Masters of Leadership: Mindy Grossman

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On Leading and Pivoting

Particularly during times of change, whether for the company or for the world, Grossman believes that leaders hold an important role in empowering teams.

“I’m not just CEO, I’m chief communications officer, chief crisis officer and chief hope officer,” she said.

Leadership, Grossman said, is not autocratic. Instead, leaders have to be able to turn to and rely on the talent around them, working through priorities as a team, with every team member empowered to act.

“Have you surrounded yourself with the right diversity of talent so you can be in a room and have productive discomfort?” Grossman said.

Learn more about Grossman’s journey to her current position, working with Oprah Winfrey, how WW supports diversity initiatives and more in the full event recording.

Webinar Transcript

Greg Baroni:

I'm delighted to welcome you to our virtual event today. We have an exciting program featuring WW International, Chief Executive Officer, Mindy Grossman, and Consumer Technology Association president and Chief Executive Officer, Gary Shapiro.

Greg Baroni:

As we get underway with our program this morning, I have just a few housekeeping matters to cover. First, everybody has been muted. So, if you're looking to unmute yourself, you can't. Secondly, during the question and answer portion of today's session, please use your Q&A button to submit any questions for the speakers. You can find your Q&A button in the middle of the bottom bar of your screen.

Greg Baroni:

Next, this Master's in Leadership series is made possible by our co-producer, Consumer Technology Association, and the following sponsors, our premier sponsors, CoreSite and SAP. Our support sponsors, American Systems, Amazon Web Services, CGI federal, CNSI, Cresa, Iridium, Micron Technology, Morgan Stanley, NTT Data, Raymond James & Associates, Transformation Systems, Inc. and Vera Group, or otherwise known as VGI. Thank you all for your support.

Greg Baroni:

Now, it's my incredible privilege to introduce today's moderator, Gary Shapiro. Gary, is a proud NVTC board member and president, and CEO of Consumer Technology Association, the US trade association representing more than 2200 consumer technology companies, and which owns and produces CES, the global stage for innovation. And this year intends to be the best virtual show on the planet. We look forward to seeing you, Gary, as you host that event. It is through his New York Times bestselling books, television appearances, and as a columnist, who's more than 1000 opinion pieces have appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and others. Gary has developed a direct policymakers and business leaders on the importance of innovation in the US economy. A thought leader, Gary is an influencer on LinkedIn and has more than 300,000 followers. Please join me in welcoming Gary Shapiro.

Gary Shapiro:

Thank you so much, Greg, for that generous introduction and for your leadership of the NVTC. And thanks to the NVTC team who worked so hard to develop these series of talks and to make them successful, standing side by side with the great CTA team. So, thanks to both of you.

Gary Shapiro:

For over 38 years, Mindy Grossman has built and transformed consumer brands. She's a self proclaimed accidental CEO. And we'll hear more about that soon. In July of 2017, Mindy joined WW, which is formally called Weight Watchers, as its president and CEO. In her very first year at WW, the company saw an increase of some one million members. And it has since reached a record high member retention rate of over 10 months. Prior to joining WW, Mindy served as CEO of HSNI, Home Shopping Networks. And as a member of the company's board from 2008 to 2017, where she oversaw a $4 billion direct to consumer retail portfolio. She successfully took the company public in 2008, and subsequently became the CEO of HSNI.

Gary Shapiro:

She served as global vice president at Nike, where she oversaw it's $4 billion apparel business. And she has led the development and growth of the global women's business, and served as co-chair of the Nike's Women's Leadership Council. She has received so many recognitions, just a few MM&M and PRWeek's top 50 health influencer, just in 2019. Time Magazine's 50 most influential people in healthcare, 2018. Fast Company's most creative people in business. Fortunes business person of the year, 2014. What an honor. Forbes Magazine, a hundred most powerful women in several years. Financial Times, also several recognitions, top 50 women in world business and corporate innovator of the year. Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year in 2011. She still sits as vice chairman and a member of the board of directors at UNICEF. And she is a member of the board of directors of Fanatics. So, welcome, Mindy Grossman to this great one-on-one opportunity.

Mindy Grossman:

So, great to be here. Thank you. Thank you for that wonderful introduction.

Gary Shapiro:

So, could you start and just tell us... I mean, I gave some of the highlights, but how did you get involved in this role? Tell us where you grew up, your background, your unique journey.

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah. I had a very unconventional journey to where I am today. I was adopted at a very young age. And my mom and dad, my mom wasn't able to finish high school because she had a sick parent. My dad finished high school and then went into the Air Force. And they tried for 12 years to have a child. My father worked nights in a produce business. And one night his boss, who really took pity on him for the journey they were going through to no avail, handed him a check to adopt a child. And I'm the child.

