#59: Scott Mahoney, Peter Millar Chairman & CEO—Go the Distance for Quality

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

David Novak Leadership

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

4.8 • 596 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scott Mahoney, the Chairman and CEO of Peter Millar, goes the distance to for quality in how he shapes the brand and develops his people. Coming up in business, it wasn’t until Scott worked at Polo that he found his love for golf and apparel sales married in an exciting career. He was inspired to buy Peter Millar during the long drive back from a USGA meeting, and moved quickly to scale the brand up. Scott leads with attention to getting things done more efficiently by getting people excited to do them. For example, knowing that Peter Millar product can only be sold once store associates put it on the floor, Scott and his team designed the shipping arrangements to be intuitive for stockroom employees to handle. He even threw a mint in the shipping box to sweeten the deal. Scott was quick to bring nearly everything in house to ensure the quality of product, marketing, promotion, finance, and production, and has taken the apparel world by storm as a result. SHOW NOTES Peter Millar then and now How Scott got into fashion and sales at Polo How the crazy idea to buy Peter Millar became reality Turning a golf sweater company into a lifestyle brand Getting into Nordstrom and the trick to getting product from box to shelf Getting into brick and mortar Clothing the US President’s Cup golf team Building an e-commerce business with the same great quality Getting to the top and staying focused Building a high-quality culture Lightning Round Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources: The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.
0:12.3	I break down the key learnings so that by the end of this episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader.
0:21.7	That's what this podcast is all about.
0:24.8	Today's guest is Scott Mahoney, the chairman and CEO of Peter Millar.
0:29.4	Now, I happen to be wearing one of his shirts right now, one of his sweaters right now,
0:33.8	one of his pair of slacks right now.
0:35.6	I love this guy's line of clothing. Believe me, it's
0:39.2	unbelievable. You know, I once heard someone say, your core values are only your core values if they
0:46.0	cost you something. That's so true. When a leader says they're all about the customer, you'll know
0:52.3	that they actually mean it when the business is willing
0:55.3	to put their money where their mouth is. The great leaders I know go the distance for quality,
1:01.3	serving customers the best product they can create, and they're willing to invest in people,
1:06.8	resources, improve their processes, do whatever it takes to make their product and their services the absolute best. Now, when Scott talks about putting the customer first to Peter Millar, believe me, he's not just talking the talk, he's walking the talk. In fact, he says it's never about trying to make more margin or trying to take
1:28.7	something out of your product. It's always about adding something to your product. It's about
1:34.1	the customer being first, not the bottom line being first. Now, that's some real wisdom. So here's
1:41.3	my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Scott Mahoney.
1:52.0	Scott, I can't wait to dig into Alia lead, but first a little background.
1:56.6	You team up to buy Peter Millar in 2005, which at that time only had $4 million in revenues,
2:02.2	and you had just five employees.
2:04.4	Give us a snapshot of your company today.
2:07.4	David, we've been able to grow the company to 350 employees.
2:12.1	We sell around the world.
	...

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