Industry Insider – Ron Robinson
To say that you’ve had a storied career is quite the understatement. Your name is synonymous with fashion, art, and brands. Tell us how the story started and how you got here?
Thank you for the gracious introduction to your question. Over the past four decades, we have been able to collaborate with amazing brands, even launch brands, as well as talented entrepreneurs from companies spanning the fashion industry, the consumer product design industry, gifts, accessories, kids, the art world, home design and cosmetic, beauty and fragrance products. We have created some super relationships and thankfully garnered a wonderful reputation. Through our travels all over the world, we have been able to find unique items – some of the coolest things that help make people’s lives and environments better – and fortunately, we have been able to do it time and again.
Being that we are based in Los Angeles, the competition is stiff, I have always said that if I could make it here I can make it anywhere. We have some of the best stores in the world here in LA, and we also have a client base that is well traveled, savvy and interested in items that are exciting, well crafted, innovative and unique. So, we needed to be nimble and creative in order to satisfy our goals. It’s the team’s deep love of quality craftsmanship, good design, and understanding our market that has helped Ron Robinson stores succeed. I love to seek and find new cool items. It’s the most amazing part of what I do. I am also very fortunate to have this incredible team with the same focus. Karen Meena, Jennifer Romis, and Max Robinson are all so talented in the selection or buying process, and also at the merchandising and presentation of the products after that requires the connection or understanding of a business. They know how to translate it to the client efficiently and effectively. The platform, the physical facility that the items are presented is super important, but some of the most important pieces to success are the knowledgeable people that work on the sales floor daily with our clients that make the difference between us and others.
Dedication to this ideal worked for me over the past 41 years and I am so proud of what we have accomplished.
It seems like everything you touch turns into gold. Of course, lots of planning and hard work goes along with it. Where do you draw your inspiration from and how do you manage to stay ahead of the competition?
Again, I appreciate your generous comment, but NOT EVERYTHING turns to gold! I don’t know anyone who hits a home run every time at bat. That’s often not the goal every time, I am thrilled that we are finding success in our decisions most of the time. New creativity and innovations are happening throughout the world, my travels are constantly seeking out who is doing cool things. I have many really smart people in my circle of relationships, inside our team and outside. In order to bring something new to the consumer I must first know my consumer well, on a micro and the macro level. Knowing what’s happening in society and being able to timely forecast trends becomes the key. It’s not only knowing about our industry, as people are influenced and affected by all kinds of information and activities (like politics, sports, technology, fashion, world events, travel etc) it’s important to be able to have as much input from trusted resources to decide what path to take, in order to make better decisions. If I think that my competition is going to do a better job than I am, it makes me be better. I think about something my dear friend Ruki Matsumoto said…that he always thinks of his company as second best, so he strives to be first. He built a mega fashion empire in Japan. He called his company Ba-tsu (the not so good company, the sign of the X , used when something is wrong).
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced over the years with respect to the business side of what you do?
In retail, as in most business, challenges are available on a daily basis! We have a lot of moving parts in our business, from changes in product that was ordered, how it’s actually coming or when it will actually arrive, shipping/receiving of merchandise, and staffing are just some internal areas that always need attention and solutions consistently. And there are a variety of external elements that we are faced with. Over the years we have been through, El Nino floods, area grassland and forest fires, the LA riots of 1992; all of these impacted our business directly, as our customers are effected. The most difficult in my memory was 2008 and 2009 when we were faced with the great recession. This was one of the toughest times for our business in my 41 years. We were faced with a downturn that happened so rapidly and so deeply that it was personally emotional and financially impactful. I am pleased to say that we evolved from that time as well, but the memory remains unforgettable. As a business we had to dig deep in order to stay afloat. Thank goodness we had relationships with our vendors that were called upon to help. Of course, they were in the same place, we all were, so we all worked together with each other, lengthening payment terms and figuring how to reduce orders. What occurred was a sustained drop of business within a 3 month period. It didn’t come back for some time and then gradually… it did. Our strategy internally on how to bring back the customer was this: we wanted to continue to provide excellent service, we knew that many stores were dropping staff, that’s the obvious first move of many corporations, we didn’t want that. In order to keep our staff we had to all be a part of the solution. Stacy, my wife and partner in the business, and I were the first to elect to take the biggest reduction on our personal income, as should be, in my opinion, for all entrepreneurs and business owners. Then we approached the team in total. We expressed that we didn’t want to let anyone go, that we would like to continue to provide the best service in the city, but in order to do that we would have to have across the board salary reductions. It was a hard, hard, ask, but the alternative was worse. There was the warmest and most understanding response from nearly everyone. What a relief! All our cost cutting on expenses and our ability to maintain our trained staff to serve our customers was the ticket that helped us survive that challenge. I learned many things from that experience, although it was a hard way to learn, it was very effective. We saw that we could run leaner, that many of our expenses, including things like trash pickup, packaging, phones lines, financial fees, could be and must be renegotiated regularly. We get accustomed to what we have and when we look deeply, we can find plenty to improve upon. Next we learned that we have the most sincere, loyal, dedicated team of wonderful people together with us. Many are still with us today. Clearly, we were reminded that we have the best customers, and they respected what we had done and were supportive. The recession was devastating to so many people, but fortunately for some, they were able to shop. We are very thankful to have come out from that episode in our country’s history in good shape, and I hope that it doesn’t happen again, EVER!