Mindy Grossman:

And what I remember from a very young age, my parents telling me I could do and be whatever I wanted, and nothing could get in my way if that's what it really was meaningful, but make it meaningful. So, I was very serious as a child growing up, because I felt that if I had been given this gift, I needed to use it wisely. So, I finished high school at 16, went right into college, was very set on being a lawyer and then a judge. I got engaged to be married when I was 19 to my high school sweetheart. And the whole path was laid out.

Mindy Grossman:

However, there I was getting ready to go into my last semester of college as an English literature and philosophy major. And I woke up one day and said, "This is not the course of my life. This is not what meaning is going to be." So, imagine the phone call to my stereotypical Jewish parents, when I called and said I'm not going to law school in the fall. I'm breaking my engagement. I'm not getting married. And I'm leaving now and moving to New York to figure it out. And in 1977, I showed up with some savings and a couple of suitcases in New York city and said, "I have a vision of wanting to be in a business that's creative, but I may not necessarily be the creator. But I want to be in the business of making creativity successful."

Mindy Grossman:

And I started looking for a role in either the media industry or the fashion industry. And I was offered a role as the assistant to the president of the international business of a company called Manhattan Industries. And I remember in that interview, going through the whole interview, and finally, I was asked if I took shorthand. I said, "No, but I take fast long hand." And it was when I realized that ingenuity can sometimes pay off and I was hired. And I ended up spending the first about 15 years of my career in the men's wear industry, working for companies like Merona sport, Jeffrey Banks, Tommy Hilfiger.

Mindy Grossman:

Then I became president of Chaps Ralph Lauren. And I was head of new business development for Ralph, where I worked on the business plan for Polo Jeans company. And found the partner to do it with. And then the company asked me to be the CEO, which I was able to build the company from zero to $450 million in about three and a half to four years. And we were planning to potentially go public and Jones New York came in with an offer for the company, which they accepted. I stayed for a year and realized that the culture was not for me. And you'll hear more about my perspective on culture later.

Mindy Grossman:

And I got a call from a gentleman named Phil Knight, and he had just come back into the company to build a new leadership team. And I was the first person to ever run their global apparel business who actually came from the apparel business. Normally, we're out of the footwear business. And I felt this was a huge opportunity for me to get the equivalent of an MBA in marketing, along with running a global business. But I actually turned the job down at first because I couldn't move my family to Oregon for a number of reasons. And Phil called back and said, "Can we make it work?" So, somehow for six years, I commuted between New York and Portland, Oregon. And I have a daughter and a very supportive husband, who deals with my insanity at times. And I was at the company for six years. I also led their first women's leadership group. As you mentioned, I was very focused on diversity and inclusion, which has been a core passion and pillar for me that whole time.

Mindy Grossman:

But after six years, it was becoming a lot with the commute, and they just put in a new CEO, Mark Parker, and I realized that I was ready for the next thing. But after having such an incredible experience, where do you go from there? And interestingly enough, I was introduced to Barry Diller, who at the time had a retail portfolio called IAC Retail that was comprised of Home Shopping Network and a whole group of catalogs. So, all direct to consumer. And I said, "I'd love to meet Barry, but let me think of what I might do with this business." And I literally had an epiphany while I was, I had never heard of HSN or QVC. It was just not in my wheelhouse. But I was a fan of things like Food Network and HGTV. And I knew the world was changing mobility and direct to consumer was going to be the future. I knew that people's spending and buying habits were changing, and brands were becoming distribution captive. So, I had this vision to transform the business into an editorial commerce experience with entertainment, just like Food Network, DIY, Style, HGTV.

Mindy Grossman:

I pitched Barry. He said, yes. And I made the decision. And when I made the decision to go from Nike to IAC Retail, people thought I had literally had a midlife crisis. How could I go from the most incredible brand in the world to a dated not performing business. But I think that's what transformation is, being able to see what the future is. And it was an example of leading a company through both a brand and a digital transformation. So, I joined the company in 2006. We relaunched the brand in 2007 and it took off.

Mindy Grossman:

And then in 2008 at the probably, the worst time you could imagine in August 2008, I took the company public. First time public company CEO, brand new board, two weeks before a complete economic crisis. So, certainly the learnings from then are valuable now more than ever. But we really actually leaned in and the board supported and we invested in innovation. And yes, we had to make some hard decisions. But HSN actually grew in 2008 and 2009. And it was because of that, that we were able, and you find companies that use the opportunity to think about what they want to look like coming out of this are the ones that succeed.

