Sima Sistani, Chief Executive Officer, WeightWatchers
Interviewer: Emma Hinchliffe, FORTUNE


MPW Next Gen 2022 - Back To Basics

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MPW Next Gen 2022 - Back To Basics


many brands had a bumpy ride during the pandemic and among them is weight watchers which struggled to manage the crucial digital pivot coming in hot as the firm's new Ceo Sima Sistani calling the calls the company the original social platform high praise from the woman who co founded social media phenomenon House Party. Do you all remember House party started the pandemic? Yes lots of happy hours on that. Um in our one on one conversation we're going to ask how weight watchers can blend the best of digital and I. R. L. Interactions to help people around the world better manage their weight and their fitness. Please welcome to the stage Sima Sistani, chief executive officer of weight watchers in conversation with my colleague Fortune senior writer Emma Hinchliffe Hi again everyone and thank you CMA so excited to have you here. I'm so excited to be here. Hello. So this is one of your first interviews since taking over as Ceo. And what is your first live interviews at least And you know why did you take this job and what have you been up to since March? That's a great question. And actually I want to start out by um mentioning the conversation that we just witnessed as a first generation Iranian. I cannot tell you how important that conversation is and for you to all amplify those voices and that actually brings me to why I joined weight Watchers from my mother she is um sorry I got emotional thinking about an emotional conversation. Uh so my mother she came here from Iran and they didn't expect to be here uh you know the revolution happened while she, they were effectively studying abroad, but she earned her PhD in food science. She actually graduated the same time that I graduated my undergrad degree and so um she's registered dietitian and wellness, nutrition has always been a part of my life and um when I had my first child, I gained £60 and I had a really hard time uh losing that weight and she was watching me do every fad that was out there and after like my third juice cleanse, she was just like, if you're not gonna listen to me then at least do weight watchers, it's science back, it's livable and I was like, okay, so I lost £60 on weight watchers and it really worked for me, I later developed a thyroid issue, I had a difficulty managing my way through that. I turned back to weight watchers again, but as a product person, I'll be honest, I wanted to throw my phone against the wall because I was just like, this isn't a digital first experience. Um uh but in 2020 as a house party was really taking off with the ambition of bringing empathy to online communication, I had an aha moment about how critical the support system and the connectivity between the members on weight watchers was to the success of the platform. And so that's when um and I would say, I didn't say the original social platform, I called it, the O. G. Social network. Um but that's truly what it is and it's bringing people together around a shared interest of weight loss, of health, of wellness. Uh they're showing up with their abilities and they're connecting with each other in these ways that are actually so much more empathetic and positive because they're behind a paywall and so that was a real unlock for me and I was introduced to the board at the time, I wasn't ready to leave house. Party things were moving in that direction, but I wanted to be a part of this company and the universe has a funny way of finding you because two years later they reached out with this opportunity and I jumped at the opportunity to continue my mission of trying to bring empathy to online communication and in this way through a community that's built around healthy habits. Yeah, that's quite the story and thank you so much for sharing that. That's amazing about your mother and thank you very proud of her and my father. Yes. Um so so you joined in March, what has your focus at weight watchers? So we I keep saying words about the original CAC which is community accountability and coaching for us. Those were the things that really helped weight watchers become a movement in the early days, but when Covid happened, 80% of our membership move to digital only. And so that means 80% of our members aren't experiencing our gold standards. That's been my focus is how do we retain, what is amazing about what we do? We've always been about science retaining the science back efficacy, the livability, but creating it in a digital first environment with an expression that that takes into consideration that most people are engaging with us on advice. And so, you know, we're doing that through being more data informed. We're doing that through putting the member for, we're doing that through evergreen innovation and a lot of things that come really natural through growth tech but are is a new muscle that we're flexing at weight watchers. Yeah. You know, so you've mentioned your experience at house party, you're the founder of that app you later thought acquired by Epic Games where you spent some time as an executive and now you've stepped into this role as the ceo of a public company. So you've been a founder executive post acquisition. And now Ceo of weight watchers in those three seats, very different roles. What have you learned from sitting in all three of those types of roles? That's a great question. Well, in the through line in all of those experiences has been about digitizing social connection. Whether, you know, I will say even before that at tumblr was about fandom. That house party was about video chat with Fortnite, It was about the social layer the third space. Um and and now it is