How Williams-Sonoma’s CEO Built Her Career w/ Entrepreneurship | Ep. 11 | The Inflection Point

Welcome to the inflection point. I'm Monica Langley. Like many college graduates, Laura Albert headed west to start her career.

Drove out, no connections, no money, in my Jeep, with my friends.

She came here to San Francisco and started at Pottery Barn.

It's actually fairly intimidating. They're architects, they were designers, they were artists, they were chefs.

Now, three decades later, she has risen all the way up the ranks to become the CEO of its parent company, Williams Sonoma.

I was. I'm Joan. I became CEO on S40.

I'm here with Laura in the heart of San Francisco to talk about how her obsession with food, family, and home.

Fueled her climb to the top.

Laura, thank you so much for having me@Williamson Noma.

Yeah, thanks for being here.

It's so fun to be in the test kitchen.

Yeah, it is fun.

How often do you come here?

Not enough. I try to sneak down and get some food.

Exactly.

And see what they're doing. There's always something amazing happening.

This is so fun.

We have great chefs, and you have.

Great products that we all enjoy, so it's a treat to be here today. So you know the name of the show is called the Inflection Point. Right. So, of course, my first question to you is, what was your inflection point? When was that moment in your life when everything changed?

Yeah. So I guess it's kind of a section of life. You know, as a young woman with a career and good aspirations, I never thought I'd have kids. I would declare that, you know, passionately. And then my grandfather died. And whenever you watch anyone die, you, you know, really think about life and what's important. And so the minute that happened and he had passed, I said, let's have a baby. And it was so interesting to me. And I don't think people talk about this enough, but actually, in my entire career, being pregnant was the time I was most creative. I had so much energy, I could practically lift a car. I was, you know, I mean, I think, actually, if you study it, there's probably a lot of truth in that biologically. And I had a lot of ideas, and so I kind of went with it. I said, okay, let's make the most of this. And I wrote a business plan for Pottery Barn kids, and I actually recruited a bunch of really smart women who were here at the time who were also pregnant. Hmm. And we all worked on it together. I was running the Pottery Barn catalog at the time, and I think people thought, you should stay focused. What are you doing? Not to mention you're pregnant. So of course, people are actually thinking, well, she's got pregnancy brain. She's crazy. Of course this is what she thinks.

Exactly. And you went against the stereotype of that, where lots of times people think, oh, we're pregnant. I remember when I got pregnant with my daughter, people were like, oh, now she's gonna slow down. She's gonna get off the fast track. Because, like you, I was very career focused as well.

And it wasn't really met with the greatest support at first. So we actually went downstairs, and we have a garage in the basement. And we got the guys to clear the garage of the cars now. Right. Get them all out. And we set up a store.

Wow. And Pottery Barn Kids.

Of Pottery Barn Kids. And at the time.

Which did not exist.

Which did not exist. It was, you know, just stereotypical kid stuff. I remember I loved my Laura Ashley bedroom. I mean, I just signed one, too. Loved it, right? With all the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so we set this up, and we had four colors, and we set it up, you know, and the lamp plus the bedding, plus the rug and all of it and the curtains. And I grabbed my CEO, who was Howard at the time, and I said, come downstairs, please. I want to show you something. He's like, oh, yeah, what are we doing? And he walked in and he goes.

Launch catalog for Pottery Barn Kids.

And it was the most successful catalog that we ever have launched.

I mean, I myself was pregnant about that time. Was this in, like, 98 or something like that? Yeah. And I, like, got that catalog immediately and used it to decorate my daughter's room.

See?

Yeah. It's fantastic.

People say to me, well, so how'd you become CEO? I actually, really, really think, Monica, that it was that entrepreneurship and that business success and that courage that got people's attention.

Let's talk about the very beginnings of Laura Albert. You were an entrepreneur, but you even began as an entrepreneur when you were in college. Tell me about that. Starting your own business in college.

Yeah. Kind of funny, right? So I went to the University of Edinburgh for my junior year abroad, because I was at University of Pennsylvania and went over there, and at the time, there was all this sort of theatrical fashion, including big hats and capes and things. And so I came back and I started making them, and I figured out how to do the pattern and sewed them myself. I love to make things. And so I made them, and then I decided I was gonna go pedal them. I got one of those old antique trunks, and I printed up at Kinko's my order sheet. And I walked around, I took orders.

Wait, so you were selling these floppy velvet hats?

Yes.

Is that kind of what they were?

