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At every company he joins, Gary Kusin hangs three words on the wall: “The data it's oxygen.” That simple mantra guided him to co-found the business that would become it GameStopco-founder of Laura Mercier makeup brand and management of $2.4 billion merger between Kinko's and FedEx. In his book, Always Learning: Lessons from Leveling up from GameStop to Laura Mercier and BeyondKusin emphasizes how his retail breakthroughs stem from his attention to data.
“I need data and it's very hard for me to go “Well, we'll print it. Let's go open these stores.” No, let's not do that,” says Kusin. “Let's have the answers to the questions the landlord might ask us. Let us know, entering into a negotiation, what percentage of the rent we can afford. So when an owner tells us what deal they're proposing, whether it's that much or less, we're going to be fine.”
When we think of data, we usually think quantitative data or numbers. However, some of the most important data points that Kusin collected during his career were qualitative, focusing more on characteristics than quantity.
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For example, he noticed that department stores were losing out by showing up specialized stores HOW Blockbuster. He shared this observation with his former Harvard Business School classmate, Jim McCurry, who worked in the emerging video game sector. Drawing similarities between video games and Blockbuster, the duo launched the world's first software retail store, Babbage's — or as we know it today, GameStop.
“We did our homework,” Kusin says. “We made sure we had hypotheses about what was going to happen. We would test them. Sometimes, it took six months and we had a hard lesson that we had to stop. But (data collection) is kind of my modus operandi in almost everything I do.”
After his success with GameStop, Kusin pursued his next retail challenge in the cosmetics industry. He heard about MAC from a former colleague, then-CEO of Neiman Marcus, and wanted to see if he could start a line of his own. Kusin has a deep knowledge of the history of cosmetics, tracing its evolution from makeup artists like Estée Lauder to laboratory-developed brands like Clinique and finally to fashion houses like Chanel. He liked the idea of bringing make-up artists back into the spotlight.
His colleague introduced him to an old dealer, and together, they began to search for their star makeup. “We interviewed all kinds of makeup artists, and Laura Mercier stood alone with a very clear picture of what she was trying to achieve with her makeup lines,” says Kusin. “So we put it under a long-term license agreement, walked away, and the rest is history.”
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Kusin proves that he has his finger on the pulse industry trends it is the key to building a sustainable business. Even more importantly, he never pursued these endeavors alone. Educating yours RELATIONS with classmates and colleagues, you can discover untapped opportunities and turn them into global brands.
Kusin's obsession with hypothesis testing and data collection came in especially handy when he was tasked with transforming Kinko's, which was operating at an $11 million loss, into a profitable business and preparing it for sale.
“I realized that everything I had learned between starting Babbage's and Laura Mercier would come into play at Kinko's,” says Kusin. “For the first time in my life I had a real feeling that I was born to do this.”
Although most people in his position might start at the top, holding meetings with senior executives at corporate headquarters, Kusin had other plans.
“We had 42 regions in the United States and 1,200 stores,” says Kusin. “I said, 'Over the next two to three months, I'm going to go to each of our 42 regions and do town hall meetings on every shift in every market.' And I asked the same thing in every town hall: ' “What the hell happened to this company? By the time I was done, I knew what the problem was and I knew what the solutions were.”
After three years, Kinko's had an EBITDA of $240 million, and Kusin facilitated the sale of the company to FedEx for $2.4 billion. This illustrates two key lessons for any entrepreneur. First, when business is down, go out and talk to your employees and customers. You may have theories about what the problem is or what customers want, but you'll never know for sure unless you ask and collect that data. Second, there are many ways to achieve the same goal. Kusin pointed out creating your own path based on what you feel comfortable doing.
“There are several paths to the podium, as I call it,” he says. “There is no one way. If you ever hear the word 'should' appear in a sentence coming out of someone's mouth trying to tell you what to do, you run the other way. You have to think about what works for What are you comfortable doing and how are you going to take the things you are comfortable with and use them to gain knowledge that will make you better at the business you are trying to start? “
From creating the first building blocks of GameStop to closing a multi-billion dollar merger, Kusin attributes his success to these philosophies:
- Maintain your relationships with old friends and colleagues. By staying in touch with your network, you never know what untapped opportunities may present themselves.
- If you want to know what's happening on the front lines, watch. When it comes to marketing, you never know what customers want unless you ask them. Armed with that data, you can use customer feedback to improve operations.
- Do your homework before making a decision. Entrepreneurs often get so excited about a new venture that they forget to do the math and research to ensure it works and financial stability.
- When business is down, ask employees why. Although generating hypotheses is important, it is equally important to speak directly to your employees who best understand the day-to-day problems. They will also have the best knowledge of possible solutions.
- There are many solutions to the same problem. Just because someone can solve a problem once, doesn't mean you have to follow their exact method. Use your intuition to solve problems in your own way that matches your business model and goals.
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Editorial contributions from Erin Palmero AND Kristi Lindahl