about this community of healthy habits and in in each one of these roles, the most important thing to me is how we show up and live our values and I think that if you choose that and you choose your intention first, that breeds the outcome. And so, you know, one of the things that I love about how, what we're doing is that we do have the 60 years of heritage, we do have a team of phds that is completely new to me um that are keeping us foundational e honest, it isn't about move fast and break things, not when you're talking about people's livelihood, so that's a critical difference and making sure we infuse the right parts of tech but retain all of things that made us who we are for the last 60 years. So that's what I'm focused on and that really, I feel like showing up being mission driven, being purpose driven was true in every single one of those roles. Yeah, I'll come to everyone for questions in a moment. So if you have anything for sema, please start thinking. Um but you know, the conversation around health and weight is always evolving. You know, we have, we have some founders in the room, I think of some new companies focused on weight management and then of course there's kind of the growing popularity of the health at every size approach to health care medicine and just, you know, lifestyle. Um how do you think about that as you navigate the role of weight Watchers, not just your members, but in today's conversation is, you know, the Weight Watchers brand isn't out of step in any way with where the conversation is today around weight and health. I'm glad you asked because I think that body positivity is amazing, right? It liberated us all from the standards that were put on us by others and nobody wants that. But there's a false dichotomy that that we have to be at odds in that conversation. And and the the undercurrent in all of those conversations is shame, right? Shame for gaining weight, shame for losing weight, shame for loving the body. You're in shame for wanting to change the body that you're in. Who are we to judge? That was the point of body positivity is to love ourselves and accept ourselves no matter what our personal decisions are. And so I think that it's really important to be in this conversation and and to show up and say if this is something that you choose, we're here to support you and and that's what we're here to do is not put a judgment on it. I sit in workshops every day and all the bodies are different and all and the and the through line, there is what we're trying to with behavior change is we are preaching body acceptance. Body love. Um, were there to be a support system. It's the same finance. Honestly it's like a lot of us are privileged enough to have the upbringing and the education to understand how to manage money. That's not true for everybody. Some people need the support system of understanding how to build those healthy habits, how to manage their diet diet. Turn turned into a bad word. But it initially means, you know, satiety nutrition, how you eat. What are the habits? As I mentioned, my mother, she's a registered dietitian. Her PhD is in food science were for people who love food, we don't want to be about deprivation. We're just there to help with the behavior change in the science and to bring that support to people who do choose for them whether it's High cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, joint pain or maybe they just want to move through the world £20 lighter. If that's the choice that they made, we want to be there to provide a science-backed solution. Yeah. And how do you, you know, obviously for weight watchers, part of the goal of the businesses to attract new members and new users, you know, how do you bring those new members in which you know, is necessary for you as a ceo of a company without um, while you know, staying true to that mission of only bringing in people who already have this goal and already want to be there not putting that goal onto them. Yes. Well, and I think that's a big pivot and change from the way we've potentially shown up in the past. Um and there are definitely parts of our past that I'm not proud of, but we have worked really hard to change those um, those things and you know, the parts that are positive are that for 60 years we have been science fact, we have been um about supporting women. Are members are majority women, our team is majority women. My board is half women. My leadership team is half women. So so we want to be a part of that conversation and support people. And so when it comes to acquisition, um, I think we've relied too much on marketing to do that work for us versus the product to actually, you know, we have members who love us the NPS is really high and and to, you know, give people the tools again, this is about community building, to be able to go out and showcase that and bring people into their journey. And obviously there's a brand that is a part of that. Um but that's what I've been thinking about it, especially having built social networks in the past, nobody downloaded a social network because they saw an ad that told them to write it because you you heard it was a great experience, you you wanted to be there, you wanted, you wanted to support, you wanted to, you know, the connection and so those are things that we're thinking about in terms of how we change, but I do think we need to rely right now on the marketing, the brand too, Make sure people see that we are showing up in a different way, a more modern way. Yeah, and you know, obviously this is a transitional moment for weight watchers. Your stock is currently trading under $5, you know, why is that where investors have valued weight watchers right now? And is there anything you think they're missing? Look, I think that it's also important to remind