Lizanne Kindler Leading A $6 Billion Fashion Empire, The KnitWell Group

Let's talk a little bit more about tech.

When you think about leveraging technology to create operational efficiencies and reduce costs across brands, how is that going?

Great question.

I mean, that obviously I think is top of mind for anyone leading an organization today, given the rapid rise of the importance of AI, right? But technology and the evolution of technology has always been part of our journey, right? Like that is part of what creates efficiency in the background and allows, you know, I say to the teams, you know, it's a well-oiled engine is what allows us to focus on the things we really want to do.

So technology is an important part of that.

And really understanding and testing into where can AI be helpful on two fronts, really efficiency, speed, and intelligence.

And then second to that, transforming, transforming the ways that we're working, transforming the ways that we're engaging with customers, right? Like that's a new frontier for us, right? Like the last time that happened was, you know, the internet, right? And so I think being on top of that and thinking of it in an exciting and opportunistic way, but also understanding that it's early days and we have to be thoughtful about, I call them all the shiny bright objects out there, you know, what's right for the company, what's right for the team, what's right for the brand.

And ultimately, when we think about transformation, what's right for each of the customer segments.

Lisanna, you mentioned AI, and I'm sure there's a fair amount of angst in the organization as there is within any organization around AI, job replacement, am I secure? What do I need to learn? How are you managing that mindset?

I think we've gone about it in a way where we have encouraged associates that are truly interested and curious about what you can do with AI to come forth and help us test into solutions and become experts.

the ambassadors to the balance of the organization in promoting the goodness that we can experience with AI.

So I think the sort of more grassroots approach, but also being very transparent about what are we trying to do with AI? Where are we going with this? And this isn't a job elimination situation.

This is about working together.

smarter and freeing up time to do things that we all want to do but can't get to because things are complicated, processes are complicated, systems are complicated.

So we've been testing into some solutions with smaller teams in the organization that can really help us tell the story around how exciting this can be and what opportunities AI can bring for us in a positive way.

It's great.

I read a post by Mindy Grossman, who we both know well, and her comment on AI was actually very similar to what you just said, really looking to celebrate the wins and the success stories of members of the team

to

make it feel inclusive rather than pushing AI down on the team, which could be more intimidating.

Well, I'll give you an example, Ken.

You know, we have a very relationship-focused culture in our stores, right? Our customers for most of the brands that we have are really based on one of our successes is the relationship that we have with our customers.

We do a lot of outreach in the stores and writing a personalized email or text is You can imagine with hundreds of thousands and millions of customers, that's really time consuming and almost impossible.

So with an AI tool, we've been able to test into with a group of associates how we can do personalized email communication with our customers with an AI tool.

that has access to some information in our database and can help craft the emails, that's transformative.

You know, that frees up a lot of time.

Let's talk a little bit more about tech.

When you think about leveraging technology to create operational efficiencies and reduce costs across brands, how is that going?

Great question.

I mean, that obviously I think is top of mind for anyone leading an organization today, given the rapid rise of the importance of AI, right? But technology and the evolution of technology has always been part of our journey, right? Like that is part of what creates efficiency in the background and allows, you know, I say to the teams, you know, it's a well-oiled engine is what allows us to focus on the things we really want to do.

So technology is an important part of that.

And really understanding and testing into where can AI be helpful on two fronts, really efficiency, speed, and intelligence.

And then second to that, transforming, transforming the ways that we're working, transforming the ways that we're engaging with customers, right? Like that's a new frontier for us, right? Like the last time that happened was, you know, the internet, right? And so I think being on top of that and thinking of it in an exciting and opportunistic way, but also understanding that it's early days and we have to be thoughtful about, I call them all the shiny bright objects out there, you know, what's right for the company, what's right for the team, what's right for the brand.

And ultimately, when we think about transformation, what's right for each of the customer segments.

Lisanna, you mentioned AI, and I'm sure there's a fair amount of angst in the organization as there is within any organization around AI, job replacement, am I secure? What do I need to learn? How are you managing that mindset?

I think we've gone about it in a way where we have encouraged associates that are truly interested and curious about what you can do with AI to come forth and help us test into solutions and become experts.

the ambassadors to the balance of the organization in promoting the goodness that we can experience with AI.

So I think the sort of more grassroots approach, but also being very transparent about what are we trying to do with AI? Where are we going with this? And this isn't a job elimination situation.

This is about working together.

smarter and freeing up time to do things that we all want to do but can't get to because things are complicated, processes are complicated, systems are complicated.

So we've been testing into some solutions with smaller teams in the organization that can really help us tell the story around how exciting this can be and what opportunities AI can bring for us in a positive way.

It's great.

I read a post by Mindy Grossman, who we both know well, and her comment on AI was actually very similar to what you just said, really looking to celebrate the wins and the success stories of members of the team

to

make it feel inclusive rather than pushing AI down on the team, which could be more intimidating.

Well, I'll give you an example, Ken.

You know, we have a very relationship-focused culture in our stores, right? Our customers for most of the brands that we have are really based on one of our successes is the relationship that we have with our customers.

We do a lot of outreach in the stores and writing a personalized email or text is You can imagine with hundreds of thousands and millions of customers, that's really time consuming and almost impossible.

So with an AI tool, we've been able to test into with a group of associates how we can do personalized email communication with our customers with an AI tool.

that has access to some information in our database and can help craft the emails, that's transformative.

You know, that frees up a lot of time.