Drive can build a label, but does it build a long-lasting business? “The word CEO trips people up,” says Wen Zhou, co-founder and chief executive of 3.1 Phillip Lim. She was a manufacturing partner for designers before meeting Lim, which led to the pair starting the label almost 20 years ago. “There is a lot of outside noise for young designers, and many don’t have that person starting out, so looking for one feels like they’re giving away things or their companies for the sake of having someone come on board, but it has to be the right person.”
Zhou didn’t start out as CEO. Her role, at first, was fabric sourcing and manufacturing support for the brand. She was on top of product development, then operations, and eventually, human resources, finance as well as other various hats. Along the way, she hired the right people to support the skill sets she didn’t have or needed to learn more of.
“The role of the CEO sometimes carries so much weight and unnecessary burden,” says Zhou, “you feel like you need to be the answer to all the questions, because the chain ends with you.” The direction or success of any business is often put on the shoulders of the CEO, but for Zhou, as it pertains to founder-led businesses, this responsibility isn’t just weighed on the CEO, but on the partnership between CEO and designer. “It’s about bringing a vision together and a shared vision requires shared responsibility.”
The caveat of comparing today’s buzzy designers with names such as Saint Laurent, Jacobs or Ford, is that these three figures were connected with their respective partners well into their careers — and in some cases, by way of the roles they occupied prior to going off on their own. De Sole and Ford met at Gucci, while Bergé and Saint Laurent met socially during the latter’s tenure at Dior. “In some cases, success has come from having capable friends or qualified individuals step into leadership roles in exchange for equity rather than salary,” Kolb says. “If a designer is comfortable with this and is careful with equity terms, it can be an effective approach.”
Designers may need a doer, or someone to take parts of the business off their plates, but, as Zhou explains, in most cases and at least earlier on, that role is closer to that of a business operations manager, or a head of sales or production. “I see a lot of young designers give away equity in order to hire a good CEO, but I would say that protecting your equity and only giving it away when you really understand what this person is going to deliver is more important,” says Zhou, echoing Kolb’s consideration of being mindful with equity terms, while also understanding the necessities of the business. “The obvious risk here is the split focus,” says Kolb, with “designers not being able to fully dedicate oneself to either the creative or the business side”. In the meantime, Zhou’s suggestion is for designers to hire fractional CMOs or CFOs, or to work with sales or logistics experts to set up their businesses.