As Lululemon Athletica savours the flavour of being a billion-dollar company, sitting at the helm is Christine Day.
The multi-award-winning CEO would rather shine a congratulatory light on her staff, but today she is recognized for her own work in achieving tremendous success for the yoga-wear company – 183% growth since she became CEO. The new phase, she says, requires a lot more tactical thought.
"We're now evolving into a more complex strategic entity where we have to manage the future in a lot more structured way than we have in the past with resource allocations, developing people and managing the complexity of the organization while maintaining focus," she told BIV.
"It's a lot of focus on people development, our strategic direction, our points of differentiation. My time is spent on developing people, development strategy and communicating the purpose and mission of the organization."
Developing people is one area in which Day thrives. She sees the success of the company hinging on how well people like their jobs and are participating in the work environment.
"People want to contribute their best work and talent," said Day.
"I absolutely believe [getting people engaged] is one of the biggest secrets of our success and my personal leadership style – that I've embraced this so fully and have built an organization around that philosophy and I think the results speak for themselves," she said.
It's one of the things she speaks on the most when guest speaking, although she "wouldn't say it's the conversation of my peers the most."
For staff training, Day says, Lulu- lemon uses Harvard advanced and general management programs and offers finance training for non-financial managers, as well as project management.
Around softer interpersonal skills, staff use Landmark Education so that people create awareness of self and awareness of impact on other people, she said.
"We develop people for self development, working with others, which can be peer work or direct reports, and then leading organizations," said Day. "All our development programs target one of those key areas."
Day is also learning to listen in different ways than she did before about where the "soft squishy parts" of the organization or the risks are.
"We're still developing internal capability and learning to manage complexity," she said. "It's required a different focus on my time than it did when I was much more hands-on in the day-to-day operations. Now I'm much more involved in future creation."
Reflecting on Day's contribution to her business, nominator Nancy MacKay said, "Lululemon's vision is to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness, and Christine leads by example. Her achievements connect on every level."
MacKay, who leads MacKay CEO Forums, of which Day is a member, emphasized the importance of Day's work in establishing the right environment for success.
"Innovation is what sets Lululemon apart, and Christine intentionally creates an environment that encourages creative thought and disruptive thinking," said MacKay. "Christine and the executive team empower stores with knowledge, autonomy and inspiration – a strategy that allows each store to operate almost independently. This strategy allows each store to be creative, highly successful, and the empowerment relates to a younger generation, which helps fuel the company."
While Day is fully aware of the significance of her own contributions, she won't end an interview without sharing the kudos.
"I have the privilege to lead a great team, and it takes the whole team to produce results like this," she said. "While I'm honoured for the recognition, I know there are many who contribute to my success, not just here at Lulu but at all the places I've worked at before. I've practised my leadership on a lot of people, and I'm very grateful for that." •
For more information on the November 20 gala awards dinner celebrating our CEOs of the Year, click here.
