Karen Katz - Neiman Marcus and Randal Pinkett
She started working at Neimans in 1985 then worked her way up to CEO in 2000. She's a UT alum and then went to graduate school at Harvard. During her speech you could tell she knew everything about retail from the ground up.
Some things I found the most interesting about the speech:
- When she first applied with Neimans, she did not get the job.
- The web-based store at NeimanMarcus.com does $600+ million in sales a year! (I love how NeimanMarcus, Nordstroms and other large retailers setup their websites...I want to find out what they use and copy them).
- Her favorite brand is Target....says she spends massive amounts of money at Target (Interesting....)
- "A brand is not saying what it is, it's what the customer THINKS it is."
- Average Neimans shopper has a household income of $200,000+
- "Selling is a skill to master. You will ALWAYS be selling no matter what you do."
It turned out to be a good speech, and I got a picture with her afterwards:
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The same day, I attended the Austin Big Idea event which helps people start and grow small businesses. The main headliners were Gary Hoover (who I met the day before) and Dr. Randal Pinkett, the Donald Trump-selected Apprentice.
Dr. Randal is actually a really amazing person (and basketball-player-tall). He's a Rhodes Scholar, graduated with five degrees, owns a multi-million dollar company, and was selected as The Apprentice.
He gave a speech talking about the importance of small businesses, and his experience starting one himself. One main point he drove home was to create a lasting entity....A company that can sustain itself if the founder was suddenly taken away. He got lots of reaction out of the audience, and he actually turned out to be a GREAT speaker!
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Action Plan after the speeches:
1.) Research what NeimanMarcus, Nordstroms, Macy's use for their online web stores. They all look very similar and have super-simple shopping carts. I like.
2.) Begin process of making small businesses much larger, and delegate some of the work.
Labels: Meeting CEO's
posted by Neville @ 1:03 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Joe
http://legpower.blogspot.com/
Nice post, I find it very inspiring the way you are never happy with what you know. You always seem to want to learn more from whoever you can. That is a very good trait to have.
Keep it up.
That Business Holding account is a tad confusing. You're very vague in your explanation. Is it some kind of deferred revenue account?
-Manny
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