Mindy Grossman:

And I was there for almost 10 years. And we were putting in a new CEO, and I was potentially going to become a chairman. But I knew I wanted to do one more thing. But I knew it wasn't in fashion. And I knew it wasn't in retail. And I promised myself that if I was going to do that one more thing, I wanted to deliver both a financial return and a human return on equity. And I got very, very interested in the health and wellness space. I felt that's where consumer tailwinds were really going, and there was going to be a lot of opportunity, particularly with technology evolution. And I started really looking at brands, and I love legacy brands. I love transformation. And I love brands that have had an impact on building community.

Mindy Grossman:

And so, once again, when it was announced that I was leaving HSNI and going to Weight Watchers, at the time there were a lot of people that were surprised. But at that point in my career, they were like, "Okay, let's see what she's going to do and what that transformation was going to look like."

Gary Shapiro:

So, that's a great story, which leads me to the question, in 2018, Weight Watchers actually became WW, which previously had been known for major battles and wars and things like that, or George W. Bush just did. What was the thinking behind it? And is it achieving the objectives that were laid out for that?

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah, it was very important. People, I think transformation is one of the most overused words in business today. I mean, true transformation is large scale, wholesale change, right? And you have to start with what are the core values and what are you looking to become? And I had done a lot of work before I joined the company. And I actually wrote a four page manifesto to the board before I joined on what I saw was the opportunity, the avenues of business that we could go into, and how could we really transform and accelerate growth.

Mindy Grossman:

And I think, if you really want true transformation, there's a number of things that you have to have. You have to have the support and alignment of your board. You have to have investment dollars. You have to have an engaged, passionate culture. And you have to have resilience because it is not going to happen overnight.

Mindy Grossman:

So, I joined the company and quickly realized that if we were going to achieve this vision of going from this legacy, 57 year old company, that was all about the science behind healthy weight loss and community, but expand it to be so much more around all of the pillars of wellness and long-term sustainable behavior change. We were going to have to really redefine everything from our purpose, to our tenants, to our brand. And so, we pulled a team together and we created what is called our impact manifesto, the impact we want to have on the world. And as part of building that, we really had to go deep inside and go, what do we now represent? And in today's culture being defined as a diet or being defined wholly around weight is not relevant, particularly to our new audience. Now, it doesn't mean people don't want to lose weight.

Mindy Grossman:

In the United States, 72% of the adult population is either overweight or obese. And it's a crisis. And it's even a bigger crisis today because as you know, the number one factor in COVID deaths was obesity. But if we were going to truly be around sustainable, healthy living, behavior change for life, we were going to have to rethink everything about our brand. And so, in addition to the impact manifesto, we did a tremendous amount of work on how we really needed to show up. And this idea that WW with the tagline "wellness that works," we wanted to truly become a mark of excellence around healthy for you. But it was a massive undertaking. The brand had really not been invested in for many years.

Mindy Grossman:

Anecdotally, to give you an idea of our branded workshops in the US, we had 15 different logos. What did the brand stand for? We had products that didn't live up to healthy living. We actually reformulated and repackaged every single food product we made around the world. You don't eat WW food, but we make snacks and we make things. Because they had artificial ingredients, sweeteners, preservatives. And it was a big undertaking. And we had to get out of that volume to be able to relaunch it. But that's what I meant by transformation being, you've got to make the trade-offs and you have to have the brand.

Mindy Grossman:

We also reorganize the company as a matrix organization. We're in 12 countries today. But we needed to set ourselves up for future expansion. And so, we re-launched the brand in 2019. I would say that our brand perception, which we measure consistently around the world is really at an all time high of being more associated with a healthy living brand. Now, we will never, ever forego our leadership globally as the number one healthy weight loss brand, backed by science and built on community. But today we've built out the pillars of nutrition, activity, mindset, motivation, community, sleep, hydration. So, it really is an entire ecosystem of support.

Gary Shapiro:

That's a great story. So, how will you measure the success in a few years with what are you looking at by, I hate to say it, but numbers?

Mindy Grossman:

So, I got asked, what would success look like in five years? And I said, what success would look like in five years is to be able, along with partners, be able to stand in front of the world and announce that we together through the work that we've done have changed the health trajectory of the world. Now, I know that sounds big audacious goal and vision, but that's really what it is. We are getting unhealthier as a society every year. And it's really a concern, particularly when you look at what's happening with youth, what's happening with disparity of health. And our feeling is if that's our goal, the business metrics will be there, because we will be touching that many more people with our brand and with our business.