Yes. It gave me a lot of confidence, I gotta be honest with you, to be able to, again, go into a store and say, I'm here to show you some of these hats I'm making. Would you like to see them as the owner here and to get appointments and actually have them write orders. Thrilling.

Yeah. So then you graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and a lot of college graduates then are looking for a job, and you came west to San Francisco, where we are today.

But I wasn't sure I was going to stay here. I just came out kind of on a whim and. Oh, okay. Drove out, no connections, no money, in my Jeep, with my friends and looked for a job.

But it wasn't too long before you found your crew, love, which is now here at Williams Sonoma. So what was your first job here?

Well, here, my first job was senior buyer of the catalog, and I was the decac buyer. Do you know what decac is?

I have no clue.

Decorative accessories. So vases, frames, mirrors, objets.

Okay, cool.

The things you decorate with. For Pottery Barn. For Pottery Barn catalog.

What attracted you to this company?

I always had loved going antiquing with my mother and, you know, looking at pictures of houses. And I was at the life stage where, you know, you'd moved out of the college phase, and now you're thinking about your first apartment and building a life. And it was perfect, you know, And I came here, and everyone who worked here. I mean, it was remarkable. It was actually fairly intimidating. They were architects, they were designers, they were artists, they were chefs. And so I felt like, I gotta figure this out. And so I remember physically going to the library to read about the history of furniture. So I would know when they would say, this is a da, da, da da da chair. Oh, wow. I would know what the reference point was, because everyone talked that way even more than they do now. They did then.

How long was it then you became the head of catalog for Pottery Barn?

I'd say that I worked for a really talented, wonderful woman who gave me a lot of responsibility very quickly. And she had four kids, and so every time she went out, I got to run it. And then she came back and she decided she was gonna do something else. And I was promoted to the director of the catalog.

Well, now I have read that you said that was your biggest promotion in your career.

Well, I owned something, and I felt so proud to have gotten that job. I worked so hard to get.

And talking about how you owned it, that's one of the hallmarks of your leadership, I think, is that you always say, run it like you own it and treat it as if it's a permanent job. So has that always been the way you look at each job? Because most people want a job, that they're going to think this is a stepping stone to the next job.

I do think the journey might be more important than anything, because if you're always just thinking about the next, you can be really disappointed. But if you do a great job, I think, and you own it, as you just said, people notice. You know, they know if you're going the extra mile, you always know the shopkeeper, you know, who owns the shop, because they are sweeping the floor every night, as Chuck Williams did. And so, you know, the stories here are very much aligned with that idea.

And Chuck Williams is the founder.

Chuck Williams is the founder of Williams Sonoma.

Then, as we talked about your inflection point, you came up with Pottery Barn kids. And so do you think Pottery Barn success really propelled the trajectory of your career?

For sure. We got a great business from it. And you see so many women and men who take something they're passionate about and make business out of it.

Right, right.

And I think it's really important to realize it's okay to do that and to, you know, think that way.

And then Howard, the CEO, named you or you became the president of Williams Sonoma.

I became the president. I think it was sometime in 2006. He was, you know, wanting to retire and have a successor. And, you know, I wanted to do William Sonoma, the brand I was doing, Potter Barn brands. And he said, no, no, no, you will do supply chain.

Supply chain. Sounds boring.

Well, exactly. But the truth of the matter is he was right that I needed to learn that and be good at it. And he wanted. It was a test, you know. You know, it was a test to see. He actually gave me a metric. He said, you need to drop the return rate by 150 basis points. If you do that, I'll make you some other title. I was like, okay, let's go.

So you like that goal?

Yep. And I liked the work. And I still, to this day, it's one of my favorite parts of my job. Logistics, transportation, sourcing, all of it.

Who would have known?

Who would have known? So sometimes people know better than you about your career is the lesson I take from that.

When did you realize then that you were proving yourself enough to be the Next CEO.

I never thought about it that way. You did. I think he was thinking about it more, but I was just kind of doing my thing, you know, trying to be really present, do a great job. And I was young. I became CEO when I was 40.

I was young.

So now you never think you're young until you're old. But at the time, I was really patient. I loved him. I loved working for him. I liked the people around me. I would have done it for a lot longer.

Okay, so now you've been the CEO for like, some 15 years or something.

That's crazy, right? I think I'm the longest standing female CEO.

Yeah. One thing that I found in doing the inflection point is there is an alarming scarcity of female CEOs. So, Laura, how do you feel about that and how can we improve that situation? I can see you are in a position as a CEO to bring up more women as CEOs. So are you doing that at Williams Sonoma?

