Fortune USA 201901-02

PAGE

5

11

FORTUNE.COM// JA N.1.

MAY SURVIVES

TO MARCH

IS THEREa worse

job in politics right

now than British

Prime Minister?

(John Kelly, put your

hand down.) After a

no-confidence vote,

Theresa May survives

in the job knowing

117 members of her

own party want to see

her gone and that no

plan she can agree to

with the EU will get the

backing of both the

pro-Europe and the

hard-line Brexiteer

factions in her party.

So far, May has

rejected calls for a

second referendum.

That could change as

the Brexit deadline

approaches, with the

pound and Britain’s

economy on the line.

ANYONE WHO THINKS buying clothes

at the mall is passé need only look at

the blockbuster results of three booming brands

to know that isn’t true. J. Crew recently said its

Madewell business, whose comparable sales

jumped 27% last quarter, is well on its

way to hitting the $1 billion-a-year threshold.

Gap Inc. has said the same of its popular

Athleta chain. Meanwhile, American Eagle

Outfitters’ Aerie lingerie brand is proving to be

a Victoria’s Secret

killer, clocking

growth of 32% last

quarter. Those three

store chains have all

tapped into some-

thing in the zeitgeist,

even as the big-

ger brands at their

respective parent

companies struggle

to find a place in

the shopping habits

of younger custom-

ers. Merely doing a

180-degree turn to

win new custom-

ers can be perilous.

Ask Chico’s. That

retailer offended its

core clientele of older

women in 2018 by

abruptly focusing on

millennial-focused

fashion, to disas-

trous results. The

likes of Chico’s would

be better off building

and nurturing a new

concept organically

rather than trying to

turn a storied brand

into something it’s

not.

Billion-Dollar Babies

Retailers need to cultivate hip brands, not

reinvent core offerings.By Phil Wahba

BREXIT

RETAIL

CAREERS Wadditions to the C-suite in theE’VE SEEN SOMEcreative

past decade. Chief storyteller,

chief evangelist, chief flavor

officer (at beverage maker

Bai Brands). They are easy to

make fun of, but they do serve

a purpose: reflecting what the

company finds important to

both employees and share-

holders. (For instance, Apple’s

only “chief” title outside of

CEO, COO, and CFO is chief

design officer, imparting

the importance of design,

and Jony Ive himself, within

the organization.) Analyz-

ing millions of job postings,

executive search firm Ladders

found that hyperspecific C-

level titles are on the increase,

such as chief digestive health

officer at Georgia’s WellStar

Health System and chief

workout officer at Santander.

(This doesn’t involve putting

bankers on a treadmill; it’s a

subset of risk management.)

Also trending: words like

“equity,” “learning,” “ethical,”

and “community,” suggest-

ing businesses are taking

employee well-being more

seriously.—DANIEL BENTLEY

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