Research Of A Real-Life Case In Which Effective Leadership Helped A Firm

Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 and, like every other product, it was created to solve a problem. In this case, the founder of the brand, Roy Raymond, struggled when purchasing lingerie for his wife, as he felt embarrassed and unwelcome in department stores. Moreover, he stated that the stores did not know how to be appealing, as there were only “robes and ugly floral-print nylon nightgowns”. In that time, most women purchased underwear that came in packs from department stores and saved prettier items for special occasions, such as honeymoons. Thereby, Ray Raymond noticed that what was offered by the market did not correspond to what men wanted to buy – there was a mismatch of ideas and he decided to come up with the solution.

Victoria’s Secret was initially designed as a store in which men could feel comfortable buying lingerie. In its first year of business, Victoria’s Secret had enough profit to expand the brand and open other stores in the United States. Yet, although they expanded after the first year in business, the brand was still considered a “niche player” in the underwear market, and it was described as “burlesque” and “provocative”. A few years later, in 1982, Ray Raymond sold Victoria’s Secret Inc. to Leslie Wexner, the creator of Limited Stores Inc. , for one million dollars. And here’s a spoiler for the real leadership situation we are about to analyse – in the early 1990s, Victoria’s Secret was not worth a million: it was worth a billion. Les Wexner, when in charge of the business, looked around him: there was a revolution going on, right in front of his eyes – giving women the opportunity to purchase different underwear was a ground-breaking, fresh idea. As the birth control pill hit the market in the sixties, the sexual revolution for women was something new. Thereby, the market was almost like a blank canvas in that segment – and Wexner knew how to take advantage of the new mindset that was going on and apply it in his business.

According to Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, “He [Les Wexner] made sexy mainstream. That was his genius”. Therefore, considering the previously mentioned situation, Les Wexner leadership behaviour can be associated with the theory of transformational leadership. When he first acquired the company [Victoria’s Secret] there was an urge on increasing business competitiveness – hence, Wexner revitalised the company. Transformational leadership is a process of stimulating higher levels of motivation among followers and altering the performance or wealth of a business. The transformational leader motivates followers to do more than originally expected and the extent of transformation is measured in terms of the leader’s effects on followers.

Transformational leadership is comprised of some basic components: first of all, the idealised influence (the charisma of the leader, which causes respect of the followers), the inspirational motivation (the behaviour of the leader which provides meaning to the work of the followers), the intellectual stimulation (leaders who ask new approaches for the performance of work and new problem solutions) and individualised consideration (leaders who give special attention to the growth of the followers). Transformational leaders lead by example, as they recognize that actions speak louder than words and demonstrate consistency in their daily attitudes.

Realizing the previously mentioned revolution and the new ideals and mindset women had, Wexner realized that the focus of Victoria’s Secret stores was wrong; he highlighted an issue, mentioning that the company was selling something geared towards men rather than women – for example, a catalogue of brand, in the late seventies, shows women in provocative positions – and that did not appeal women. Henceforth, he changed the focus of the entire brand to please the real customer: women. There were new colours, patterns and styles that promised sexiness packaged in a glamorous way and with the appeal of “European luxury” and a sumptuous lifestyle. Hereafter, one can say that Victoria’s Secret became a main player in the lingerie segment after the beforehand mentioned change in their vision of the market; After Les Wexner adopted the idea of transformational leadership regarding the focus of sales, in 1986, Victoria’s Secret was the only American chain of lingerie stores. Moreover, the brand was reported among the “best-selling catalogues”, and it was described by the New York Times as a “highly visible leader”. Summing up so far, one can tell that Victoria’s Secret Inc. , after being acquired by Leslie Wexner, became the leader in the lingerie segment. According to the Financial Times article on Les Wexner as his eye for business, it is said that the brand [Victoria’s Secret] is reinforced by “its ostentatious annual fashion show, where models from Gisele Bündchen to Adriana Lima have paraded in Wexner’s wares, sporting angel wings and carnival costumes”, ensuring visibility for the brand, in a worldwide scenario.

However, Les Wexner states that he is not interested in the catwalk show and has never been on a fashion shoot. “The business of the business interests me, ” he says. His tastes are simple, and his instincts are purely commercial. Moreover, one can say that it took courage and vision to take Victoria’s Secret to a whole new level. Therefore, visionary leadership theory also applies to Les Wexner. Charismatic leaders transform followers by creating changes in their goals, values, and aspirations. Leadership today is increasingly associated with the concept of creating a vision that others can relate to, getting along with other people and the concept of inspiration. This has given rise to a new approach to leadership – visionary leadership, which deals with the skills of motivating and inspiring people. The importance of visionary leaders is that they create a vision for the organisation and its future direction. As Whitehead stated, “The big word now associated with leadership is vision. To take the long-term view. What the ultimate objectives of the organisation are and how people can work together to achieve them the most important attribute is that a good leader inspires people. Leading from this position, they get a higher level of commitment from their people”. Kahan sees visionary leadership as transformative. Visionary leaders engage society with its competitive and divergent points of view about the market. Leadership may be based on the personal qualities, or charisma, of the leader and the way influence is exercised. The importance of charisma for effective leadership today is emphasised by Conger, as he states that passion is a big part of what drives a charismatic leader, “You can do more to motivate your team. What you simply cannot learn is how to be passionate about what you do. ” – like Wexner stated, he likes “the business of the business”, and his passion shows in the way he leads his brand. However, the extent to which charismatic or inspirational leadership helps bring about improvement in organisational performance is open to much debate.