Yes. I mean, we've won so many wonderful gender equity awards. We have 55% women in executive positions. We just named another female director yesterday. We are now majority over the majority women on our board. We have so many awesome women and different types of women that I think people can see our company and they can see themselves and they can say, I can be successful here. So we get really strong women. We encourage strong women discussion, we argue and we do all those things. And. And we have a great culture as a result to bring up women. We also have awesome men. You know, it's not all women. You know, I've always said it's not that I think all women should work. I don't think all men should work. Why not? Right. I think it makes for a better world.

Let's talk about your success in digital. Because the one thing that you have said is we're digital first, but not digital only.

Right.

Which really struck a chord because that's. Everybody's like, rushing to digital. We need a digital transformation. Tell me about your philosophy.

So from the beginning, not the total beginning, but we have had these catalogs. Right.

Which I love.

Yeah. And so dtc, direct to consumer was the catalog business. And then when the Internet came, of course, those who knew how to do the catalogs knew how to ship to the home. They knew how to market to the individuals. They knew how to do photography, lifestyle photography. So it was easier for us to go online than others. And we're close to 70% now of DTC. Okay, well, the store back to the store. I mean, when you think of Apple, what do you think of?

Well, I go to my store.

The store.

Right.

So anybody who thinks that it's just online to build a brand, I think is wrong. I think going to a store is the experience, the smell, the people, the help. Some trusted expert who can help you decorate your home. Because the business we're in, you know, different than clothing. I mean, I can buy a dress and send it back and it's quick. Right. And I can wear it one time and, you know, maybe I don't love it, and it's not the end of the world. You're doing your living room, and I don't care what your budget is. It's a lot of money for you. And that living room takes a while. It's dimensional. And the last thing you want to do is get all that furniture delivered and send it back.

So even though you have become a leader in home furnishings, e Commerce, and 70%, it's still very important to have that store. You're not going to do away with that.

Yeah. And it's so important that they're great. Okay, so this is a mock store so we can actually see how the product stories come together. And this is holiday. So you're getting a sneak peek.

Oh, I'm getting so excited.

A sneak peek.

This is why I love coming to Williams Sonoma for the holiday. I can plan what special touches to add for my family celebrations.

That's awesome. It's not perfect, but you can see everything that we are going to be doing.

They're so fun. Your leadership at Williams Sonoma has been filled with all this kind of retail innovation. And I know a lot of it has just been your instincts just going with your gut. But you also have been adding analytics.

Oh, yes.

Tell me how you incorporate analytics with your instincts.

So I think, I mean, why not have the facts right? Yeah. And so many times, I mean, there's times you're really sure you don't really want to test it, but there's other times where somebody else has a stronger point of view. And if you have a stronger point of view and I have a weaker point of view, but I still have a point of view, it might be good to ab test it. And we have always had, because of the catalog business, this history of data analytics and a data analytics team. I'm going to say, and I know this might sound arrogant, but I'm going to say I actually think we are now a retail tech company. We have some of the best tech people around People always say, how do you keep them? You're in the Bay Area, they really like it here. They like working on our products. And we have a culture that allows them, you know, a little more balance, I think, than some.

Now then we came to Covid, and here. I don't know if you were able to use your instincts or your analytics to that, or was it all out the window because we were in a pandemic? How did you handle that? What were your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, it's terrifying, right? I mean, I thought the company would go under, and I was just heartbroken because we were doing so well and we had so many great plans in place, and I really thought they were going to not only shut our stores, but shut all of dtc. And so I went and did some real soul searching about what to do. And I had our incredible finance team run a bunch of numbers and scenarios to say, how long can we make it if we have zero revenue? So I did the zero revenue.

You took the very worst case scenario.

I did. I know. I hate to admit it, but I did. And when you stare down at the abyss, I guess, and you say, look, we can make it for this long, or if we don't, if we get rid of and lay off a bunch of people, we can make it this much longer. I was like, well, let's just go deep together. Let's keep everybody. And if we go down, we're all going down. And so then we started to see that our business wasn't so bad and it wasn't zero and we were going to be fine. But also something amazing happened, which is these people started innovating and doing design chat online. So these incredible store people that I tell you sell things like you can't believe are now answering the phones. You call, you want to do your family room, they're answering the phones. And so they also really drove our business.

So when you saw your employees innovating during the pandemic, was this an example of what you've talked about and taught within the company of taking ownership of your position?

Yeah, I mean, people were amazing. I can't tell you, though, that I think it was because I role modeled it. I actually think you have to hire entrepreneurial people.

They weren't just copying the CEO.

