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Today:  Chief Marketing Officer at Lands’ End, one of the world’s largest single-brand, multi-channel retailers. The company publishes many catalogs globally, maintains a vast web presence, operates retail stores worldwide, ships hundreds of millions of packages every year, and reaches millions of customers around the world. Gerard’s new role: helping Lands’ End maintain its growth trajectory and shepherding its thriving brand into the future. His core areas of concentration are customer insight, strategy, creative and execution. It’s his responsibility to see that Lands’ End truly understands its customers and communicates its unique brand advantages to them memorably and consistently, through all channels.

Gerard Cunningham

Major challenges: surviving his first Wisconsin winter after living in San Francisco – global warming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! Beyond this, sustaining his new team’s infectious; “get-it-done” approach. During the 2006 holiday season, Gerard and his team hit on the idea of creating a community web site where customers could share holiday photos and stories, and their kids could follow Santa’s travels and listen to original music. The project went from concept to launch in two weeks. Within a three-month window, Gerard and his team also recently launched Lands’ End Baby, new lines of sport clothing and intimates. What’s ahead: more high-performance team building. Gerard is adding expertise in analysis, strategy, and branding, as well as creative and operational talent to make his world-class marketing team even stronger.

At Booz Allen & Before:  Prior to joining Booz Allen, Gerard worked all over Europe with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in advertising and IT, and founded the company’s European Marketing Strategy team. After leaving P&G, he joined Booz Allen as an associate in its Asian practice, where he focused on brand, operations, and growth strategy for consumer goods clients from China to New Zealand. He also worked on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and new market entry programs in a range of industries. His clients included an Indonesian steel company, a Chinese retail bank, and a Hong Kong utility company. Later, he moved to the United States, where he launched Booz Allen’s consumer, media and technology practice in the Bay Area. After six years with the firm, he returned to a more operations-focused role at a startup company backed by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

Do you feel that Booz Allen gave you a strong foundation for your current position?  Definitely. The six years at Booz Allen were among the most formative of my life and I was sad to leave such great mentors and colleagues when I moved on.

I’m using the knowledge that my years there gave me in brand building, strategy, operations, leadership, and more. I came from a great company, but Booz Allen taught me that when you think you’ve arrived at a solution, that’s the time to step back and assess the larger picture. Might there be unintended consequences of your solution? Unanticipated interpretations of your actions? I learned to explore all this – and to take the broader perspective.

I’d never seen people as rigorous about the quality of communication as they were at Booz Allen. Procter & Gamble taught me the art of writing the one-page memo clearly and succinctly – reminiscent of the old saying, “If I had more time I’d write you a shorter letter.” Booz Allen showed me how to tell a story graphically utilizing the visual tools at my disposal – and the importance of being as good to your internal audiences as you are to your external ones.

For a time at Booz Allen I was quite the nomad, seldom staying in one city longer than six months. The firm eventually asked me to lead a group called the Pan-Asian Work/Life Balance Steering Committee, to help employees preserve harmony in their lives. Lands’ End is also a great believer in maintaining work/life balance.

What skills and strengths did you acquire at Booz Allen?  I knew a lot about corporate and brand strategy when I arrived, but Booz Allen taught me to apply scientific methods in the business world: to get to the essence of a challenge, roll up my sleeves, and make a difference for the client. It didn’t matter how brilliant an idea was unless it was executable, and thought through comprehensively. Parachuted into an organization with expectations of rapid results, you learn to make things happen fast. 
 
I learned as well that a career is a marathon, not a sprint. In a long career, a month or a year is not particularly significant so long as you’re surrounded by people you can learn from. And, everyone has something to teach you.

I’ll never forget beginning work on a change-management initiative for the chairman of a global corporation. He showed me a thick file of work other consultants had done without following through – thus without success. We helped the company see that change in culture needs to parallel change in the business’s direction. You can’t change culture in a vacuum. Ultimately, the new growth strategy and related cultural change we recommended went to the board and were implemented.

I only wish I’d known during my suit-and-tie days at Booz Allen that I could buy such splendid suits and ties here at Lands’ End.

Would you recommend working at Booz Allen? If so, why?  Yes. The company employs remarkably talented people who serve a diverse client list. What separates Booz Allen from other consulting firms is a focus on the results, not the report. We add genuine long-term value and develop relationships. To borrow a metaphor from marketing, we’re about the long-term brand, not a short-term promotion. Emphasis on execution trains you to sweat the details more, considering any unintended consequences and thinking bigger. You’ll find yourself with fresh challenges in new corporate arenas all the time, working hard, traveling. It has the effect of shortening one’s learning curve. 

Any favorite Booz Allen moment or experience you’d like to share?  Months into a project, I had dinner with a middle manager from the client’s company. He lamented all the other consultants who’d come before us, and the lack of any real change as a result of their work. Two months later, the same guy was praising the real impact we were having.

When traveling to meet with a client, the rental car company gave me a free upgrade to an enormous gold Cadillac. Not wanting to appear extravagant, I parked the car at the rear of the client’s lot – and promptly locked the keys inside with the engine running. Of course, the whole building became aware of the predicament and the extravagant consultant when the tow company showed up!

I once met a new team member at an airport. He and I enjoyed talking so much that we lost track of time and missed our flight – and with it, the project kick-off meeting we were supposed to lead. We are still close friends 13 years later.

Any advice for people just starting their careers with the firm?  People arrive seeking to lead, manage, and develop others, which is wonderful – but remember that no task is beneath you. If the team needs you to make photocopies for the presentation, make photocopies for the presentation.

Seek opportunities to work with individuals who are optimistic and fun. Remember that you can learn from every member of your team (not just your leader).

Don’t just chase the supposed glamour assignment or the best money; instead, work hard for the customer and the team. You’ll be noticed; you’ll get there. A career is a marathon, not a sprint and you make your own luck in winning a marathon through patient practice of your core competencies.

profile posted March 5, 2007
 

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