Mindy Grossman:

Now, in terms of the metrics we pay a tremendous amount of attention to is our subscriber base, our member base. And we just ended Q2 with an all time high of $5 million. The second thing we look at is our retention, which is at a high of over 10 months. But I've been quoted as saying, I want to start seeing retention in years, not months, that's the goal. But what I really also measure is engagement. And do we not just have the members, but are the members engaging on a consistent and ongoing basis? Because the more engaged they are, the greater success they will have. And that's really been our focus.

Gary Shapiro:

That's great. You are very well known for your business competence, your success, the various things you are. I just couldn't help, but think it's just a good time to be in Weight Watchers, WW, rather than in apparel, especially for the men's apparel, because it doesn't seem to be a lot of moving in the last few months. But one of your partners and success has been Oprah Winfrey. And I couldn't help but notice she's a major owner of the... Well, one of the main, probably the largest individual owner, I would guess. Can you tell us about your experience in working with her in your 2020 Vision Tour? And some of the guests that you've had in that that made the greatest impact with her story of wellness?

Mindy Grossman:

Absolutely. One of the things that was really important to me prior to joining the company, because I had seen that she had partnered with the company, taking a 10% ownership of the company and also joining the board, as well as being able to be front and center of talking about what we do. And so, I went to California and I spent a day with her, because I really wanted to understand why she made that choice. And if you know anything about Oprah, she's one of the most purposeful human beings in the world. And if she commits to something there's a real reason behind it. And she says no a lot more than she says, yes. She's infinitely purposeful. And we were very aligned on what we saw and what this company had done. And the fact that it had been transforming lives for over 50 years, but now the opportunity was so much greater.

Mindy Grossman:

And her superpower is really to motivate people to think about what is it going to take for them to live the best life they can. That was the Oprah Winfrey Show for many, many years. And about two years after I had been at the company after we rebranded, after we built, et cetera, about a year and a half, she called me and said, "I'm ready." I said, okay. She said, "I'm ready to use my superpower." And we had always talked to be about being able to take this, and really galvanize large audiences around immersing them in an experience that ultimately would end up giving them the ability for themselves to take a different path to live the best life. And so, we built a team. And we launched in January of this year, WW Presents Oprah's 2020 Vision, Your Life in Focus, nine city arena Tour, 135,000 people, completely sold out.

Mindy Grossman:

And as we sit here today on Zoom, I look back and I think that March 7th at the finale in Denver, I was so excited to be with 15,000 people in an arena. But it was a full day experience from 8:00 in the morning, til 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon of really an entire assessment of your life. And at each stop we had motivators. And then she would have a one-on-one sit down with someone about this idea of living your best life and transformation, and what you can do. So, we had everyone from Dwayne, The Rock Johnson, to Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson, just an incredible group of individuals. And then the finale for the first time, Oprah actually interviewed Gayle King versus the other way around, which was also incredibly powerful. But there were day-breaker dance segments. There were meditations. And you really, really saw people leave, having been so affected in a positive way.

Mindy Grossman:

So, when COVID hit, we also knew, and she knew that people were going to need motivation, support and inspiration more than ever before. And we actually launched within two weeks, a four week virtual tour, which we made available for free to everyone around the world, because this is when people needed it the most. And they were two hour sessions each, every Saturday on a different theme. And again, we had different experts. So, the second theme was around connection and relationship. And we had Dr. Esther Perel, who's done TED Talks and talked about how do you live in this environment or connectivity, et cetera. And we ended up having three and a half million people, really come in to have this experience. And I think for us, it really is important. We're a very purpose driven organization. And our feeling is, the more we can impact people's lives... And it goes back to my initial conversation. If I can have the human impact, we will be able to have the business impact.

Gary Shapiro:

Wow. That's quite amazing. Your timing sounds like it was really good for that tour. Sometimes luck does triumph.

Mindy Grossman:

I have to say we shake our head all the time.

Gary Shapiro:

Yeah, I was saying that about CES, until a couple months ago as well, because we got our January CES in, unless it's just not the next one in Las Vegas. But we will be digital. We are trying to do half the job, good a job as you did. So, let's talk about COVID and the response and what happened. You certainly had an amazing acceleration of digital members signing up in the pandemic. You mentioned five million subscribers, which is up almost 10% from last year. What kind of different support did they need and how did you meet the request?

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah, it's really interesting. As I mentioned, March 7th was the finale of the tour. I flew back to New York, March 8th. By Wednesday, we had made the decision for the safety and security of our members, and of our employees to close our office, and as well to pause all our physical workshops. Just to give you order of magnitude, we had 30,000 physical workshops a week. And at the same time that we made that decision, given all the investments we made over the past number of years in product and technology, we pivoted our entire team and said, build the virtual solution. And we had been doing work towards that, but now we needed to do it that much more quickly.

