Job Title: Store Director
Location: New Jersey, NJ
Submitted on: 23-May-03
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I worked at Victoria's Secret Beauty during what I believe to be an
awkward period of growth for the company. During the nine months that I
worked for the company, we more than doubled the range of products
offered. These new product launches took place during a time of rapid
store expansion, in which they were also promoting a new, upscale store
design. The result was, in my opinion, a chaotic atmosphere that led to
rampant turnover and excessive burnout. At the end of a nine-month
tenure with this company, I personally knew over a dozen store directors
in my general geographic area who had left the company (many of whom
started after I did) as well as several district managers. The
president of the company resigned a few months later as well. I believe
this type of turnover to be the direct result of burnout caused by
constant change on a store and corporate level.
VSB is an organization that desires to win at any cost. Monthly
meetings were held with "must win" stores (these stores were designated
as "must win" status based on their volume potential, as well as
visibility within the marketplace) in which stores that were
not "winning" (meaning that they were not making sales plan) had the
opportunity to learn from the stores that were doing so. Ironically,
store directors as well as district directors were forced to wear
colored name badges. Two colors were worn--green, for if you were
making your sales plan; and red, if you were not. All red badges sat
together in the back rows, and all green sat in the front rows.
Individuals wearing green badges fought to be in the front row;
individuals with red badges had an interesting decision to make. Do I
sit in the front of the reds, to show corporate personnel that I am
meant to be "in the green" and being "in the red" is only a temporary
situation? Others decided to sit as far to the back as possible,
feeling so ashamed of their store's performance that they wanted
to "hide" from the corporate brass seated towards the front. It was
always interesting to note that at each meeting, there were perhaps 2-3
rows of "green" and a dozen or more "red"--meaning that the vast
majority of stores were not hitting sales plans. That, if anything, was
always my takeaway from these meetings... How is one to have confidence
in the outlook of the company if less than 1/3 of its most important
stores are making their sales plans? How were they justifying their
rapid expansion?
Weekly conference calls were held within the district, as well as
monthly conference calls with the region. These were excellent forums
for sharing ideas to promote successful sales. Stores that were ranking
near the bottom in categories were also called out. The intention was
to motivate the store directors, so that their stores would never be
called out as one of the "worst." They achieved their desired effect--
we were motivated never to be called out in the bottom of any category.
Desiring to win, most store directors work long hours. For the
individual who is built to win at all costs, this did not pose a
problem. I knew many people who were addicted to winning, and not
winning only motivated them to work harder to achieve the next success.
These were the individuals who were successful with the company, and
they represented that 30% that was "in the green." Their success
consumed them, made them better people and better managers. For the
other 70%, life at VSB consisted of 80-hour weeks or more, and limited
quality of life.
Bottom line, no company ever celebrated a success better than Victoria's
Secret Beauty. When you were succesful, the world absolutely smiled on
you, and you felt like a rock star. But no company ever shamed you more
for lack of success. Direct humiliation was considered to be valid
motivation. Success at VSB is an addiction; once you have it, you just
can't have enough. Failure never felt worse. I had the opportunity to
experience both. For that magical 30%, VSB is a career that was meant
for them. For the 70%, still trying to figure out where they are
sitting in their meeting, they are just trying to survive to the next
day, when they too might have the opportunity to have the world smile on
them.
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