World Cup winners beat Boardroom blues

Charles Bresler, Men’s Wearhouse’s EVP Marketing and HR, shares the business secrets behind World Cup success.


In an exclusive interview for MeetTheBoss.tv Charles discusses how adopting a sporting mentality can drive people in your organization forward, a lesson that should not go unnoticed during a summer filled with world class soccer heroes performing at the very peak of their game.

Charles Bresler is the EVP Marketing/HR at one of the biggest clothing retailers in the US, Men’s Wearhouse. The company has approximately 580 men's retail stores that rent tuxedos and sell primarily men's suits, but the company also offers tailored clothing and accessories as well, including sportswear.

While the bulk of Men’s Wearhouse’s revenue comes from the classic suited-and-booted look; sports is never far from Bresler’s mind: “In sports they have this saying, you can't coach speed. And energy [in the workplace] is a little bit like that. Energy is a product of feeling cared for, but also hiring somebody who is coachable and has the potential to have that energy.”

Charles insists that MenWearhouse’s growth has been down to the workforce on the shop floor: what he calls the frontline. “Every moment counts when dealing directly with the consumer,” he explains in to the executive business channel. And, in such an environment, a ‘coaching’ style of leadership has clearly paid off. “It's really all about the energy you bring to them that is going to get reciprocated to your customers and your other employees.”

Much like any of the managers at this year’s World Cup in South Africa, Charles clearly builds his vision around the team, opting to form energetic world-class teams who can collaborate and gain big wins instead of the individuals.

“You don’t want to get lost in someone’s great knowledge,” notes Bresler. “What you need to do is to be aware that somebody has to genuinely liked talking to you and seek out being around people in a supportive environment.”

Men’s Wearhouse has already demonstrated that, under the leadership of George Zimmer and the coaching of Charles Bresler, difficult economic times doesn’t have to mea tough times for business. In short, it’s the team players that come through – some advice that the likes of Fabio Cappello, Raymond Domenech and Diego Maradona might want to take heed to at this year’s World Cup.

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Why Men’s Wearhouse is a business for the people

Charles Bresler discusses why people matter.

US retailer Men’s Wearhouse is a business that prides itself on being about its most valuable asset: its people. In an exclusive interview with MeetTheBoss.TV, the company’s EVP of Human Resources, Charles Bresler, details why people are so important to the company and how this vision impacts everything the retailer does.

Already on record as saying that Men’s Wearhouse is firmly in the “people’s business”, not the “men’s clothing business”, Bresler is the perfect example of someone at a well-run company with a very clear value proposition. In short, the company has a decidedly different sales point of view, where, according to Charlie employee happiness is the priority.

While the interview with MeetTheBoss.TV’s Editor-in-Chief Adam Burns digs deep into the nitty-gritty of what drives Men’s Wearhouse in terms of metrics and motivation, it is that “staff-first” mantra at the company that really sets Men’s Wearhouse apart.

“We put a lot of energy into the training of the men and women who work in our stores and we’ve seen tremendous results as a function of the type of training we do,” Bresler explained to Adam.

“The practice involves treating people really decently, listening to them, being compassionate when they have problems in their personal life or when their performance dips, trying to understand what's really going on in their life rather than just simply trying to manage them to absolute key performance indexes,” details Charles.

The company also aims to manage according to something Bresler calls “personal best” –something that Bresler equates to how athletes work within sports: “When you're training a swimmer, for example, they don’t look at the world record, they don’t look at the best time in the US for their age group; instead they look at their own best time, and then they try to beat that. After they beat that time, they try to set a new goal and so on and so forth.”

The underlying theory for personal best to build people's confidence, which assumes that if you manage people to some absolute number, they may not be able to hit that goal.

Ultimately Men’s Wearhouse aims to build an environment that not only nurtures creativity, empowerment, responsibility and trust. Cultural connectedness is also a key component to how Men’s Wearhouse operates: “We always have senior executives, including our CEO, present at your meetings because we want people to hear directly from the people that are making the business decisions and also the HR decisions that are affecting their lives.”

Men’s Wearhouse is all about being connected, both through culture and through engagement with its people to build energy. “I think it's hard to train the people working in the stores on a day-to-day basis to be energetic. In sports they have this saying, you can't coach speed. And energy is a little bit like that. Energy is a product of feeling cared for but also hiring somebody who is coachable and has the potential to have that energy,” notes Bresler.

“There's all kinds of things you can look for among people you hire, so I think the first part of connectedness and energy is hiring the right person. And the next part, instead of focusing on the trainee, you focus on yourself and how you're connected to them. It's really all about the energy you bring to them.”

To watch the interview in full, please go to MeetTheBoss TV