Stay cool
When the economy began to plummet in the fall of 2008, Kocher had concerns about what the effect might be on Hat World.
“People were cutting inventory, and everybody was really nervous about what was going to happen to the economy,” Kocher says. “No one knew how bad it was going to get.”
Fortunately for Kocher, sales rose from $378.9 million in fiscal 2008 to $405.5 million in fiscal 2009 and then even higher in 2010.
“I told everybody that we just need to focus on the little things,” Kocher says. “Small victories; that was kind of our thing. Let’s shoot for small victories and not try to hit home runs. Let’s just look at what we’re doing and make sure we don’t make any dumb moves and we’ll be fine.”
Kocher could have panicked. He could have called a town-hall meeting and sounded the alarm about the downfall of the retail industry. But that wouldn’t have been his style, and it wouldn’t have been consistent with a culture that is always looking for opportunities.
“We don’t knee-jerk,” Kocher says. “We don’t start saying, ‘Hey, everybody needs to work five hours more because we have to do this or we have to do that.’ We don’t have to do that. We treat people the same regardless.”
How to reach: Hat World Inc, (888) 564-4287 or www.lids.com.
