The Men’s Warehouse – Stanford Case

George Zimmer, founder and chairman of The Men’s Warehouse, a men’s clothing store that sells primarily tailored suits, was a product of the sixties, or so he says. The company has proven successful in what he has called a “stagnant market” of men’s clothing stores; even men’s wear clothing departments within large retailers was shrinking. It was a market with few barriers to entry, and was well saturated with many different players, each with its own unique offerings to the customer. Zimmer recognized that he wasn’t going to “increase the aggregate amount of customers” by opening his stores, rather his focus was on how he could do it better than the existing players.
His view was to really treat the customer well, and by customer he also included employees. The line “how can I expect the sales associates to treat the customer right if we don’t treat him right?” or something to that basic effect was said in the piece. This is all so very familiar to hear now. From the Harrah’s case, to the Indian consulting firm, this point is really being driven home. I did really enjoy the part about how they’d fire top sales people if they were known poachers of potential clients. One thing not noted is the economic climate in which all of this occurs. The years 1991 – 1996 might well be the best cherry picked dates to show growth for any company (other than the competitors in the men’s clothing stores). There was mention that The Men’s Warehouse sold its suits at a discount from what other retailers in the business did, perhaps that was the cause of the success, and not the attention starved chairman Zimmer and his new approach.
The indoctrination of the sales force, and the “promoting from within” policy is also a sign of weird things to me. We keep hearing about how outside perspectives are valuable. The lessons really seem top down, although the message they’re sending is almost the exact opposite. It felt a tad bit hypocritical in this respect. Like, “This guy who knows everything, the self professed hippie, says to act like him. Now go be excellent to each other.” Even within the lectures that MW gives… “Really listen to your people, your customers”… Their primary goal, promote self-respect etc. MW would do well to figure this out.

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