Anna Wintour – A Power Broker In The 21st Century

“It’s always about timing. If it’s too soon, no one understands. If it’s too late, everyone’s forgotten.”

― Anna Wintour

Background

In the world of fashion media, the name Anna Wintour carries its weight in tonnes. From being the editor in chief for US Vogue, the world’s leading fashion monthly magazine and the artistic director for Conde Nast, her professional life carries varied management responsibilities which help the organizations she is with run a smooth sail. Starting her career at Harpers Bazaar, Wintour was always exposed to people with great abilities and talent, thus making her learning curve a strong foundation for a prospective person in a powerful position.

Shifting to Conde Nast from Harpers Bazaar, Anna was always understood as a driving force of change as she could manage people in an efficient manner and exude authority as and when required. She put use of these skills to revamp dying Conde Nast publications like House and Garden and the UK Vogue. Her establishing project was giving a 360 degree makeover to US Vogue when it was losing its market share to Elle. She made risky decisions during this project like abandoning photo spreads worth $2 million and firing staff that she felt were incompetent, but all resulted in nothing but a straight shoot success. The positive outcome of this audacious challenge resulted in Vogue becoming the number one publication in America and Anna Wintour becoming a face to reckon with in the fashion industry.

A dutiful woman

Being a woman of wits and talents, Anna Wintour’s list of achievements knows no bound. The top most being a co-founder and manager of the coveted Annual Met Gala, the biggest event in fashion industry all year round. From deciding on iconic themes to finalizing the exhibition pieces, Wintour plays a key role in managing all key details for this event to be a massive success year after year. She is also a champion for rights of the common people and translates her support in form of photo spreads and magazine covers. The most recent example of this was giving creative rights to Beyonce for the upcoming September issue to bring representation for the African-American community. For the first time, a vogue cover was shot by an African American. From a managerial point of view, such moves can bring in more engagement from the consumer base by expanding the target audience.

Anna also sits on the judges’ panel at the Vogue fashion fund which gives exceedingly exceptional upcoming designers a chance to showcase their talent in a desired spotlight.

Managerial Style

Wintour is known to be a tough boss by her subordinates since she gets the work done one way or another, on time. The movie ‘Devil wears Prada’ is an exaggerated rendition of her real life managerial style.

Anna is often asked and quoted about how she makes the iconic decisions that make her who she is, her answer always remains to be “Be decisive, and trust your instinct.” This helps the whole team stay aligned on one sole clear objective and accomplish the same in a stipulated timeline, especially since a monthly publication works on tight deadlines with big budgets.

Another reason being her being a great manager is learning how to delegate responsibilities and avoiding micromanagement to eliminate confusion and irritation within the team. A double- triple check on the team can lead to irrelevant details becoming consequential and thus a waste of time. She likes to believe if a task is delegated; it is done since her team members are competent enough to handle said tasks.

Another key component of her management formula is to not reveal insecurities to ones team. Showing vulnerabilities as a top manager can hurt the efficiency and the robust rhythm of the team and set it off track. She believes it is not the job of her team to sooth her fears, as an authoritative head it is their job to figure out the issue rather than carry forward and penetrate the whole team with worry and distractions.

A learning that has influenced the way she handles every decision is not dwelling on the past, rather just sprinting forward with all energy possible. The next thing, the next issue always takes priority rather than what was. It helps one stay grounded and relevant to the zeitgeist, spirit of the times. This is a marker for her success in this time centric industry of fashion trends and hits. This however does not mean ignoring failure, Anna strictly reiterates the need of failure to be inspired and reflect about ones stance. Criticisms and setbacks can be good opportunities to take a view on ones performance and find ways to become stronger and better.