I think we have people that are amazing and we look for it and yes, we encourage it, but I think it's within themselves. I do think they know that we're gonna give them the leash to do it right, like we're gonna promote it. And celebrate it, and they're not gonna get in trouble. They know that. But I think it's the people who just wake up in the morning and think about the world that way. And we happen to have a lot of them working for us, and they.

Know this is the atmosphere.

I think that's crazy. I think they come to us and we select them, and it makes for a very entrepreneurial company.

You came out of this terrible year with a 300% increase year over year.

I mean. Right. Who would have thunk?

I mean. And you were the one who gave yourself zero percent. Zero. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. What did this teach you?

I guess it's back to follow your instincts and be generous and try to do something bigger than yourself. Right. Those things. But it is unbelievable still, the loyalty that came of it and the closeness, even though we weren't physically together because we talked so much and we all were in the same boat.

All right, so now you're talking about the future, and one of your key goals is sustainability.

Yes.

What is your ambition in that area?

So I want to be number one leaders in sustainability. We are in our category. So on the Barron's list, we're the only home furnishings retailer.

Are you kidding?

Yeah. This is top 100. We make the list, and we keep moving up. And that was before. It was kind of popular, you know. Now consumers care more.

Yeah.

They're demanding it. So that's great, because that gives us more business reason to do it.

You're producing less catalogs, which we know.

Are not great for trees, although it's recycled paper.

Oh, good to know. And then, of course, we continue to order from all your stores. And there's still Styrofoam in the packages.

Yes. Which I'm horrified by.

What are you gonna do about that?

I'm trying to get rid of it. There are certain things that it's harder to take out, you know, And I have a very, you know, strong environmentalist friend who I asked, and she said, laura, the worst thing you can do is have broken stuff.

Well, that's for sure.

But there's gotta be an alternative. And there's some things. Are you trying to. Yeah, but. So when you do complicated things, like a lighting fixture has a lot of parts. That's what I got.

Some lighting fixtures.

You have to have the Styrofoam cut to a mold.

It was cut in a mold.

Otherwise, it's really hard. The thing, no matter how much you stuff it and wrap it, it's gonna do this. Okay, so we're working on it. That is one of my biggest goals is to eliminate. I think it's very visibly off brand.

Okay, let's talk about you and this brand, Williams Sonoma. When we talk about Williams Sonoma and your brands, I also know that you have so many obsessions and passions of your own that fit within this company. You love homes, you love food.

I still love homes.

And when you and I had a Zoom call recently, we were talking and I was like, what's she looking at? And you were looking at my bookcase behind me, and I was like, what? What? And you're like, we need to redesign your bookcase. And you wanted me to change all my books by color, organize them by color. And I organized them kind of like by topic. And so I'm like, oh, my God. She not only does this at work, she can't resist as a person. Okay. And then do you like to eat a lot of your products? Do you like to try them out?

Because you.

Because you do this, I have to.

Work out, like an hour a day so I can eat. It's the only reason. Yeah. I mean, I love to eat.

What else are your obsessions that you bring to or your passions that you've brought to Williams Sonoma or any of your brains?

I'll be honest, I love people. So I'm the person that talks to everyone everywhere. Okay. And as a result, you kind of get a sense of what people are looking for.

Right.

So I've always said it's not like I have, you know, the best taste in the world or something. I don't declare that. It's that I have a commercial eye and I'm observant.

But your fans are just as obsessed with Williams Sonoma, whether it's that smell. They talk about what to do to make their home smell that way.

Yeah. Yes. You know, you read that stuff and they mold spices.

Yeah. They do Tiktoks. They do Instagrams on you. Have you ever learned anything from your fans?

Oh, my gosh. And they do tons. Like, Potter Barn is the decorating Mecca. Right. Christmas, amazing Christmas decor. And they have tons of UGC on the website, so you can go on and see all that user's content and how they're doing their homes with our things. And it's super creative.

Now, how often do you change your home?

You'd be surprised. Not as much as you think, huh? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of the shoemakers, children have no shoes situation. I have a older house that I adore, and it looks good with antiques in it. And then I bring in new upholstery and things. But the thing I do do constantly is cook for people. That's the truth.

And do you cook every day?

I cook a lot. I probably cook five days out of seven.

Wow. That is a lot.

Yeah, I cook a lot. I love. Cause I love to eat. And I love to cook.

Wow. I love to eat, but I don't love to cook. Laura, thank you so much for having me today. It's been great to hear all about your climb and at Williams Sonoma and all the success that you've built here.

Thank you. You made me think today, so I appreciate that very much. Thank. You.