The Story of Boohoo: "I Wanted To Be The Best" - CEO Carol Kane

1. 0:00 – 1:58

   A pub job that unexpectedly opened the door to fashion

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:00

      Seems to be your trip/trips to Asia-

   2. CKCarol Kane0:05

      Oh, gosh

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:06

      ... as a young woman.

   4. CKCarol Kane0:07

      Yeah.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:07

      And I can imagine you would have been so, so much of a misfit over there as well. Like, a young working class woman working in fashion in Asia in the '80s.

   6. CKCarol Kane0:18

      Yeah.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:18

      Was, would it be, would it have been the-

   8. CKCarol Kane0:20

      '87, I moved

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:20

      ... '87.

   10. CKCarol Kane0:20

       Yeah, I moved there.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:21

       I can imagine that would've been a stark contrast for you. Could you tell me that story, how that came around, that meeting in a pub?

   12. CKCarol Kane0:26

       How that came around. Okay. So obviously, um, I touched on, you know, the fact that I had to try and help pay for Pantone marker pens and [laughs] fabric to get myself through a fashion course. I was working at a bar, and it was just, like, a country pub. It was near the station. It was lovely, lovely landlord and landlady, and, uh, lovely people came in, and they were amazing. There was this group of people that would come into that pub and, you know, one of them worked in Slough Mars factory, so he brought me chocolate. Another one worked somewhere else, and he brought me cheese. [laughs] It was Nestle or something like that. And, um, they kind of was this group of, uh, I, I would say older couples, but they were probably 40 at the time. Kind of took me under their wing a little bit. Even I was working in this bar and there's this gentleman who used to come in, and I don't know if your audience will possibly be too young to remember this name, but there used to be, um, a, a house, uh, it used to be on every high street called C&A. Uh, they still, they still exist. They just don't exist in the UK anymore. And he used to be a fashion buyer for C&A, and he used to buy outerwear. And he'd just left, and he'd set up on his own. So I said, "Oh. Oh, you work in fashion?" I went, "Oh, great." I says, "I'm doing fashion." I said, "Can I come and do a placement for you? You don't have to pay me anything,

2. 1:58 – 2:28

   Turning a placement into a major Topshop win

   1. CKCarol Kane1:58

      but if you can pay my train fare and buy me lunch, it'd be helpful so I don't go hungry." [laughs] And, um, he said, "Yeah, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, that's great, you know. Yeah, you know, I don't mind having a kid hanging around." Anyway, when I was there, I did a collection, um, of ski wear, and it was for Topshop. And they bought it, and it was, like, a £5 million order. Cheapest lunch you'd ever forked out for, I think. Um,

3. 2:28 – 3:33

   The job falls through—then a passport changes everything

   1. CKCarol Kane2:28

      so he said, "Right, when you finish, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna give you a job." And it came for me to start, literally it was two weeks before. I was up visiting my mum, and, uh, I said, "Right, I start a jo- I'm starting this job in August or something," and we'd finished in the July, so I thought, "I'll have a couple of weeks off. Go and see mum, go and see the, my sisters, my brother." And I, uh, took a phone call. He says, "Oh, you can't, you can't start. The job's off." I says, "You're kidding me." I says, "I've just rented a room in London. I've just paid my deposit. It was £250."

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr3:03

      [laughs]

   3. CKCarol Kane3:03

      "Where am I gonna get the money back from? I've got nowhere to live now. What am I gonna do?" I says, "I've wasted all the time." He goes, "Well, just come... All right. Well, if you really want a job that much, have you got a passport?" I said, "Yeah, I've got a passport." But then I didn't have a, a 10-year passport. I had a one-year passport, because that's what you did then. You used to get one-year passports just to go into Europe. He says, "Get yourself a passport and I'll buy you a ticket. You're coming with me." So I did, and

4. 3:33 – 3:46

   Four formative years based in Asia (starting 1987)

   1. CKCarol Kane3:33

      I did that for four years. I was pretty much based out in Asia the first four years of my career.

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr3:39

      Do you have any stories that cement what that means for you?