Mindy Grossman:

And in six days we trained 15,000 coaches and guides. And we launched virtual workshops simultaneously in 12 countries. And the first week we had 15,000 virtual workshops through Zoom, through scheduling, through find a workshop. And the reason we were able to do that is, yes, we were focused on the safety and security, but we were also maniacally focused in the fact that our members were going to need the support of their coach and their community more than ever. And we had that purpose in mind. And we are still hosting virtual workshops to this day. And that is the reason that our retention continues to be at an all time high.

Mindy Grossman:

Now, clearly we weren't signing a lot of studio workshop members because we had been closed, but we saw a very rapid acceleration of our digital signups, and continue to see that today. And in terms of behavior, we can see behavior in real time. We have five million members. And we see what they're eating, what they're tracking, how they're working out, what they're talking about within their connect groups and platforms, which we formed. And the one thing that we absolutely see, is there has been a large scale reappraisal of how people live, work, spend, but more important, what health and wellness means to them. And as I like to say, wellness is truly going to go from being what was considered a luxury to a necessity, as people realize just the fragility of life and what they need to do to get healthy. And that's what we've really been trying to support our members and our community in doing.

Gary Shapiro:

So, for the five million, is that in a sense enhanced desire or a new desire, is that translating to actual results, as perhaps they would measure them? I'm not talking about financial, am talking about, are they losing the weight they want and getting their healthier lifestyles?

Mindy Grossman:

What we are seeing is a definitive increase in engagement year on year. Now, a lot of that is what we've integrated into our app, which is very comprehensive. So, for example in nutrition, we have personalized meal planning. When we entered this year, we had just launched My WW, which is the most personalized and customized program the company ever had. You take an assessment, you're matched to a plan for you. And that idea of personalization has been very important.

Mindy Grossman:

And to your earlier point, we entered the year with the greatest momentum that we've ever had in the history of the brand. And we obviously have had some short term changes to that, but we're starting to see acceleration again. And we also integrated into our activity app, we now have Active, which is audio fitness, and we have Fit On, which is video fitness. And with everybody at home, that was a huge asset. And they can integrate Fit On and immediately get their fit points, which marries up to our loyalty program.

Mindy Grossman:

We launched sleep tracking. And you can sync that up with any of your wearable devices. Because we knew how much sleep and stress were a factor. We launched hydration. We had mindset and mindfulness with the integration of Headspace. And then we here through Connect, which is our social network within the app with very, very high engagement. And the community aspect of support and what people want today is more important than ever. Even if it's their virtual communities, they want that connectivity. And when a new member starts and comes into Connect, is the most positive platform you've ever seen. They are immediately embraced and they know. So, the honesty and the conversations people can have is like nothing I've seen before on any platform. And that's been a big key to what's keeping people engaged and keeping people longer.

Gary Shapiro:

So, this is a tech audience that's listening. Do you partner with tech companies? Is there a technology you're looking for that would help you in your mission and your company that has not yet been invented? Or is there anything out there that you'd like to see?

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah, actually over the past, let's call it five years, we've made a number of acquisitions. So, for example, one of our prior acquisitions actually became that Connect community platform. Another acquisition became the fitness based platform. So, we're constantly investing in our technology and product platforms. We recently built a tech hub, a third tech hub. We have New York, San Francisco. We built our third tech hub in Toronto. And that tech hub is supporting our B-to-B-to-C, our health solutions business. Because we built a whole new infrastructure and platform to be able to support employers, providers, payers, physicians, to be able to have us reach new audience which is a very important element today, particularly as telehealth and everything is really the future.

Mindy Grossman:

So, but in addition to building our own infrastructure, we have made our acquisitions and we have had partnerships like what I mentioned with Fit On, which we're now launching globally around the world. So, it's a combination. And I think people have to be open today to, what do you build yourself? What do you partner? And what do you acquire to give yourself capabilities?

