A&F's Poor CEO Performance Will Be Forced To Retire.

On Sunday morning, December 7th, Abercrombie &Fitch (A&F) CEO Mike Jeffries (Michael Jeffries) convened some executives to discuss the Christmas season business activities.

This is Mike's way of doing things.

He is today's A&F founder and CEO, and has been in charge of all aspects of the company for 22 years.

Each piece of cloth has been approved by a staff member for some time.

He instructs the staff how to display themselves and the length of fingernails.

Mike is 70 years old, trying to keep his face.

He spent most of his morning in the gym of the company losing weight by barefoot. He dyed his hair and often went to see his plastic surgeon.

The sales volume of A&F stores has declined for five years in the past seven years, and the situation in 2014 is not good. The profit is expected to be 106 million dollars, less than half of 2012.

Mike's salary has been reduced by 70%, and he will no longer be chairman of the board. The employment contract will expire next month.

On Monday, December 8th, Mike did not come to work, and never appeared again.

On the morning of the second day, Martinez, chairman of CEO in the early days of hillsdepartment store and Arthur Martinez in early 2014, convened an executive meeting to tell everyone that Mike was leaving. The company was looking for a new candidate for the A&F.

Before the board elect the new CEO, Martinez plus chief operating officer and two top executives recently will be responsible for managing the company.

Martinez said that it is difficult to choose CEO like Mike from a social or personal perspective.

Mike was full of energy and devoted his life to the company, but he had to retire.

This is a pity, but this is the end of an era.

Mike, a retail consultant for many years, said Lewis (Robin Lewis), Mike can not significantly change A&F.

He integrated himself with the brand image of the company, and even made himself look like a company's customer.

He used to wear low jeans and compassionate running.

Do cosmetic surgery.

For him, to change A&F is the greatest psychologist in the world.

A&F currently has an annual revenue of 4 billion US dollars, including three brands of A&F, Hollister and abercrombie, and about one thousand stores in nineteen countries.

A&F is for college students, Hollister is for boys and girls between 12 and 18 years old, and lowercase Abercrombie is for children less than 12 years old.

Since the first interpretation of Mike in 90s of last century, the brand image of A&F has hardly changed. It sells long sleeved shirts, sweaters, hoodies, patterned T-shirts, polo shirts, jeans, short sleeves and slippers, and has recently added a large "A&F" and elk logo designs.

Michael said this style embodies honor and low-key luxury.

Most of the stores are located in giant shopping centers, with black and white wooden louvers, with loud dancing music and black and white photographs of young people hanging on the walls.

A&F did not go far enough to follow suit and exclusive attitude, but teenagers changed.

They buy clothes at fast fashion stores like Forever 21 and H&M, which are especially cheap.

Mike thought that A&F should not be discounted.

Until about a year ago, he was not willing to sell more than 10 of the women's clothing.

Until last spring, Mike Nagen Hollister store opened the lamp and removed the shutters from the A&F store.

He also lowered the volume of background music in the store, and the amount of Cologne Spray was also reduced by 25%.

He also agreed that the company logo should not be too eye-catching.

When asked whether the company could win the appeal of A&F to young people, Martinez replied almost philosophously, the best and worst thing for the retail industry is to occupy the summit. It is very dangerous to occupy the summit.

For years Mike has been low-key.

He has never really joined a retail group or attended a fashion show, nor is it known in the charity world.

He sometimes breaks the company's holiday party and hardly talks with reporters.

Last April, he agreed to take a 15 minute interview to introduce the development of A&F.

This is his first face-to-face interview since 2006.

During the interview, Mike did not allow any audio and video recording. His public relations officer also said in advance that Mike would not answer any controversial questions.

Michael actually had no office. He spent most of his time looking at clothes in a room like the university lecture hall or near the press release room.

When asked about his possible retirement, he replied that finding a successor was a big deal, and the 15 minute interview ended.

He stood up, shrugged, and left.

When Mike acted as CEO in 1992, A&F was already a centenary store.

A&F has provided explorers and successful people with outdoor sports equipment. Old Roosevelt, Lindenberger and Hemingway have bought things.

After its failure due to operational difficulties, Limited bought it for $47 million in 1988.

Fosun's brand failed for the first time, and A&F only had baseball products and long skirts business.

Limited leader Vickers (Les Wexner) hired Mike to rejoin the drum.

At that time, Mike was 48 years old and was determined to become a Brooks Brothers Federated Brothers Stores.

