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Living The American Dream: How Dov Charney Fashioned His Own Success

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Living The American Dream: How Dov Charney Fashioned His Own Success
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“Give me the chance of going to Harvard or being there when Google started and I want to be there making $3 an hour sweeping their floors. Or Apple when Steve Jobs started it,” says Charney. “Maybe I'm delusional but that's what I think American Apparel is.” For Charney, the success of American Apparel has just begun. But how did he get to where he is today? How did a Jewish Canadian college dropout become the CEO of one of the most revered and fastest-growing companies in America?

Pro-Labour: “I make more money than my competition who pays 50 cents an hour because of the efficiencies of dealing with someone face to face and paying them a fair wage,” says Charney. “I think it's really low brow to take advantage of labor cost inequalities to sustain your business. I know how to use communications, technology, and distribution systems to deliver t-shirts to the public without damaging the lives of my workers.” From paying them above minimum wage to offering subsidized lunches and free massages, Charney has made it a policy to be on the side of his staff.

Niche: From day one, Charney has been clear about who his target market is and what he needs to do to cater to them. Whether it is producing tighter and sexier clothes with bolder and more provocative colours, or putting a message behind his marketing – one of corporate social responsibility – Charney made his every move with his market in mind.

Unconventional: There may not be many other CEOs who rise at the crack of noon only to walk around the office in their underwear and freely engage in relationships with their staff, but Charney says his unconventional approach not only works for him, but has worked for the entire success of the company. It was by being willing to break the rules that Charney took American Apparel to the top.

Passion: Few people believe Charney when he says that all it took to take him to the top was his passion, but he is adamant that that was the most important factor. Indeed, it is doubtful that he could have come back from all of his low points if he did not love what he was doing.

Efficiency: “The beautiful thing about free trade is it creates an environment of competition where there's a marketplace of ideas,” says Charney. “And you know, one guy could go offshore and pull things in from China. Another guy could automate here in the United States. And may the best man win. Maybe both men will win.” Charney calls his business model an “Industrial Revolution.” By streamlining his operations and creating a home-grown effort, Charney has made efficiency his secret weapon in business.

“I want to be remembered as one of the great CEOs of our time and of my generation,” says Charney. “And I think that I'm gonna make them proud. That's my plan.”





Living The American Dream How Dov Charney Fashioned His Own Success

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Dianne Crampton

Dianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here.

Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009.  Her new book TIGERS Among Us: Winning Business Team Cultures And Why They Thrive, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010.  To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here.

- Visit Dianne Crampton's Website

Michiel Jonker
As a Certified Information Systems Auditor, Michiel assists businesses in a professional capacity by evaluating the threats to their businesses. He acquired the necessary knowledge, skills, and techniques to minimize a business owner’s risk of business failure and to maximize his chances of high growth and success. He strongly believes that you CAN maximize your chances of business success, by implementing the business solution he has advocated for more than 12 years in your business plan and planning. Michiel has decided to share his experience with business owners by putting almost everything he knows in a business plan and survival guide (compiled in an e-book format) and written as a high growth SMB coaching course for SMB business owners, directors and managers - titled as the “Survival Kit for Small and Medium Businesses - Profit from your Business Risks!” According to Michiel, his goal was to add new techniques to a business owner’s business planning survival kit and instruct him or her in using these in the future - without any help from a consultant! For more information about the benefits of implementing profit protection planning in your business, please visit: http://www.business-around-the-globe.com - Visit Michiel Jonker's Website

Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

Linda Richardson
Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website


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