How VF Corp. turns acquisitions, including North Face, Vans and Timberland, into blockbuster brands. The world’s biggest buyer of zippers.

February 24, 2013 Leave a comment

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Forever in Blue Jeans

By ALEXANDER EULE | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

How VF Corp. turns acquisitions, including North Face, Vans and Timberland, into blockbuster brands. The world’s biggest buyer of zippers.

Eric Wiseman was rising up the ranks of apparel giant VF Corp. in the summer of 2004 when the company acquired Vans, the famed maker of skateboarding shoes. As the top executive for VF’s outdoor-sports segment, Wiseman suddenly had a whole new customer base to understand.

That August, he headed to Asbury Park, N.J., for the Warped Tour, a punk-rock music festival backed by Vans and newly owned by VF. The apparel-industry veteran would have preferred jazz, but he reveled in the five band stages and the raucous crowd. VF had a big hit on its hands.

A decade later, Wiseman, 57, is chairman and chief executive officer of VF (ticker: VFC), and the Warped Tour—still under VF’s umbrella—is the longest-running touring festival in the U.S. The concerts are more than an artistic endeavor; Vans’ annual sales have quadrupled to $1.4 billion since the VF acquisition, and profitability has soared.

Wiseman’s entire wardrobe is built around VF’s 30 brands.

While a lot of executives would have disposed of a noncore asset like the music festival, retaining the Warped Tour gets to the crux of Wiseman’s strategy. He helps brands maintain their identity by removing day-to-day hurdles and lowering their cost of goods. VF’s scale enables both. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation, Investing Process

The Proof Is In The Profits: America’s Happiest Companies Also Fare The Best Financially

February 23, 2013 Leave a comment

The Proof Is In The Profits: America’s Happiest Companies Also Fare The Best Financially

BY MARK C. CROWLEY

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

Workplace happiness may seem like a fuzzy concept when it comes to financial value. But as the Parnassus Workplace Fund has proven, dignity truly does have value.

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” –Henry David Thoreau

Every year around this time, a new edition of the “100 Best Companies To Work For” is released, and employers deemed to have the happiest and most satisfied workers are heartily celebrated by the media.

What’s perplexing about all this fanfare, of course, is that we know most workplaces in the U.S. aren’t at all that good in sustaining employee morale. Gallup’s announcement a few months ago that only 19% of American workers are fully engaged in their jobs sufficiently validates this. It also suggests that few organizations have made it a priority to learn and model the leadership practices known to produce high employee contentment.

The question needing to be asked is whether or not we fully believe there’s a direct connection between having happy workers and improved profitability. Read more of this post

Filed under Investing Process

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