Mindy Grossman, WW President and CEO, on Leading through Change

Mindy Grossman at FFF’s 2018 CEO Summit

WW President and CEO Mindy Grossman has developed a reputation as the kind of leader who can usher a company through periods of change and transformation.

Over the years, she transformed the Home Shopping Network (HSN), launched Polo Jeans Company for Ralph Lauren, accelerated the growth of Nike’s Global Apparel business and rebranded Weight Watchers into WW, a weight and health-focused company with an eye to democratize the wellness industry.

Female Founders Fund recently spoke with Mindy about her thoughts on strengthening team culture, navigating hiring and firing, and launching new business initiatives through periods of extreme change — like the one we’re facing now.

Read Mindy’s top pieces of leadership advice below.

Team Culture

• I’ve always believed that culture trumps strategy. People want honesty and authenticity and the only way to affect transformation is to have a passionate and inspired culture aligned with what you’re doing. In today’s world, that’s more important than ever.
• Create an atmosphere where people can live their best lives and get as much enjoyment, efficiency, productivity and financial security as possible.
• People think of their personal and work lives as one, and work culture expectations are really important. Especially as we’ve moved to an entirely digital world, work and personal lives are more merged than ever and it’s important to recognize that when creating a culture.
• Communication is critical. My chief people officer Kim Seymour and I have been joined at the hip since we began to get an inkling of what could transpire [through COVID-19]. We’ve launched a set of tools with information to help address people’s questions and concerns and try to be as open and transparent as possible even if that means saying, “we can’t share that right now” or “we don’t know”.
• It’s also important to listen to how your employees are feeling — what their greatest concerns are. We do town halls with employees from around the globe, and before these events we ask for questions and input. We have to be cognizant of global positions, but also of what local organizations are experiencing. A lot of companies are concerned about taking the pulse of customers, but it’s more important to take the pulse of your employees.

Hiring and Firing

• For us, certain areas of the company are heavily taxed right now, and others are not. Some people are doing more heavy lifting than others. We’ve told our leaders, “Use this as an opportunity to put people on different teams and give them new experiences.” This is going to excite them, and they’re going to be utilized and maximized. It brings a diversity of thought when, for instance, you have someone from an operations team working with a brand team. That’s an opportunity.

Launching new business initiatives

• Never waste a crisis — invest in innovation. A crisis creates a unique opportunity in which you have the air cover to try new ideas and the sink-or-swim mentality that gets creativity flowing. Though companies are likely making cuts across the business, it’s important to remain proactive on innovation that will accelerate growth. Whether it’s forming a task force to dream up “moonshots” or fueling skunkworks, investing in innovation will keep employees invigorated and get you closer to your next breakthrough.
• Normally, we do 30,000 workshops a week around the world and now, all of them are led virtually. We paused our studio workshops on a Monday [at the start of the pandemic], and in three days we trained 12,000 people how to use virtual technology. On Thursday, we launched. Our coaches valued how quickly we moved. What would they have been doing if we hadn’t done that? We had a solution that provided a level of engagement and security for employees and proved to be an incredible moment of innovation for the business.
• Now more than ever before, we recognize how important it is to stay healthy and well. This past May and June, we partnered with Oprah for a virtual event series, “Oprah’s Your Life In Focus: A Vision Forward — Live Virtual Experience”, which was another example of WW’s virtual innovation. By making this experience available at no cost to all people around the globe, WW continued to deliver on our core values — bringing our community together and democratizing wellness, making it accessible to all.