The Ron Robinson store is a collection of hand picked items that creates a wonderful collective for anyone who walks in the store. What often drives you to decide what goes into the space?
Knowing that, has become a part of my being, as it has with our other buying team, Karen, Jennifer, Stacy and Max. Never discount the positive aspects of age, knowledge and wisdom. I think most seasoned buyers arrive at the point of knowing their customer after some time. It’s important to know what to buy, but it’s equally important to know when to stop buying it. When Karen and I go to shop together, we certainly don’t agree on everything, I may have an opinion about an item and she doesn’t, or vice versa, although it seems to me that she mostly disagrees with me 🙂 We may explain our choices, but when we both agree, we know that the item is a winner! Two heads are better than one, three even better than two!
You’ve been an inspiration to young and old alike. What advice would you give to others who are thinking of embarking on entrepreneurship, much like you?
I wrote a book for my 40th anniversary in business, called YEARS. There are at least two chapters that I wanted to share information with entrepreneurs, anyone who is interested in getting involved in something like what I have done. If I can help make them aware of the challenges, or at least save them some time, explaining the ways we deal with them, it will have been worthwhile. The chapters are named “Taking Care of Business” and the three about the APOTHIA fragrance business that I launched almost 20 years ago. The book is in our stores or our online store and I hope that the information will be helpful. If you’re interested, you should read it.
One thought that I have reflected on for myself and wish to share….
Be BOLD, step beyond your comfort zone and have some FUN doing it. I have no idea if that means you’ll have success or not, but it will be a lot more fulfilling getting there and when you do, you will have more confidence along the way. Oh, and don’t overextend yourself financially, I have seen too many businesses go that way and ultimately that seems to make things into a real bummer.
As for APOTHIA, the fragrance brand that you created, can you tell us what’s developing there?
APOTHIA is gaining success worldwide. What started as a desire to make a signature fragrance has blossomed into an award winning group of home fragrances, candles, diffusers, a new Air Mist, lotions and hand / body wash. We won Interior Scent of the Year some time ago for 8 of our now 12 home scents. All of this is because of and still led by the most cherished perfume and roll on fragrance IF eau de parfum. IF, which began as our signature fragrance and immediately had a cult following, is now found across the US, in Japan, Scandinavia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and soon will have distribution in Italy!
Through APOTHIA, we have been fortunate to do collaborations with celebrities Chris Stapelton, Barbie (for Mattel), other celebrated stores as well as exclusive entertainment events. As a fashion person one of the most memorable relationships is our collaboration with Missoni Italy. I made five home fragrances for them. The biggest thrill of that was getting to work directly with Rosita Missoni, the matriarch of the company. We are re-releasing several of these in Q4 of 2019. I wrote about this project in the book YEARS, sold at RON ROBINSON stores.
We’re always excited about new ventures that you get into. What’s next on the horizon for you?
I do believe that life is a journey and time has purpose. I’m immensely proud of my team and our achievements in our business, both worldwide recognition and in Los Angeles retail. Now, after 41 incredible years the dream I had at the beginning has clearly become a reality, it’s now time for my next adventure. It’s not something that I just thought of, it is something that I have been planning for a while and now time and life has come together for me. Today, I invite you, your audience and all of our esteemed customers throughout the many years to continue to be a part of our history and join us for the ‘Farewell Tour’ of the RON ROBINSON retail stores. As we transition from this wonderful chapter in our lives, we’ll be celebrating with ongoing in-store events, curated vendor collaborations, book signings, new product launches and a going-away party you won’t want to miss in early December! We will extend the celebration through this holiday and into very early 2020.
We will continue to drive and expand APOTHIA, selling our exquisite line of fragrances to top stores worldwide, we have just completed a revamp of the APOTHIA.com website. We will continue with our RONROBINSON.com site and a refresh there will be forthcoming.
I look forward to celebrating with you and all!
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