Pioneer the Market Then Own the Gate

"“In that way, most of my ventures wouldn’t exist. Primarily, you must act as a pioneer. This is how it was with the motorway, the breweries, and telecommunications. And Era is the first mobile phone network in Poland. I had the courage to pave the way for others.”"

"few years ago, Kulczyk said: “I think it’s not enough to be an eagle to succeed. You also need what we can call a hunting ground. We know perfectly well that even the best eagle in the desert can still go hungry.”"

"He had often been encouraged to write a book about how to earn your first billion. – “When I hear someone say, write a handbook on how to make money, I say no. There is no such thing. It is the accumulation of many matters and circumstances. First, you need to see something others don’t see. You need to read and observe a lot. But it’s not like I walk from club to club, listening to who does business and where.”"

"What concepts or inventions could be attributed to you? As a technical designer, there is much that I am proud of having contributed to the world: Triathlete clothing (1979); • Technical apparel vertical retail model (1979); • The “streetnic” movement (1979); • “No smoking” in a retail store (1980); • Reversible shorts (1981); • Long surf shorts (1981); • Dual front chest zippers on jackets to allow for intake-outtake venting and airflow (1989); • Vent zippers on inner thighs in snowboard pants (1990); • Pop-up stores (1991); • Zipper guards at the top of the zipper to solve for neck rashing (1991); • 10 .Gator clips on snowboard pants to solve for powder in boots (1991); • Sleeve thumbholes to solve for sleeves riding up and for warmth (1992); • Chest pockets for cell phones to ensure the wearer could access their phone in two rings (1994); • Free in-store hemming to solve for perfect long pants made for taller girls (1998); • Flat seaming in stretch pants to solve for rashing (1998); • Yoga pant (Groove Pant) featured in the MoMA in 2017 (1998); • Matte look in yoga pants to solve for “lightbulb butt” (1998); • Diamond gusseted crotch in women’s yoga pants to solve for camel toe (1998); • Luon 12 percent Lycra fabric to solve for transparency of women’s tights (1998); • Rip out fabric content labels (1999); Retail stores with half-flush toilets and recycling (2000); • Removal of inner-thigh seams to eliminate rashing in running shorts (2002); • Silver threads sewn into first-layer tops to eliminate bacterial stink (2005); • Mindfulness model for business (2012); • Denser, thinner threads in athletic tights to solve for athletic compression without pilling (2013)."

"The following are a sample of the operating principles (I have over three hundred) that were critical in guiding our rocket ship trajectory. My next book will outline the entire set. Operating Principles Samples OP: Every piece of lululemon clothing must be able to be put through a hot water wash and a hot dryer and continue to look new for five years. WHY? Athletes are busy, and they may want to wear the same clothing the next day. A hot wash and dry is quick and kills all bacteria. As part of our quality guarantee, we promise clothing will not shrink more than 2 percent after being washed hot water and dried in a hot dryer. HISTORY: Before lululemon, people would buy garments one to two sizes too big, so after a wash, the garments would fit. We decided to make clothing that would continue to look exactly the way it did on the day it was purchased five years later. OP: Our store pant and short boxes must carry approximately 60 percent black or black-equivalent pieces at all times. WHY? Our Guests purchase solid black about 80 percent of the time, but we only show 60 percent black in the store boxes, so the Guests see 40 percent of the stock in an item in multiple colours. Most Guests want the perceived freedom to choose a colour, and then buy black. We show enough colour for the customer to have a choice and to make the store vibrant. To keep the black level at 60 percent, the pant wall person needs to be responsible for scanning the pant wall ten times per day and keeping inventory levels perfect. HISTORY: We found that if we didn’t stock 60 percent black, and we didn’t restock throughout the day, we lost sales because we would run out of stock by two o’clock in the afternoon. The entire concept of the boxes is to know exactly what inventory is on the floor in relation to the back room. We may sell 90 percent black, but the Guest wants choice before choosing black. We merchandise to the psyche of the Guests. OP: All invoices are paid in seven days. WHY? With retail stores, the worst thing that can happen to us is not to get delivery of product on time. The first company to pay the factories gets the first delivery, the best seamstresses and tailors, and access to the best technology, all of which is critical to quality-control and innovation. HISTORY: With Westbeach, I never had enough money to pay on time. As a result, I often got delivery last, the least experienced seamstresses and tailors and was the last to be offered innovation. OP: Every dollar a garment is discounted takes $10 off the company’s value. WHY? Guests subconsciously attach more value to full-priced garments and correlate full price to a strong brand. HISTORY: Customers are trained by merchandisers (who are incentivized by short-term bonuses) to wait for sales and these customers psychologically discount the value of the brand. OP: We value our customers’ time as though they are making $100/hour. WHY? We assume our Guests make $100 an hour, and if they are delayed fifteen…"

"Do you have any new manifesto sayings for the side of the lululemon shoppers? • Brains are designed for human survival. For the most part, the brain isn’t concerned with living a phenomenal life. The human being must consciously choose to override a life of mediocrity. • The brain is not necessarily correct about 80 percent of what we think and sense. We give the brain a bit of an idea, and it fills in the blanks. The brain is often not right. The brain connects immediate perception with all past experiences. • If I wasn’t concerned for my survival, with what would I be concerned and dedicate my life? • I know what is going to happen because I start in the future and work backwards. • Integrity is not right or wrong. It just gives workability and performance • The game of life is not looking good for others; the game is making life work. • The individual is a drop of water, and the family is the whole ocean. • Everyone learns differently, and I must find out what is important to other people. It is the key to having people want to work with me. 19. What was so different about lululemon’s design strategy? Lululemon was never about “enhancement” of women’s bodies. We never wanted to fool anyone. We were not a Spanx-like product that could to remould bodies, and we didn’t pad bras to create an illusion. Lululemon was all about being real a human being. We were comfortable with all bodies. This core belief came from a life of competitive swimming, Olympic clothing, and triathlon, where functional tight stretch apparel is a necessity for competition. The mission statement of “providing people with the components to live a longer, healthier, more fun life” dictated that lululemon was in the longevity business. The mission statement provided designers with a guiding light towards: • Athletic performance • Function before fashion (or more to the point, function is the fashion) As lululemon grew exponentially through the second half of the 2000s, finding the right designers became an interesting process. Big businesses and other large organizations – say, sports franchises – seem to always have three people on top who produce more than the five thousand people below them. This equation is a weird version of Pareto’s Principle where, instead of 20 percent delivering 80 percent, it’s more like 3 percent delivering 97 percent. With designers, I found there was usually one designer who could create consistently more than twenty others. To me, that one super-talented designer brought more value to lululemon than a CFO or head of HR. With financial, administrative, and managerial people, systems are in place where specific roles are quantifiable. It’s the opposite for designers, even those who’ve gone to design schools. Taking it a step further, designers must re-create four to eight times a year and the best can do it effortlessly. We would find the best designers by setting up labs. In these labs, the idea was to observe multiple designers and see who could…"