Gary Shapiro:

Absolutely. We have a parallel set of investments that we're making, going across the industry and defining what sleep is. So, it goes across platforms, defining all sorts of aspects of heart monitoring, maybe even brainwaves. And also, believe it or not of sleep, because different devices in the past have measured sleep differently. And there's a desire to have a consistent measurement across platforms, so consumers can really compare platforms and understand that the data is comparable. Or even step, we did step measurement early on as well, because we're very engaged in it. That's a very fast growing area. And also, you mentioned the concept of telemedicine, which is absolutely huge, and has shifted in the last five months quicker than anyone expected, I think to-

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah. One of the areas we're also investing heavily in is our coaching platforms. And we have a new membership vertical that was in development prior to COVID ever happening. And it's virtual coach led communities, very geared to a younger audience, where we've got a new generation of coaches. Content becoming very important in terms of engagement, to be able to build community in a virtual setting. It's very different than just moving your workshop virtual, which some people want. But this is built for a whole new experience. And having this new coaching platform where they can really engage with their communities and their members is going to be very exciting for us as we launch it towards the end of this year. But that required as you can imagine, also a big investment in both the technology and the product capabilities.

Gary Shapiro:

Yeah. It's occurring to me now that the COVID, actually it's had that cloud is had a little bit of a silver lining for your company. And that you've had tens of thousands of gyms are closed. It's almost impossible to buy a gym equipment now at retail or anywhere without a several month wait, whether it's Barbells or-

Mindy Grossman:

Well, it goes back to what I mentioned when I talked about 2008. And I've always been quoted as never waste a good crisis, right? How do you use it to reimagine, accelerate and reinvent? And there's no question that this has really not only allowed us, but it has energized us to accelerate our digital transformation. Now, as part of that we've had to rationalize our real estate footprint and really look at what the future is going to be. And we want to meet people where they are and give people the experience they want.

Mindy Grossman:

So, face to face experience will be a part of what we do. It will be a smaller part of what we do. We just started opening our brand in studios in the U.S. And we've been energized by the fact that people really do want to bring their community together. But given the environment that's a relatively slower build, but with a big focus on the digital transformation. And just the fact that we were able to launch those virtual workshops in six days and accelerate all the integrations into our app. Now, to do that, we had to focus, right? The organization, the teams on what was truly going to be the most important.

Mindy Grossman:

And my role, as I like to say is, I'm not just the CEO, I'm the chief communication officer, the chief crisis officer and the chief hope officer. So, I communicate where we are, what our focus needs to be, why we are going to come out of this a stronger, even more innovative company that can help that many more people lead healthier lives. And it goes back to what's really happened is this reassessment of just how important it is to have people take a better sense of what health means to them. And we want to be that 24/7 partner for life for people to realize that vision.

Gary Shapiro:

Yes, it's a big vision. But the six day pivot, I mean, how does that work? You're a strong leader. You say, "I have a great idea." Do you confer to your top people? Do you talk to your board? Where do you draw the line between your ideas and leadership? And you saying like, "We got to act quickly." There may be disagreements. How do you manage all the different, in a sense constituencies that you have to deal with, including your own customers who may not be ready for that type of-

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah, I have a perspective on leadership. Actually, there's a book that's very aligned with that, that Keith Ferazzi, just published called, Leading Without Authority. And I think in today's world it's not autocratic in any way. You really have to be able to use the talent and empower the team, and make sure you're surrounded with the right people. And we all came together and really worked through how we were going to move forward, what the priorities were going to be. And I said, the worst thing I could ever hear in the hallway is, "Mindy, said." I never want to hear that. Right? It's how are we all aligned? How are we communicating the same message? And most importantly, how are we empowering people to act and do their roles? And I think that's a major criteria of leadership today. I think it's very important.

Gary Shapiro:

Do you let people fail?

Mindy Grossman:

Look, if you don't have failures, you really haven't innovated enough, and you're not trying enough. Now, I believe that risk taking and boldness are the essence of transformation. But I also say there's a difference between risk and suicide, right? You have to really do the work and use data, and use qual, and use quant, to understand why it is you're building something or doing something in the first place. But the most important thing you need to do in leadership is be able to identify quickly if something is not working, take responsibility, change and move forward. I think the worst thing is thinking it's going to get better or thinking it's going to go away. It's not. And so, you have to have the ability to look yourself in the eye and say, "You know what? This isn't working, let's pivot."

Mindy Grossman:

And the other thing that's really important from a leadership perspective is, again, one of the greatest assets you could have is acute self-awareness. What is your impact on others? How are you being perceived? How are you effectively communicating? How are you sensing what's in the room? And another big part of that is, have you surrounded yourself with the right diversity of talent? So, you can be in a room and have what I call productive discomfort, and be able to have the conversations, but then be able to walk out aligned.

Gary Shapiro:

Wow, you've covered a lot of areas. One of them, it keeps hitting me is the, a lot of this is empathy is a wrapper around it. But you also, there's a tougher part of this as well, is you're affecting people's lives and their livelihoods. And you had to close all the physical studios, which made about 25% of your business. How did you do that so quickly? And what was your thought process? And how did you effectively communicate it, the new business realities to those employees that stayed and knew the others that had to leave?

