A Great Fit: My Take on Confidence, Charisma, and the Career that Suits You Best

This is a work of creative nonfiction. The events are portrayed to the best of the author’s memory. While all the stories in this book are true, some names and identifying details may have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.

Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Austin, Texas

www.gbgpress.com

Copyright ©2019 Tom Murry

All rights reserved.

Thank you for purchasing an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright law. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

Distributed by Greenleaf Book Group

For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Greenleaf Book Group at PO Box 91869, Austin, TX 78709, 512.891.6100.

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group

Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group

Cover images by Nastco. Copyright 2019.

Used under license from iStockPhoto.com.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62634-657-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62634-658-1

Part of the Tree Neutral® program, which offsets the number of trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

To my beautiful wife, Lynda

Contents

Foreword by Terry Lundgren,

Retired Chairman and CEO, Macy’s, Inc

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Great Fit

1 Taste and Charisma

2 What Drives Me: I’m Comfortable, but That’s Not What Makes Me Happy

3 Tom, Tom the Atom Bomb—Be Tough or Self-Disciplined?

4 Teach the Kid a Lesson, but Don’t Kill Him

5 I’m as Smart as I Need to Be

6 Fraternities and Other Pitfalls of College

7 Sink, Swim, or Swim Away

8 The Right Partner

9 Let Them Come to You (It’s Who You Know)

10 Working with Difficult People

11 Working with Calvin and Other Creative Geniuses

12 When Anna Wintour Asks, You Say Yes

13 Not All Pros Can Teach; Not All Students Are Ready to Learn

14 Take Nothing Personally

15 Fundamentals to Business Success—Execution

16 No Means No

17 Have a Clear Vision

18 You May HAVE Talent, but You NEED to Be a Team Player

19 It’s All About Winning; Otherwise, You’re Wasting Your Time (at Work)

20 Keep Them Laughing

21 Keep the Door Open

22 Move On, Let Go, and Let It Happen (No Regrets)

23 More to Gain than Lose

24 I Did What I Had to Do

25 No Talking Business on the Golf Course

26 What’s Next?

My Search to Find a Great Fit

Tom’s Takeaways for Finding a Great Fit

Index

About the Author

Foreword

Before I ever met Tom Murry, I knew Barry Schwartz and Calvin Klein, the business partners that started the iconic Calvin Klein label in the sixties. Barry was a brilliant and instinctive business guy; Calvin was the genius behind the design and marketing of the brand. Together, they created a winning team that would transform and grow a small coat company into an international design powerhouse.

I met Barry and Calvin back in the nineties, when I was the Chairman and CEO of Neiman Marcus and when the Calvin Klein brand seemed to be in all the right places. Kate Moss and Christy Turlington graced billboards all over New York City, while the faint scent of Calvin Klein One wafted through the streets below. It was hard to believe Calvin Klein could ever become any bigger than it was at that moment.

But it did.

Calvin’s astounding talents and his incredible design team played a major role in the company’s continued transformation. Frankly, there wouldn’t have been a business without his creative talent, which defined the iconic brand. But I believe the leadership team and the exceptional employees played at least as great a role in the company’s long-term growth and financial success. They combined the world of aesthetics (design, style, and creativity) with business (operations, financial discipline, marketing) to create the quintessential operating model that financially successful fashion houses follow to this day.

Simply put, Barry and Calvin had a clear vision of what they wanted to create from the beginning. It was all about the product and the people—never settling for anything less than the best in either. Whether it was the finest fabrics or the best construction and tailoring, it took teams of the most talented people in the industry to bring merchandise worthy of the Calvin Klein label to market.

In 1999, Calvin and Barry went looking for a leader who could execute their vision and bring it into the new millennium. They chose Tom Murry.

I’ve known Tom for over 20 years now. When I first met him, he was at Tahari and I was the CEO of Federated Merchandising Group. I was doing a lot of business with a variety of designers—Calvin Klein and Tahari among them. When I heard that Tom would be going to Calvin, it didn’t surprise me a bit that Barry and Calvin had chosen him themselves, especially after Tom told me about how he interviewed for the job.

The day before he was supposed to meet with Calvin and Barry, Tom went to the Calvin Klein offices and spoke to some assistants. He said to them, in Tom’s kind, yet to the point way, I’d like you to help me out. I’d like you to show me all of last season’s best sellers, and then I’d like you to show me all of the products that didn’t sell. The assistants showed Tom the products. After looking them over, he said, Now I’d like you to set up a room for me. Put all of the best sellers on the right side and the worst sellers on the left.

The next day, Tom returned for his interview with Barry and Calvin. Eventually they got to the $64,000 question: If you get the job, what are you going to do differently, Tom?

Tom got up from his chair and said, If you gentlemen will come with me, I’ll show you.

Barry and Calvin followed Tom into the room where all their products were hung on the walls to the left and right.

This is what I will do, Tom said. He walked over to the right side of the room where the best sellers hung and said, I am going to make more of this, and as he walked over to the left side of the room, he added, and less of this. It was straightforward and direct—just like Tom. He added, "If you have the right product, our success will continue to improve."

The rest is history. Tom won over Calvin and Barry that day in 1999 by keeping it simple and to the point and all about the product—just like the Calvin Klein brand. There really is nothing complicated about Tom’s sentiment that if the customer doesn’t want it, it’s not a great product. But what Tom did in his 17-year tenure as CEO was execute that simple sentiment—and execution is always where it gets complicated. Turns out, he was a great fit for Calvin Klein.

