The Future of Retail Over The Next Five Years, with Laura Tenison, Founder & CEO of JoJo Maman Bébé

Aaron Weiner
Aug 31, 2018 · 9 min read

I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Tenison MBE, Founder & CEO of JoJo Maman Bébé, the UK’s leading maternity & baby specialist which is now rapidly expanding in the US. Launched 25 years ago, JoJo has grown organically and is the “go to” place for everything you need from pregnancy to pre-school. With a loyal customer base which includes the British Royal Family, the business is run with a strong moral code of conduct — putting people and planet above profit, and is a Certified B Corporation.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Many years ago, I spent some weeks lying in a London hospital bed with a fantastic view of the Houses of Parliament across the river Thames. I’d had a terrible car crash breaking 20 bones just after selling my previous business which was based in France. My ward neighbour had a long-term illness and was trying to buy clothes for her two little children from her hospital bed. She was deeply frustrated by the lack of practical and pretty styles. I was looking for a new business and her plight sparked the idea to launch JoJo; adding British humorous design to traditional Breton style children’s wear.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Wow that is a difficult question. Life in retail is never dull and I would say every day is the most interesting of my life!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Innovation has always been part of the JoJo USP. We have been first to design so many items which are now considered essentials during your pregnancy and in the first few years of having your new baby. One of my first clever ideas was to design a nursing shirt with discreet openings hidden under flap breast pockets. Whilst briefing the factory I added a detail sketch showing how the openings worked, but only sketched the detail on one side. A few weeks later I received my first delivery of the unique JoJo Nursing Shirt, only to find the factory had made them for the single-breasted woman (with the opening on just the one side)!

Our design and factory specs today are made to a very different standard to my early pattern specification drawings. Our supplier handbook runs to hundreds of pages and each Garment Technology pack is an inch thick. I have learnt that if you want to maintain your attention to detail you need to be on top of every step of production and never assume people will understand everything you draw.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Honesty and integrity filters down from top to bottom of the business. We are non-hierarchical, allowing our teams to come forward with ideas. As the CEO I will work alongside my teams when setting up a store, launching a new product or employing a new senior. I truly believe that if you trust and empower your teams they will give back, and that a happy team leads to happy customers.

We have grown by word of mouth recommendation; parent to parent. Our strong ethical stance can be found in every area of the business from our designs and value for money to our respect for our teams, the loyalty and support of our suppliers and our corporate social responsibility. JoJo is not about making money, we are about offering a great service and helpful hand to pregnant women and new parents, and running our business as a force for good. This ethos filters through the business and the end result is an efficiently run and profitable business model.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

We believe in working hard but playing hard too. Having a work-life balance is essential, so working with a great diverse team who have a common goal makes it a team effort. We all spend so much of our lives at work, so it is vital to enjoy the time. I believe that life is a little like hiking in the mountains, there is a lot of uphill struggle and just when you think you are about to reach the top you find another ridge to scale. We will never reach the top so my advice to my colleagues is to enjoy the journey!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I love my work colleagues. JoJo is 25 years old and my first few employees are mostly still with us. Some have retired and there are always lots of tears when they leave, but we keep in touch. We are like a big work family; sometimes we argue and disagree, but we always make up and find a common way, not holding grudges. Every single person is unique and has their own peculiarities … We can get frustrated but equally we respect each other’s talents and input.

No one person can run a business, it must be a team effort and I will always be grateful to my team. We now have nearly 1000 employees, but I still try to meet every single one of them and spend an hour with them within their first few weeks in the business. We sit together over a cup of coffee and try to have a chat — I want them to hear first-hand our company ethos, our aims and our ambitions. They may be a little shy at first, but they learn during their first weeks of training that we are all human beings and we all deserve respect.

I’m most inspired by one of our warehouse operatives. She has brought up 5 children as a single parent, they work hard, and show a great deal of love and respect. She has suffered numerous tragedies but ensures her family sticks together and makes time for each other. Working women all the world over are the glue in society; throw us a problem and we will find a solution.

