I talked with Jake Burton yesterday to ask him more about stepping into the CEO role, how challenging it is for someone to be the CEO when Jake and wife Donna Carpenter are the revered and involved founders, and if he has any advice for skateboarding as it grapples with the Olympics issue.
Burton announced Monday that former CEO Laurent Potdevin is resigning and Jake will temporarily assume the job while the company searches for his replacement.
Key qualities in the next CEO
“I think it’s important to have an individual that connects with the sport and is passionate about it and the same for a connection with me and Donna,” he said.
Ideally, would the next CEO come from inside or outside the industry?
“We’ve had results positive and negative on both sides with that equation,” he said. “You can get too hung up on them coming from within the organization or the same on them coming from the outside because sometimes it’s nice to have a fresh perspective. If you get too focused on one or the other it can come back to bite you.”
Really, passion for the sport and a connection to him and Donna are the most important, he said.
“I don’t think that means they have to come purely from within the industry. I like to think we’re more open minded than that.”
(Above: Donna Carpenter.)
How hard is it to be the CEO of Burton, when you are so revered and involved?
“I think it’s one of the best jobs in the world,” he said.
There’s only been one other CEO besides Jake, and that’s Laurent, and “we had a great 15 years,” Jake said. “We had an incredible relationship and he accomplished a lot. My memories are nothing but good and that’s the only one I have to go by.
“There’s for sure an element or a side of it that is challenging – working for a guy whose name is on the door. At the same time, there’s a huge benefit, too – to have that kind of resource” to tap.
“It’s like being one of our children in a way,” Jake said. “Probably sometimes it sucks and a lot of times its great. It’s up to us to see that the positive outweighs any downside. I think we can accomplish that.”
When Laurent was there, how involved were you in the day-to-day?
“I’m very detail oriented person by nature, and I get very hung up on things like a zipper on a jacket,” he said.
Jakes tests all the products, and said if he has an opinion about something, he’s very determined to make sure the change happens.
He’s also been focusing on building stronger relationships with specialty retailers, and supporting and improving the connection to team riders.
On big picture issues, he has random objectives that he’ll push forward to the top but stressed other executives do the same – it’s not just about his objectives.
“Basically, my level of involvement has an element of randomness to it,” he said.
It was my understanding that Laurent had a lot of direct reports around the world. Is there any desire to change that?
Jake said that had been the case, but the Burton board of directors advised him and Laurent that there were too many and needed to be narrowed.
Laurent had whittled his direct reports to seven, he said.
With Laurent’s departure, Donna is taking on international sales so will assume two of those reports, leaving Jake with five.
“That’s very manageable,” he said.
Burton has a “very capable” management team that meets once a week and has strong communication. “And I attended those meetings anyway,” Jake said.
So far, the transition “has been seamless – it’s business as usual – which is kind of just what you want,” he said.
Any chance you’ll like being in the role again so much you won’t hire someone else?
“I’ve very excited to be in there – it’s so motivating and so much fun,” he said. “At the same time, I think the company is most productively run with someone in that role and me and Donna doing our own thing.”
Plus, the company was much smaller when it first brought in a CEO, and now with its size and scale – it’s even more imperative now, Jake said.
Having himself as the CEO “is not the ideal long-term solution,” he said.
What was Laurent’s single biggest accomplishment?
Burton has a long history of launching new products – expanding from snowboards into softgoods, helmets, goggles, boots, etc., but realized it had tapped all it could in the snowboard category, he said.
The company wanted to expand, but stick to its boardsports DNA. Laurent helped implement that strategy by acquiring Channel Islands Surfboards and DNA Distribution, including the skate brands Alien Workshop and Habitat.
Laurent was also behind moving Analog and Gravis to the West Coast.
So the acquisitions of Channel Islands and DNA have been successful?
Jake said while everything is not yet as dialed in or as profitable and he expects it will be, “They were the perfect strategic moves to make. I’m psyched about the future of the whole family of brands collectively,” he said.
Will the snow specialty channel survive?
Burton is making a big effort to segment product and support the channel and to direct snowboarders to their local shops, he said.
Online retailing disoriented the market for a while but it’s getting straightened out, he said. He believes some stores are realizing they are better online retailers; some are realizing brick-and-mortar is their specialty.
“Our mission is to make sure (the specialty channel) survives and thrives,” he said. Having good specialty stores “benefits all levels of distribution.”
Is segmenting product something new for Burton?
Burton has segmented some product before, but “We’re putting more focus on it,” he said.
Team involvement
Jake wanted to emphasize that he’s also really focused on getting reconnected with the team. I asked him what that means, since I would assume Burton is usually connected and close to the team. That’s when the whole Olympics issue came up.
Olympics
It’s been a crazy year with the Olympics and a “heavy year” as well with Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis getting hurt.
It’s time for the team to get together and focus on the sport and having fun, Jake said.
“In an Olympic year, things get spun a little bit,” he said. “It will be nice to get back to business as usual. We get dictated to by the ski federation every four years – I’m not bitter about it – it’s great, it’s all good.”
But he enjoys getting back to what snowboarding’s all about – having fun, he said.
The skateboard industry is grappling with the Olympics issue. Any advice for them?
“It’s got to be in the hands of the skaters,” he said. He said they should talk to snowboarding and even beach volleyball to get some advice.
There are definitely pros and cons, he said.
“There’s a loss of control in the Olympic process,” Jake said. “At the same time, there’s mad exposure.”
He feels that snowboarding has gotten to a pretty good place with the Olympics – he thinks the qualifying process if fair, they did a good job on the pipe venue.
The Olympics, he said, “Are a challenging process and those that care about a sport have to be very vigilant.”