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah. It's really hard. And I take any decision that affects someone's life personally and very seriously. And as a matter of fact, I had said to the board, if I have to make one change because of this, I have to put myself in it as well. And we literally had to relook at what we were going to do. We were paying people for months, and realized that we just weren't going to have these roles again. And so, we did have to make changes in the field. And we did have to consolidate quite a number of things. And you work to do it as respectfully as possible and as right as possible. And most people handle it well. And then you have to understand people when they're in difficult circumstances. But the most important thing to me is, can I live with myself? And do I think that I've done everything possible if I'm going to make those changes?

Mindy Grossman:

But the thing I also have to think about is the consequences, if I don't make the changes. Because in a very big pivot and in very different business model, we have to be able to invest in other areas. And what we have to think about is future growth.

Gary Shapiro:

Is that the toughest part of the CEO role is making those type of decisions?

Mindy Grossman:

I would say, if someone said, what is the number one priority being in this role? It's talent, and it's having the right talent at the right time around you. And unfortunately, part of that is making those hard decisions. Because as the business evolves, your needs evolve and what you have. But you have to be able to have those honest conversations and do it as well as you possibly can. But of course, I always say to someone, if you don't have those feelings, right? Then there's a humanity that's lost in you and you shouldn't be doing it anymore.

Gary Shapiro:

I hear you. I totally agree with you. And with a lot of what you're saying is very consistent with what the business round table has issued a year ago, I think. And also, Alan Murray of the Fortune Magazine has really emphasized is that, the role of the companies it's not only to make money, there's other constituencies, it's to improve society. Do you agree with that?

Mindy Grossman:

I think it's absolutely critical. And I've done sessions with Alan on this. He's terrific.

Gary Shapiro:

Yes.

Mindy Grossman:

And I really do believe that the brands and the businesses of the future that are going to engender the greatest trust with people, are the ones who can marry technology plus meaning, to have people live better connected lives. And you have to be built on the purpose and the impact, no matter what business you're in, of what you're trying to provide people and give people. And I'm fortunate to be with an organization that has purpose at its core. And that's what motivates all our 15,000 employees around the world every day, because they want to impact people's lives.

Gary Shapiro:

And related to that, I mean, in the midst of COVID, we obviously had this focus on racial injustice. And I was wondering, I know that you've been pretty vocal on that and acted. Could you share how you've communicated and what you've done?

Mindy Grossman:

Sure. I have been a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion most of my career. And I think it is a societal imperative, but I also think it's a business imperative if you want to have longterm sustainable success. And in the few years I've been at the company, we had actually made progress, but it became very clear to me that we needed to do more. And we needed to accelerate that progress. We changed our board fairly dramatically. We had six men, six women, two black women. Our leadership team, my CHRO, Kim Seymour, has been my incredibly valuable partner as we look to say, what more can we do as an organization and really have diversity and inclusion being at our core. So, we quickly did massive listening sessions with our black employees. We really looked at what we could do that was actionable and sustainable longterm, as well as measurable. And I think that actionable, sustainable, measurable is very important.

Mindy Grossman:

So, we did a number of things. We did make a million dollars in donations to a series of organizations that are really looking to impact black lives positively. We named a head of diversity and inclusion, in addition to having Kim at the helm. We will be spotlighting black owned businesses on the WW eCommerce shop. We've pledged for the CEO action for diversity. We're creating new career opportunities and experiences for black employees. And we're requiring best practices diversity across the entire hiring arena. As well as committing, not only to our employee diversity, but our member diversity. And we had already started with the launch of our 501 (3)(c) WW Good to help underserved communities get healthier.

Mindy Grossman:

But what COVID has really brought out is the tremendous disparity of access, particularly to food and other areas of health. So, with WW Good, we have partnered in every country with different organizations in the US, with Feeding America and Wholesome Wave. And we've already raised over $5 million to support giving food and access. But our plans are to really build just like we have an academic advisory board and a youth and family advisory board, we're working on an advisory board to really look at this health disparity in underserved and black communities.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, it was quite an array of actions, which I think are more important than the words, a lot of corporations will issue. I have a lot of audience questions that I'm going to try to go to some quickly. There's a question about telehealth. You mentioned telehealth. Do you see WW getting more involved in telehealth, and possibly offering telehealth type of solutions? Any partnerships there with Teladoc or something like that?

