#265: Jim McCann, American entrepreneur and former CEO of 1-800-Flowers – Find a way to connect
How Leaders Lead with David Novak
David Novak Leadership
4.8 • 596 Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2025
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | One of my uncles suggested, well, maybe you ought to look at this bankruptcy thing where you can shed all that debt. |
| 0:06.5 | And my grandmother looked at me and gave me the Irish finger, David, come to that. |
| 0:11.2 | And she called me into the dining room and she just said to me, that bankruptcy thing, we don't do that. |
| 0:16.4 | Figure it out. |
| 0:22.4 | I got to imagine that Valentine's Day is your biggest day. Am I right on that? |
| 0:27.6 | Wrong. |
| 0:28.4 | Wrong. What is it? |
| 0:30.3 | Remember, we have flowers and gifts, and we have three categories of gifts, all of our floral |
| 0:34.2 | product or things we find in the greatest flower shop experience. |
| 0:38.7 | We have food gifts, and we are lead brand in our food gifts category is Harry and David. |
| 0:42.9 | So we grow pears and peaches and apples and kiwis and grapes and et cetera, et cetera, and make |
| 0:48.4 | wonderful gift boxes and gift baskets and prepared foods. |
| 0:52.2 | And then we have a newest division which is called personalization mall, things remembered. So it's all gifts that you would personalize. Like some of the knickknacks you see behind you there, we would manufacture those. So if there's a couple getting married, you might send them the champagne flutes with their names on it and the date of their wedding, all those kinds of things. |
| 1:13.0 | Now we have a big push on photography. |
| 1:19.2 | So if you would, you and your daughter had just finished your round of tennis and someone snapped a picture of you and you just loved it, you might send it to her this afternoon, |
| 1:22.6 | already framed or emblazoned on a mug for her to put with her collection. |
| 1:27.4 | That's great. |
| 1:28.7 | So that's to say that Valentine's Day is a busy holiday, particularly for the floral |
| 1:32.9 | brands and our chocolate brands. |
| 1:34.4 | But the biggest holiday in our calendar is the Christmas season, this fourth calendar |
| 1:38.4 | quarter, our second fiscal quarter, because all of our food gifts, this is their quarter. |
| 1:43.3 | Harry and David, this is their quarter. Cheryl's cookies, the popcorn factory, all of our food gifts, this is their quarter. Harry and David, this is their quarter. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Novak Leadership, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of David Novak Leadership and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