One must also draw attention to the danger that the leader’s vision and dynamism are highly attractive to followers, which leads to a natural dependence. Staff see this extraordinary figure as a model to be emulated and the leader’s capacities become the yardstick by which they measure their own performance. Bloomfield refers to the cult of the individual, supposedly charismatic leader and the danger that this leads businesses into deep water far more often than the application of rational leadership. The role of the leader as visionary is fundamental to creating the broad philosophical context of democracy and as the architect of shared purpose. Witzel suggests that “Leadership is one of the most vital ingredients in modern business. Leaders provide vision, inspiration, give a purpose to the business”. Goffee and Jones point out that the need for visionary leadership is becoming increasingly important. Traditional business hierarchies gave managers and workers a sense of their own position and what was expected of them. Now, as these hierarchies break down, it is leaders themselves who must fill the void, helping subordinates to understand their place and purpose. Personal leadership is beginning to replace organisational structure”. When asked about the secret for the success of his brand, Wexner goes straight to the point and answers that there cannot be a fixed state of mind and a fixed ideology on what customers want – that is, everything is in a constant change. Thereafter, Les Wexner states “The typical lifespan of a fashion business is 15 years. Most retail chains don’t survive beyond 20 or 30 years. The key to survival is to reinvent yourself as your shoppers evolve – When the customer zigs, you zig”.

In addition, Wexner states that the business in which he is in must be understood from a women’s perspective – most women want to express their individuality, which has a lot to do with sexuality, meaning that lingerie is loaded with powerful “emotional content” for women. Hence, Wexner takes advantage of that mindset to develop other products with new details, thus constantly being aware of what women want “at first, we’ll be criticized, but eventually sales boom. The definition of what is appropriate is always shifting”. Also, he develops products to fulfil women’s needs – underwear is way past the phase of having only a functional purpose. Wexner states “Why lace? Why silk? Why push-up? Why those characteristics? It has something to do with the shape of the figure. Women want to project a figure”. As beforehand mentioned, as Wexner transformed Victoria’s Secret when he focused on women instead of men – therefore, he makes sure that women oversee many activities related to his brand “the associates in the stores are women. The customers are women. The merchants in Victoria are all women. The business has been headed by a woman. The marketing director is a woman”. Starting with the first one previously mentioned, the path-goal theory attempts to explain the impact that leader behaviour has on associate motivation, satisfaction, and performance. This theory has four major types of leadership, which are directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative leadership and achievement-oriented leadership.

According to the information beforehand analysed on Wexner, one can state that the styles that best suit him are participative leadership (in which the leader asks for suggestions from associates but still makes the decisions) and achievement-oriented leadership (in which the leader sets goals for associates and shows confidence that they will attain these goals and perform well). By using one of the styles depending on the situational factors as outlined, the leader attempts to influence associates’ perceptions and motivate them, which in turn leads to their role clarity, goal expectancies and performance. This is specifically accomplished by the leader by recognizing associates’ needs for outcomes over which the leader has some control and increasing personal payoffs to associates for work-goal attainment. Going back in this Victoria’s Secret evolution, Wexner took advantage of the sexual revolution that was going on, when the brand was still taking the first steps; Adapting to the environment, it became successful – However, according to Bloomberg, it seems that Victoria’s Secret is not being able to cope with the new idea that every woman’s body is different and unique, and women do not have to have certain characteristics.

Hence, competitors such as Adore Me and Everlane present illustrations to customers in their websites, so that they know which of those best matches their figure, hence reassuring consumers that they are unique and do not have to fit in. A customer stated “The conversation right now is more about bodies than it is about underwear. People are defining for themselves where they fit in society, and they don’t have to settle”. In the Bloomberg report, it is mentioned that at Victoria’s Secret, sentiments are not evolving. At Victoria’s Secret, they might care about the fitting, but that does not show online – in their fitting rooms, women are available to measure customers and pull different sizes and styles that might suit the customer. According to Bloomberg, maybe that is the side of the store they should be playing with, thus making the brand more inclusive to all women. Victoria’s Secret won a lot with the previous sexual revolution. Will it change their “war strategy” and will this one as well? We’ll have to wait to see.