After 14 years as the Chairman and CEO of Macy’s, I now focus a good portion of my time on mentoring young and talented entrepreneurs and future business leaders in my roles as an Executive-In-Residence at the Columbia Business School and as a Visiting Lecturer at the Terry J. Lundgren School of Retailing at the University of Arizona. As such, I am always looking for books with hard-won wisdom from business leaders with integrity, talent, and an eye for what is truly important in life.

In A Great Fit, you’ll learn not only about Tom’s successes on his way to leading one of the world’s most recognized brands, you’ll also learn about his failures. Most important, you’ll benefit from all the life lessons he learned along the way.

Here’s to you on your journey to finding a great fit.

Terry Lundgren

Retired Chairman and CEO of Macy’s, Inc.

October 2019

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mary Hackett-Curren. Without her, this book would never have been written.

Introduction

A Great Fit

Not long after I retired from being the CEO of Calvin Klein, I decided to invite several of my former employees, who had all been part of my top management team, for dinner at the iconic and legendary Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Although I had been enjoying my retirement in Palm Beach, Florida, with my wife Lynda, I missed seeing all the talented and inspiring individuals I had had the good fortune of working with. I also wanted to celebrate them. I wanted them to know just how much of an impact each and every one of them had had on my life.

Any normal restaurant wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t make the statement I was trying to make. Like a lot of things I do in life, including choosing the company I worked at for 17 years, I don’t like to settle for second best. I believe everything I do needs to be like a Calvin Klein suit:

It has to be iconic, legendary, and let its brand speak for itself;

It has to be impeccably precise and carefully considered;

It has to be tasteful, timeless, and elegant, with nothing unnecessary getting in the way;

And most important, it has to make people feel great.

That’s why I chose The Carlyle Hotel. It was all these things and then some. Decorated with luxurious upholstered booths and linen-covered tables, exquisitely curated china and stemware, and gorgeous one-of-a-kind artwork and photographs, The Carlyle was the perfect location to celebrate.

And it wasn’t just the venue that was perfect. It was the people of the Carlyle too. The Carlyle is world-renowned for its best-in-class service to its high-end and famous clientele. In order to achieve this level of customer service and satisfaction, it hires only the best and brightest individuals who are tireless in their attention to detail. Every chef, waiter, and sommelier takes his or her job very seriously. They are the best of the best. So what better place, what better people, I thought, to surround the people whom I think of as the best of the best—my top management team—for an evening devoted to gratitude and appreciation.

Lynda and I flew up to New York ahead of time to make sure the seating arrangements and the menu were prepared to our liking. Anna Serrano, my longtime assistant at Calvin Klein and a highly valued employee, helped me with all the planning. She sent invitations to everyone and asked them to bring a guest or loved one—I believe they are just as important to success at Calvin Klein as the employees themselves, and I know from personal experience how integral my own wife was to my success.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure many of those I invited would be able to make it. For some, it would mean flying from as far as Milan, Italy; for others, it would mean coming straight from work—right on the heels of fashion week. But to my amazement, almost everyone I invited came—even my friend Fabio Fusco, the head of the Calvin Klein Black Label Collection, who flew in with his wife from Milan! As my younger brother said in amazement to me, Tom, they came out on a school night! That they did.

As I sat next to Lynda and watched the room fill up, I was overcome with emotion. It occurred to me that everyone in that gorgeous room at The Carlyle was there for three reasons: (1) I loved them. (2) They loved me. (3) They were all as talented as hell. Yes, the room was filled with the same two things that defined my career: Love and talent. Talent and love.

Talent and Love

I have always said that, to be successful in life, you have to be both kind and talented. You can’t only be kind; you need talent. And you can’t only be talented; you have to remember all the people around you who helped you get to where you are. Kindness, graciousness, gratitude, and love—both the love for others and the love for what you do—are, I believe, the keys to success.

We hear a lot from people who say it’s enough just to be talented and creative. But I don’t buy that bit of wisdom, and neither should you if you’re serious about making it all the way to the top. You will only get so far in life if you treat people unkindly. If you’re a leader and you focus only on results and not the people who create them, then your employees won’t stick around (let alone come back to visit years after you leave).

And I can assure you, if your employees aren’t happy, eventually your clients and customers won’t be either. To me, it doesn’t make business sense to treat people poorly. Whether at The Carlyle or Calvin Klein, if you want to achieve excellence, you have to hire and celebrate excellence—not berate it or strangle it.

Throughout my early years in the business world, I saw a lot of bullying, a lot of name-calling, and, unfortunately, even screaming and yelling (more on that later). I have no use for any of that behavior. I’ve never seen anyone achieve anything truly great because they’ve been beaten down to a pulp to do it. (Heck, even my dog Bentley loves me more when I love and serve him. I can get more out of him with a kind word or a treat than I can with a tug on his leash or by raising my voice.) It’s not that complicated. If you want people to do great work, you need to let them do it. You need to trust that they’ll do it. You need to believe that they’ll be able to do it. You need to give them the freedom to explore, create, and even mess up once in a while. Yes, you need to be—crazy as this sounds in the cutthroat world of business—kind, generous, and endlessly supportive.

Over the years, I’ve been pretty damn lucky to have grown up and worked with people who showed me just how to do this. But I’ve also learned my fair share of what