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah. So, I think that what we're really focused on is wholesale behavior change. And what I meant by telehealth, I think people will go maybe see their doctor once a year, but in between a lot of this is going to be through telehealth. And I think the same with our business, and why I'm so excited to have this massive coaching platform, because I think we will be able to have diversity of our coaches, and be able to communicate with people virtually that much more effectively. Now, having said that, we are looking at areas such as diabetes. In our B2B business, we do have a prediabetes program. But how can we continue to integrate effective food programs and other areas for certain trickle down effects of obesity.

Gary Shapiro:

All right. Kelly Curly asks, "Can we ask Mindy about the app? It's incredible. All inclusive. I'm an on again, off again, member since 1999. I rejoined in February of 2020. And it's incredible." That is by Kelly Curly. And I don't know her. So, this was -

Mindy Grossman:

Well, welcome to the family and I'm thrilled. I'm probably our most consistent user. I think I got the award for most days tracked in a row.

Gary Shapiro:

Do you want say anything else about the app? So, for those that are not familiar with it.

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah. So, it's almost five star app. And it really is everything about health at your fingertips. So, if you think of nutrition, the way our program works is you can eat anything you want on WW. But we have one of the largest food databases in the world. And every food is evaluated on calories, fats, sugars, nutrients, and satiety, does it fill you up? And depending on what program you're matched to, you get a certain amount of zero point foods and a certain amount of point values during the day that you can have. And that's how you manage. But now we personalize recipes, personalize content, same thing in fitness, depending on your age, height, weight, gender, et cetera, you're given fit point targets for the week.

Mindy Grossman:

And now, in the app, we have the audio fitness, we have the video fitness and other elements, mindset and motivation, lot of content, particularly now around stress. And how do you bring that down, which is why we integrated Headspace. Hydration, a good health measure. Sleep, as I mentioned before, and sleep tracking, and how you can positively impact your sleep needs, et cetera. And then Connect, which is the community platform. So, it really is the combination of every pillar that you really need of wellness behavior change built on the power of community.

Gary Shapiro:

That's great. So, a question, where do you see your role in the future with health and wellness? And with the number of people you can reach, do you feel you can also remind people to wear masks? And I just have to throw this question because I want to get in there is, you've taken this role relatively recently. You were involved in a totally different worlds. What do you tell your relatives and your friends now, when you see their behaviors that... How do you approach behaviors that you think should change with it?

Mindy Grossman:

Yeah. What I think is one of the reasons why I think our program works so well, there's no negative. It really is about inspiring people and giving them the ability to experience joy and have the support. It was funny when I first took the role. If my friends knew me, they would all ask me how many points I was eating, and they'd eat the cookie behind my back. And I'm like, "You can eat a cookie." Or if it was someone that I didn't know, and I got introduced, "Hi, this is Mindy Grossman. And she's the CEO of what used to be Weight Watchers." They would look at themselves. And I go, "Look, I'm not here to give you guilt, but I'm here to talk about what long-term sustainable, healthy behavior changes."

Mindy Grossman:

And in my family alone, we're now obsessed, WW. My husband has lost 35 pounds. And my daughter after she had her first baby lost a lot of weight. And she is now a one-on-one personal coach for WW. So, we actually live the lifestyle. And you really realize, and what we see is when one person in the family does the program in general, the whole family gets healthier, because it's totally livable and sustainable. And it becomes a way of life.

Gary Shapiro:

Is that the philosophy of the program that measuring is important, or being conscious of everything you're doing?

Mindy Grossman:

It starts with being very conscious, and then ultimately it becomes ingrained behavior. And you start making unconscious choices because you've been making the conscious choices for so long. And it really becomes, since you can basically eat anything, you just can't eat everything at the same time.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, unfortunately we have to close off. We have a lot of questions that I didn't get to, and a lot of other things. This has been incredible-

Mindy Grossman:

Great conversation. Thank you.

Gary Shapiro:

Oh, thank for your time. You're really terrific. And I think it's what you're doing in your big mission, you said some of the great things like, a human return on equity and resilience, and culture, and how you're changing the world in a healthy way. It's long overdue. I wish you were a political party, because I'd vote for you. So, thank you very much. And thanks to-

Mindy Grossman:

Vice versa.

Gary Shapiro:

Well, thank you Mindy, I have to see you again and talk to you.

Mindy Grossman:

Thanks so much everyone.

Gary Shapiro:

And thanks everyone for sticking around. It's been terrific. And now we go to our voice of God.

Greg Baroni:

Thank you very much, Mindy and Gary, for such insightful discussion. And to all of you, thank you as well for attending today's virtual event. We hope you stay safe and healthy, and have a great rest of your day.