Some only dream of a career as a renowned business executive. Others plan for it.
But for Vincent Wauters, the president of prominent outdoor sporting goods company Arc'teryx, the pride of North Vancouver, neither scenario applies. Wauters didn't dream of a life as an executive. He didn't plot his ascension of the corporate ranks. Rather, his decade-plus career has been "a nice accident."
"When I was younger, I studied at the post-graduate level, and I was due to be a teacher of history and geo politics," said Wauters, a native of Belgium.
"The research I completed was pretty substantial. I spent two years working in Cambodia, studying how the Khmer Rouge came to power in that country.
"After Cambodia, I studied how the French media covered the regime – how much of an influence they had on foreign affairs and taking refugees in France. I worked with diplomats, journalists, and it was super interesting."
Although he envisioned a life in the classroom, Wauters' career trajectory underwent a sweeping change after he finished his graduate studies.
Wauters, then 24, attended a high-profile job fair in Brussels aimed at placing successful candidates with 20 well-known European companies.
The rules of the job fair were simple: each candidate had to be out of high school for at least five years and speak two languages. Wauters met the criteria.
While the initial requirements were basic, the demands of the companies involved were not. Candidates endured six months of tests – writing tests, IQ tests and taped interviews and others – in the hopes of being chosen. They also met face to face with potential employers.
Eventually, Wauters was selected by multibillion-dollar French company PPR, now known as Kering, owners of iconic fashion lines such as Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga. He was placed in the company's strategic development program, which had him travel to a different country and perform a different job with a different sister company under the PPR umbrella every three months.
"I did that for three years," said Wauters.
"Every three months, the other candidates were pooled back together, forced to change what we had learned and then sent back out again on mission. And it was perfect."
It was a challenging time, to be sure, but little could prepare Wauters for the project he was presented with next. After only one, however demanding, corporate experience, Wauters was about to become part of business history.
"After that experience, I was headhunted to join Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) in 1999. When I look back at what that challenge was, it's pretty scary," said Wauters.
"I was in charge of operations development – supply chain operations. When I joined, we were 10. And nine months before we launched in August 2000, we were 150 employees. It was rapid growth."
Wauters' gig at the then-burgeoning startup was critical. He was responsible for opening a warehouse and connecting with 5,000 different suppliers. The company had 1.2 million products listed in its catalogue and planned on shipping to 100 countries.
Nothing on that scale had ever been done before, said Wauters. But his desire to achieve that goal far outweighed his fear of failing.
"When I started I had no one else to blame," said Wauters. "I had to recruit everyone. So, you know, in every element of that experience, I had this balance between business adventure and great purpose. All of the people involved had this feeling we were making history. If you have that combination of purpose and people, it's unbeatable."
Wauters spent three years with Amazon, although he jokes it was like 10 years in a "normal environment." From there, he went to work for Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE:NWL), another conglomerate that owns several well-known brands such as Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Calphalon and Rolodex. At Newell Rubbermaid, he was given the task of designing an operations platform that would co-ordinate the IT needs, customer service and distribution requirements for various divisions in the company.
Wauters then moved to Amer Sports, where, again, he created a singular platform to manage the $3 billion company's seven brands – Arc'teryx, Wilson and Salomon, for example – around the globe.
But Wauters wanted a change. After years of co-ordinating brand operations and working directly for CEOs, Wauters wanted to get "closer" to a brand. He wanted to lead.
"I was kind of servicing brands but not directing a brand," said Wauters.
"When you think about the adventure and purpose in business, a brand has in its DNA a very vibrant emotional purpose. It has a value that grows generation after generation, a value that grows after your professional life. It grows across generations. That, to me, makes the purpose much bigger and is something I have always found fascinating."
Now at the helm of Arc'teryx, Wauters has found that brand experience. And it's been busy. In the past nine months, the company has opened flagship stores in Vancouver, Seattle, London and Shanghai, designed eight e-commerce sites to cover Europe and expanded into a new head office for its finance, marketing, human resources and IT departments.
But Wauters wants more.
In the next five years, he plans to open more shops and more e-commerce sites, as well as expand into cities such as Toronto, Boston and Philadelphia, where outdoor culture isn't as prevalent as it is in B.C.
Wauters added that Arc'teryx appeals to people living and working in urban environments. The company's Veilance capsule collection, for instance, is available in upscale boutiques, not outdoor shops, in Gastown and Kitsilano.
But regardless of where Arc'teryx is sold – and to whom it is marketed – Wauters sees each opportunity as an extension of the brand. The purpose, he repeated, remains clear. And the people needed are in place.
"I'm not scared of big goals," he said. "This team is not afraid of big goals. That's always the most important factor, the power of purpose and the power of the team. And this team drives toward perfection – it is very engaging." •