Six years later, when the joint Department Store went bankrupt, he went to another woman dress company, Paul Harris, which also filed for bankruptcy in 1991. Paul Harris.

Mike joined

Leslee Herro, a former executive of the company, recalled his first appearance at the annual meeting of the company: "I will always remember what Mike looked like at that time, and he shouted to us to become a world famous high-end brand."

A&F went public in 1996, when there were 125 stores, with annual sales and profits reaching 335 million and 25 million US dollars respectively.

Mike laid out 29 pages of dress code for the sales staff: women should not wear makeup or paint their nails. Most of the accessories should not be worn. Tattoos should not be worn. The hair must be naturally long hair. Men can not store their beards. The greeting between colleagues is only "Hey, what 's going on".

The store manager spends a day each week recruiting young people who meet the requirements on their local university campuses.

Mike sent out a timetable to the stores every week, covering all tasks including how to display clothes.

If a shirt is hung up, it is necessary to unbutton a button; to fold it, two pieces need to be untied.

Representatives from headquarters carry out what they call "Blitzkrieg" to ensure that all standards are implemented.

If it is found that it does not meet the standards, it will send Rehab to help.

"It's like military action, discipline and command," Mike told the Wall Street journal in 1997.

A former executive recalled that when Mike went to the store to check his work, he did not ask the manager about his wages or theft. He was only concerned about whether the furnishings were right and whether the employees looked the same.

Alisa Durando, who joined A&F in 1996, said: "we can influence Mike in terms of products, but he will not listen to marketing."

Mike's home decoration style is just like a store, the floor is black and bright, and art paintings are hung on the walls.

When Mike was awarded a bonus or a quarterly celebration, he organized senior executives to get together, but most of the time he worked.

Once a cosmetic surgery had not been resumed, he held a conference call.

The former executive said he would go back to work after his face had not yet disappeared.

On a business trip, he dispatched a team of people to check the appearance and taste of his car and hotel.

Mike created a wonderful world, and many men and women wanted to be part of it.

A&F profits have risen steadily for ten consecutive years, and the number of stores has increased to six hundred.

During the recession of 2001, sales of companies began to decline, but Mike refused to cut prices.

He is often a controversial figure. The company has sold T-shirts printed with the Yellow brothers laundry: the two yellow can turn white.

After the boycott of the Asian American student organization in 2002, A&F took these compassionate Posts off the shelves.

A month later, he launched a children's sympathize with the word "Eye Candy", which was protested by parents and the company had to stop selling it.

At the end of 2002, an analyst asked Mike, the store's tight T-shirt and

Is it unnecessary to exclude some teenagers?

Mike replied, "exclude? Yes, we are a cool brand."

A&F is sometimes regarded as a sign of other problems.

In 2003, California Asian, African American and Hispanic students sued A&F for alleged racial discrimination. The Fair Employment Commission of the United States participated in the case.

The lawsuit alleged that the company did not allow ethnic minorities to sell, sent them to work in the warehouse, and reduced their appearance time after the manager knew that their employees were not A&F enough.

A&F expressed no tolerance for racial discrimination and offered a settlement of $50 million, but it did not recognize wrongful acts.

As part of the reconciliation, A&F promised to appoint a job diversification officer and report progress to the local court.

In the autumn of 2004, Michael launched a series of clothing brands Ruehl No.925 for 20s and young men and women. The potential target customers were young people who graduated from Indiana University and worked in New York.

The Ruehl store in the shopping center is decorated with real brick walls, cast iron barriers and classical windows, showing the style of Greenwich village.

In the A&F product mix, Ruehl is the only brand that can sell black clothing.

Ruehl executives come and go, but no one can affect Mike.

A former business executive said that different ideas from Mike would not yield good results.

Mike mentioned that he would retire one day, but push away the possible successors.

In 2005, Mike opened a major store near Prada street and GUCCI store on the Fifth Avenue, and set high standards for sleeveless models at the door of the shop.

Amy Zehrer, who is responsible for store management, later told investors that managers would check every half an hour to see how many photos they took with the models.

In 2008, Mike launched the Gilly Hicks underwear brand.

In 2009, A&F closed all 29 Ruehl stores, which lost $58 million a year ago.

Gilly Hicks stores remained until 2013, and underwear was still on sale at Hollister stores and online.

A&F store sales fell 13% in 2008, down 23% in 2009.

Although it is still profitable, there are signs that Mike's personality may make A&F unbearable, especially when it stops developing.