Michelle Peluso Has No Office

Michelle Peluso, CEO of Gilt Groupe, spoke at the Bryant University Women's Summit in March 2008.  I was quite impressed, as were the more than one thousand women in attendance.   At the time, Peluso served as the CEO of Travelocity.   About one year ago, she became the CEO of Gilt Groupe, an online shopping site that offers flash sales of designer apparel and accessories.  In the New York Times Corner Office column several weeks ago, Peluso described her leadership style.  Here's a terrific excerpt:

I don’t have an office. When I started at Gilt, I wanted to get to know the various teams, so I’d set up and work with them for a week. I joined their meetings and tried to do their work. When you’re sitting in the open with everybody, you pick up a lot. That was my schedule the first eight weeks, but I just loved it, and more than a year later, I haven’t stopped. I never want to be sitting in an ivory tower surrounded by people who tell me what I want to hear, or feeling that I don’t really understand how people feel and what’s going on.

Wouldn't it be great if other CEOs followed her example?   Peluso clearly understands how isolated senior executives can become.   She understands how easy it is for leaders to find themselves surrounded by sycophants.   Her strategy keeps her finger on the pulse of the business, well-connected to front-line employees throughout the organization.   

Growth Lessons from Gilt Groupe Co-Founders

Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis-Wilson are the co-founders of Gilt Groupe, a company that specializes in online sales of luxury apparel at discount prices.  Maybank and Wilkis-Wilson described to Forbes why they have been so successful.  At first glance, they seem remarkably similar.  They even look alike!  However, the two co-founders argue that their differences make them stronger.  However, it's not just that they have different strengths, but that their abilities and personalities are quite complementary.  One plus one equals three, if you will.   Here's an excerpt from the Forbes article.  A short video is below as well.

“It’s very much like discovering your latter-day stunt double,” Maybank says of finding the right cofounder. Wilkis-Wilson is detail-oriented, a task-master who keeps everything running according to schedule, while Maybank is a self-described “big picture thinker” who is referred to throughout the new book, out in stores this week, as the “impulsive” one. “Our differences haven’t just made us a much stronger team but they’ve allowed us to see what we’re missing and who [else] we need to bring around us as part of our founding team.”

The story, though, is not as simple as selecting a partner who is different than you.  You definitely need someone who shares the same passion for a particular product, technology, or business model.  Both co-founders need to care deeply about what they are doing.   They have to be passionate about the broader purpose of the enterprise.  Moreover, they have be able to communicate well with one another.  In this case, the training at Harvard gave them a common language system that certainly facilitated their communications with one another.  Finally, both parties have to share a similar work ethic and willingness to carry their share of the load. Once you have those foundations in place, then the complementary strengths can become a huge asset. Without that foundation, though, simply finding someone with complementary skills won't lead to success.