Gymshark CEO Explains His Strategy For Global Success - Ben Francis

I remember when I was r- I'd done something wrong and I was really, I'd completely (censored) up and I was so upset. And I was expecting my dad to sort of come and go, "You know, Ben, everything's gonna be all right." And he just sat there and he went, "Well, what are you gonna do about it?" I don't want someone just to sit there and stroke my ego and tell me that everything's gonna be okay, and I'm okay the way I am. Because I think that over a prolonged period of time can definitely lead to entitlement. I think it can lead to softness and weakness, and I don't think it's the right thing in the long term.

Ben Francis, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

You have had the fortune of speaking to some of the best operators on the planet.

Mm-hmm.

What are the common threads, the most common traits that you've found between all of the high performers that you've spoken to?

I feel like there's the obvious ones, so they're very organized. I feel like there's the basics, right, organized, articulate, intelligent, the things you would expect of anyone who's a, a great operator. I also think that, that they tend to be better people than what you think for the most part. I feel like there's this, there's this view that there's this evil group of people that sit and control the world in a way, and I'm, you know, that might well be true, for all, for all I know. But certainly in the people that have run some of the really successful businesses, they tend to be really, really great people and great individuals, and really, really helpful. And a lot of those people have really helped me, and there's, um... I mean, people will know that Gymshark have, had a great relationship with Shopify for a long, long time. And Tobi, and particularly Harley who run that business, have been endlessly helpful to both me as an individual, I mean, even other people that work in the business, but our business as well. Um, and I think Harley really resonated with me and he continues to resonate with me because he is such a good human being, and the, the fact that he has such a well-balanced work life but also home life I think is, that's really interesting to me and it's been massively inspiring.

What's an example of Harley's work and home life showing up in a way that you found inspirational?

Well, there was a few. I mean, there's many. But the, first and foremost I think, this is, this is gonna sound so basic and some of these are gonna sound so trivial, but he's always happy to see you. Like, which is, which is really cool, right? And he'll, I think he remembers people's names and there's those sorts of common traits. And he will not remember this by any stretch of the imagination, but we were working in Germany a few years ago, a f- few years ago, this is pre-COVID now. Um, and I think there was something particular he had to do, it was like, say, 9:00 PM or something like that. We'd been working through the day. We did like, the talks and the events and all that, and then everyone went for food after. There was probably a table of 12 or so people. Um, but I knew that he had, had to get off by let's say nine o'clock. And it was actually, it was a really good conversation, it was a really good chat, and I think everyone was really interested in him because it was a lot of Shopify's largest merchants there. And literally like clockwork, at 8:59 he stands up, shakes everyone's hand, he knows everyone's name, and he heads off and he goes to bed and just sort of carries on with his day. And that level of efficiency, albeit to him was just probably just something that was so basic and normal, to me that was, that was really, that was really interesting because it would've been so easy to stay another 30 minutes, another 45 minutes, another hour. And I know the things that he wanted to do, by the way, is he wanted to get off 'cause he wanted to speak to his family and he wanted to prepare for the next day. And I think those little things over a prolonged period of time really add up, and, and being able to watch him and observe him do that I think was interesting. Um, and it, listen, it's, it's similar with other people. There's, um, there's a guy who, who's based in London that runs, I think it might be the world's biggest digital marketing agency, a company called AKQA, a guy called Ajaws, who is just, like, a really, really good human being, and he just, he, he seems to maintain relationships with people over a really, really long period of time. And that doesn't happen on accident. And by the way, bad people, f- in my experience, aren't able to maintain relationships with people for really prolonged periods of time. So having met lots of different people, I would say I've definitely been pleasantly surprised with the fact that they generally tend to be good people rather than bad people.