Ethan Allen's CEO Based His Business Model on a Cricket Team

At Barron's

Business

4.7 • 20 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen Interiors, caught up with Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Attention all passengers.
0:03.0	The Uber ride for Jeff's rugby team will depart in five minutes from Platform 15.
0:09.0	Your ride comes with six toilets and a refreshments carriage that you'll empty within five minutes.
0:16.0	Thank you for booking your tickets on Uber.
0:19.0	Trains on Uber. Trains on Uber.
0:25.4	I decided my business model to be based on a cricket team.
0:28.9	We have one team, one program.
0:31.6	When I took over to Ethan Allen, we owned,
0:33.3	we also operated four or five different other businesses.
0:35.8	I said, it's not a cricket.
0:38.3	How can I be captain of five different teams?
0:41.3	Hello, Farouk.
0:42.3	How you doing?
0:43.3	What a pleasure.
0:44.3	Good to have you here.
0:45.3	Farooq Cothwari got his start as the captain of a cricket team.
0:50.3	Since becoming the CEO of Ethan Allen in 1988, he's used some of the lessons he learned
0:55.6	on the field to modernize the 94-year-old furniture brand.
0:59.9	From the Barron Studio to the flagship Ethan Allen Design Center in Manhattan, which is a lot
1:04.6	smaller than it used to be, I talked to Cothwary about the changes he's driven over his
1:09.1	four decades of leadership at the company.
1:12.3	Ethan Allen interiors, people know this name, they know the brand, but why don't you give
	...

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