Laura Alber, CEO of the American retailer Williams Sonoma, took the top job in 2010 following the retirement of the previous chief executive and board chairman Howard Lester. Lester it was who had bought Chuck Williams’ relatively small catalogue business in 1978 and turned it into a $3bn dollar national brand and Alber had some questions about how she would continue the achievement. Obviously, Lester had been innovative but how did he get this to filter down into the fabric of the company, into the culture?
His answer, she told the World Retail Congress (Madrid, April 2018), was...