Steve Sadove, Former CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue

From Playing Tennis with World Leaders to becoming CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue. The Story of Steve Sadove.

“ I get very frustrated when I have people that are ready, ready, ready, ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim and maybe they fire one bullet. We want our people who are trying things all the time.” — Steve Sadove

This week’s interview is with Steve Sadove, current Board Director at Colgate-Palmolive and former CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue (before it was sold to HBC) as well as Clairol (before it was sold to Procter & Gamble).

Steve grew up in Washington D.C., where among other activities, he was a stand-in for his father’s tennis games. This meant he got to play tennis with the likes of Robert McNamara, who was U.S. Secretary of Defence during the Vietnam War. Later in life, Steve’s love of tennis helped him navigate the leadership of Philip Morris, which acquired his-then-current company, General Foods.

This interview is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Overcast and Soundcloud.

Here are the three things I learned from this interview:

1. Success comes from working well with others. Similar to points made in past interviews by Michael Fanuele (Chief Creative Officer at General Mills) and Patrice Louvet (Group President at Procter & Gamble), Steve found that the most successful leaders around him were those that understood people, and could motivate others around them. Every person who gets a job in consumer goods is smart, but not all are good with their teammates. Those who rose to the top knew how to work well with others.
2. Opportunity comes from unfamiliar, uncomfortable situations. Like John Leboutillier (President of Unilever Canada),Steve built his career on turn-arounds. Steve jumped from the food industry to running a hair care company in Clairol, which at the time had churned through 3 or 4 CEOs in 5 years. Steve sold that company to P&G for nearly $5 Billion in 2001. He then took over a struggling Saks Fifth Avenue, which he eventually sold to HBC for $2.4 Billion in 2013.
3. Early mornings led to productivity. This is a common trait with a lot of our guests. Even when he’s “retired”, Steve still starts his days quite early, reading all the news first thing in the morning before starting his day. While he was actively working, Steve tried to get into the office at 7 AM, giving him an hour to get some important work done before everyone else showed up at 8 AM. This is similar to the schedules of leaders like Martine Reardon (CMO of Macy’s) and John Leboutillier (President of Unilever Canada.

Hope you enjoy listening.

Daniel

Daniel Rodic is the Co-Founder of Exact Media, which is transforming the world of direct mail by enabling brands owned by companies like P&G, PepsiCo, Unilever and L’Oréal to distribute samples and coupons using the excess space in eCommerce parcels that have already been shipped to consumer.

Daniel was named Top 30 Under 30 by Marketing Magazine, and represented Canada at the G20 Entrepreneurs Summit in Moscow and Beijing. Daniel served on the Leadership Council for the United Nations Media for Social Impact Summit and he is a 2016 finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.