The CEO Of Joseph Talks Career Advice

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is this: the more responsibility you have, the more you feel like an entrepreneur. You can’t have a very fixed work/life balance. Sometimes, the business will just require more of you. During the initial stages of our turnaround, for example, we had to be ‘on’ almost all the time. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a day off but you’re constantly thinking and stewing – even on holiday. For me, it’s been about embracing that flexibility and accepting things for what they are.  

Maintaining a personal routine gives me stability. Being outdoors in the fresh air keeps me grounded. I don’t live in the city, which fits me well, and I start every day with a dog walk and no phone. When I get back, I have a matcha and spend ten minutes thinking about the day ahead. I also use my commute home to debrief with myself and understand where we could have done better. They’re small things but these rituals are very important to me. 

During my time at Furla and DVF, Joseph was very much on my radar – mainly because it was the same price positioning. We had a lot of the same clients, so I wondered why the brand wasn’t necessarily tapping into the same things we were. When the opportunity to join the business came up, I really saw its potential. If it had the right vision and the right team, I knew it could flourish and regain its voice. 

I didn’t look at the CEO role as a challenge but as an opportunity. The brand’s legacy was so strong, and there was so much history – it just needed the right people in the right roles to really push it forward. That said, there were some tough decisions to make around product, distribution and people – and those have been the hardest times really. 

One of the first things we did at Joseph was narrow down the offer. We also wanted to re-elevate the product, making sure it’s well-crafted and reliable. Everything in your wardrobe has to have a purpose. It’s taken time to really dig into who our customer is and who we want the customer to be. On the distribution side, we had to make many hard choices to achieve the efficiencies we needed to move forward. For example, we paused on menswear and shut down the American business as the stores there were underperforming. Organisationally, we had to completely redesign how we communicate. We had a very linear structure, but it was also heavily siloed, so we had to work to bring everyone under one roof where people could collaborate – marketing need to talk to merchandising, who need to talk to retail, who need to talk to wholesale and so on. 

During my time in the industry, luxury has shifted massively. It’s not necessarily one factor that has brought us to this point either – there have been lots of things to bring about this ‘awakening’. Covid, the cost-of-living crisis – things like this change your perspective. I also think consumers want real authenticity today. A brand has to offer them more than a garment with a logo on it. They also think much more about over-consumption and sustainability, and where these products go next. That’s why you’ve seen such a proliferation in resale sites. Brands have to do better because consumers expect them to.