and go home at night to have dinner with my children. I attend every concert and sports event. Being a good working mother takes a lot of work. But because I’m the top leader and a mom, young women look at me and say, If she can do it, I can do it.
Does Ann provide systematic support and flexibility?
The first day that I became CEO I immediately opened a daycare center across the street to increase productivity at work. We provide flexibility in hours because the hours have to be flexible for young mothers and fathers to be with their children. It’s not just about being a mom; it’s about being a parent.
How do you see this conversation evolving for the young girls in your leadership program? What will be different for their generation?
It’s very polarizing right now. These young women are so energized. I feel like nothing is going to stop them. But they are in high school. What scares me is when they get to college. A couple years ago a Princeton report found that once [girls] arrived on campus, they were not raising their hands in class, not going for the top leadership roles (only the roles that do the work but don’t have the title), and not finding female mentorship from professors.
We want to get on top of this with the high-school students. I say: When you get to college, raise your hand in class and find a mentor. Don’t slide backwards. I went to all-girls schools, and that was a big advantage for me. I was scared of nothing. I went for the leadership roles. I had female mentors. It’s important for young girls to understand what they might experience in college and rise above it.
Is that something that happens with many women in their careers—they don’t raise their hands for the big assignments or top jobs?
They don’t. For some reason, we [women] don’t tend to ask for what we’re ready for. But men do. I don’t know how to get around that. Mentoring is one of the answers. That’s what’s so exciting about leading a company of women.
Do you still have a mentor?
Absolutely. Shelley Lazarus is one. I have lunch with her regularly. It doesn’t matter how far you get in your career. You’ve always got to have someone to encourage you and talk to about your concerns.
Did you always picture yourself running a company?
When I was younger I had no idea what I was going to do. I never aspired to be CEO of anything. I thought I would be a tennis teacher! I started on the Macy’s training program right out of college, and I fell in love with retailing. I’ve been at Ann Taylor for 18 years, and 12 years ago I started LOFT. I was the birth mother of triplets: I had twins and LOFT all in the same year.
How would you describe your leadership style?
Bottom up. I’m not an ivory tower CEO. I love to talk to associates. I’m out and about in the stores. I also have lunches with associates. When you have 7 or 8 people around the table breaking bread, they tell you everything, whereas no one raises their hand in a town hall. You learn more in smaller groups. I’m also pretty approachable and not intimidating, so people tell me what’s on their minds.
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