5. 3:46 – 4:16

   Learning the full garment business: design, costing, components, sourcing

   1. CKCarol Kane3:46

      Yeah, it gave me everything that I still use today. That, that great grounding. I do sometimes think your first job's an important one, 'cause you can... I- it, it doesn't need to be, but for me, it was, um, because it gave me a good mix of business. Um, listen, when you're in Hong Kong, they're not... Back, it's different now. The luxury market is there, but it wasn't in 1987. You know, your big designers, your Chanel shops and your Louis Vuittons

6. 4:16 – 5:02

   Commerce bootcamp: selling, buyers, and operational admin

   1. CKCarol Kane4:16

      weren't, they didn't, you know, they didn't have that stuff then. So what they did, what I did learn from that was how to trade. So I knew how to design a garment. I knew how to cost it. I'd go and buy the fabric. I knew where the zips come from. I knew what a stud costs. I knew everything, the cost of a component of a garment. I knew how to put it together, but also all of the buyers used to come over to Hong Kong, and I knew how to sell. So in the first 12 months, I was doing every single component of commerce. I also would know how to do all the administration work to pay the bills and to do an import and export license. So I did everything in the first couple of years, and I did that in Asia.

7. 5:02 – 6:14

   Tiny team dynamics and the value of being “the designer in the room”

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:02

      What role or seniority did you have in that organization?

   2. CKCarol Kane5:06

      None. [laughs] There was only me and him. There was two of us. There was two partners. Actually, there was, there was a bigger team in Hong Kong. In London, there was just me and him. Um, but in Hong Kong, we had two other partners, um, a Dutch guy who was quite intimidating. I remember at the time I was quite scared of him, and a Chinese lady who was just amazing. I loved her. She'd, like, looked after me. Um, so yeah, but then there was a whole group of people over there. So, but no, never a sen-seniority, but you're a bit of a thing if you were a designer then. There wasn't really that much designing done for the high street. You know, there'd been fashion buyers-

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:43

      Mm-hmm

   4. CKCarol Kane5:43

      ... and suppliers, but nobody really was designing. And so the fact that he had this young, kind of trendy-looking little designer coming in was a bit of a selling point when it came to having a meeting with the customers, because it would always be- Um, back then it was always the sales director and the, you know, account handler and the client, where then you put me in the mix, and you've got a bit more of a colorful conversation about consumer trends.

8. 6:14 – 7:07

   Passion over pay: broke on £9k and doing it for the love

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:14

      Were you doing well for yourself then? Were you well off, or were you still on your way up?

   2. CKCarol Kane6:18

      No, no, I was earning nine grand a year. [laughs]

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:20

      [laughs]

   4. CKCarol Kane6:21

      I was totally broke. [laughs] Uh, I didn't, didn't, you didn't... I did it for the love then. Uh, you know, it was always just having enough money to go out and have a drink at the weekend and feed myself, pay my rent.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:33

      So you were never financially incentivized?

   6. CKCarol Kane6:36

      No, not in the early part of my career, not at all.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:39

      I think that's quite interesting given the role that you have now-

   8. CKCarol Kane6:43

      Mm

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:43

      ... and have had of such a large organization, in contrast to your background growing up. Uh, very working class.

   10. CKCarol Kane6:51

       Yeah.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:51

       It is quite common for people who are entrepreneurial founders to have this necessity for abundance, and wealth, and security, and stability. But it's interesting to hear that you just wanted to do what you loved and get paid f- at least fairly for it.

9. 7:07 – 7:44

   Long-game ambition: persistence, mastery, and being a trailblazer

   1. CKCarol Kane7:07

      Yeah, but I, I always kind of knew through persistence and time, I would, I would achieve it. I would, I would have all those things. But I wasn't in a rush. It wasn't my number one priority. I wasn't like some entrepreneurs today, they wanna be entrepreneurs to earn money. Uh, that never happened to me. I wanted to be good at what I did, number one. I wanted to be the best at what I was doing, and I wanted to be a trailblazer in an industry. But the financial aspect came after. You know, the successes financially came way later.

10. 7:44 – 8:00

    Her advice: stop chasing money—chase excellence

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr7:44

       Do you think that's a unanimous piece of advice for someone listening to this, is become a superstar in your world and-

    2. CKCarol Kane7:50

       Yeah, absolutely

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr7:51

       ... the world will reward you?

    4. CKCarol Kane7:51

       If you just go chasing the pound or the dollar, what, what's that about? You know? You've gotta be the best at what you do.

Episode duration: 8:00