Are you working on any exciting projects now?

YES!! I’m so excited about our US launch. We started selling to boutiques on a trade level, then opened our DC in Edison, New Jersey and recently started opening our community stores. We have recruited some amazing people to join the JoJo family and love the way they have embraced our ethos and ideals. With stores now trading in Westport, Greenwich Connecticut, Hoboken and Montclair New Jersey, we are really enjoying getting to know and helping the local pregnant women and parents. Our omni-channel model encourages our customers to come into our store to receive advice and assistance whilst offering an easy to use website for round the clock ordering and home delivery.

We are hoping our next store will be in Brooklyn and have found some great sites … Hopefully one of them will come to fruition soon. There is such a big gap in the US market for what we offer, so we just can’t wait to bring JoJo to more young families soon.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Everything we do at JoJo is about solving problems; whether we are designing a practical product or working on the most convenient way to dress a wriggly newborn we are doing our best to make life as a parent a little easier. But, our wish to help filters through to so many other areas. Learning about the horrors of the Syrian war and the plight of refugees escaping the bombings, we launched our From a Mother to Another (FAMTA) initiative. This is an annual collection of little-worn outgrown clothes. We collect hundreds of thousands of items, sort into sex, size and season, and make up gorgeous emergency clothing packs which are distributed to those in need in the camps along the Syrian border in Lebanon. I personally travelled to the area to set up a local network of charities to deliver packs to those in need. We also run a charity in Mozambique, working to relieve child poverty and reduce infant mortality. To date we have built 5 schools, feed 1500 children a school meal daily, have scholarships to secondary and tertiary education, and run enterprise projects and health initiatives. Our greatest challenge is currently under way — to build a hospital which will serve 24,000 people.

We are a business that cares about the problems in the world and we will not rest unless we feel we are doing everything we can to help solve them … that mountain is steep!

Can you share 5 examples of how retail companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to shop?

· Omni-channel is the future. Consumer expectations are high, and we need to fulfil their expectations to be able to buy online, in-store, by catalogue and via social media.

· Exclusivity. A strong brand identity encourages the feeling of being part of a club. If you love the JoJo collections, you will wear or use our products with pride and mention them to your friends, post recommendations and long for the new collections.

· Customer engagement. A strong social media presence is essential. Engage with your customers at all times — not just when they want to buy. Creating interesting and intelligent content adds a reason to visit the brand online and in store.

· Experiential shopping. When so much can be ordered online, the consumer needs a reason for visiting a store. Human contact, empathy, emotional support and physical help are hard to achieve digitally. In-store events, parties and practical help like shoe and bra measuring all give people a reason to come and meet our friendly teams.

· An ethical outlook. Business should not just be about money. Corporate social responsibility has been a buzz word for years but very few companies practice what they preach. Being a Certified B Corp sorts through the PR spin, giving consumers the confidence to believe that by purchasing from JoJo they are supporting a business which puts people and the planet above profit.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

For years we called our company ethos and moral code of conduct “The JoJo Way”. I strongly believe that you can do well whilst doing good. We have long had environmental and philanthropic issues high on our agenda; then I found out about B Corporations and the movement ticked all our boxes, so we became one of the first British companies and the only global children’s wear business to become certified. This US launched initiative is the most sensible way forward and whilst I did not start it, I am a fully paid up member and will do my best to promote it to others the world over.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Follow Laura to keep up with business news and developments at JoJo @LauraTenisonMBE and follow JoJo to shop, be inspired and get helpful advice @JoJoMamanBebe

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Authority Magazine

Leadership Lessons from Authorities in Business, Film, Sports and Tech. Authority Mag is devoted primarily to sharing interesting feature interviews of people who are authorities in their industry. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Aaron Weiner

Written by

Retail Fashion Thought Leader, CEO of two12fashion.com

Authority Magazine

Leadership Lessons from Authorities in Business, Film, Sports and Tech. Authority Mag is devoted primarily to sharing interesting feature interviews of people who are authorities in their industry. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

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