people when they're looking at the stock price, we're a profitable company, um that is very different than, again, a lot of the growth tech that is out there, but what we haven't done is grow. And so that is what I think the market is waiting to see is are we going to do that? And the signs are there, the signs are there, it's a subscription based business. So when we look at membership and subscription, you know, there are a lot of headwinds for us to, to show that from a revenue perspective, but from a sign up trends perspective, we're already seeing those trends moving in the right direction and I'm confident that we will move to growth and uh, next year and that we're doing all of the right steps to get us there. But yeah, transformation takes time. Yeah, any questions for Sema. Oh, I think we have one over there, please, just introduce yourself. Hi Emma, my name is Windsor and I run a gen Z media company. So my audience is young women, teen girls college women. And as I think about a company like weight watchers, I'm curious how you think about interacting with your next generation of consumers and how you think about the impact we all know about insta graham and Tiktok and impacts on body image and young women, eating disorders etcetera. Um so how do you think about that demographic specifically? Because targeting young women is important for every brand that targets women, right? It's the next generation. But I'm curious about that particular and you're pretty active on Tiktok. I am oh, that was a secret. But yes, I do. In fact, I appreciate Tiktok because I think that people are more authentic there and and you know, part of the reason that I wanted to build house party was to be a more, you know, human way for people to connect. So they don't just know the right emoji but actual like facial connect connectedness and empathy. And so, um I do get really worried about the perception and the bodies and body image and all the aspiration that is associated with content that particularly young girls are receiving on these platforms. And so you know, actually this is one of the challenges is that we get lumped into even though we are science backed livable program that is literally about trying to help people do if they choose weight management if they need weight loss to do it in a healthy way. We're both into the pills, the snake oils, the potions. Um, and so what happens is things like uh conspiracies and and and you know, solutions that are that are deeply concerning are the ones that end up proliferating across social media. And so, um I think we have a responsibility to to be proud and loud in that conversation that um, you know, we too are about body acceptance and and and hopefully help young women build that confidence and um, and and show up in the conversation in a way that that supports the great work that is being done to shift culture so that it isn't about other standards, but about, you know what you choose for yourself. It's a really good question. It's a hard one to to solve and to think about, but I think that we're all seeing the impacts of that culture and it's really a proud moment for me as a woman to see how the conversation has evolved. I think we have one more question. Hi Whitney Magnuson Northwestern mutual. I was curious. I know a few years ago weight watchers went through a very fairly well publicized rebrand W W And I hear you again today talking about weight watchers and not w w so I'm curious about what the status of the brand is today and what you and the rest of the executive team learned from going through that transition. Yeah, so, Um, well I wasn't around when that transition happened, but certainly the learnings are there and I think that we are WW still that's our corporate entity. We're also weight watchers and there is so much legacy and heritage in who we've been. And we were started by a female founder. No, most people don't know that gene nice 60 years ago. I mean, she may have been one of the first women to take a company public. Uh and so there's a lot of pride in who who we've been and I think that um the move to w w was about building in a little bit more modernity, um and and trying to infuse more wellness into the brand and to put that out there and sort of with a stake in the ground. And so um that being said, yeah, we're both were weight watchers were w w but I really believe in us showing up authentically that's who we've been and the onus is on us to change the stigma associated with the word wait. And and so that's why I felt it was really important for us to also embrace the path and to be a part of changing to be responsible as Windsor asked earlier about how people think about that. Uh so so yeah, call us, you know, it's like coke or coca cola, great. Um so another topic that has always been a big passion point for you has been paid leave when you were at house party before the acquisition, you kind of lead this effort to improve the access to paid leave across silicon Valley, especially for early stage startups where there was almost none. Is that still a point of passion for you? And how are you approaching that issue today? Absolutely. And it's, it's actually um infuriating that still, since that time, I think we were talking in 2018, maybe 2019. Um, and still, since that time were one of the only countries that doesn't offer at a federal level paid parental leave policy. And so I think the onus is on the private sector to meet the gap. And I'm so grateful that I am in a position to help lead and do that. And we actually announced this week to our employees that we would be giving them six months paid leave. And that is for the birthing mom as well as the non birthing parents because gender equity and caregiving is critical as well. And we know that health outcomes. Yes, let's do it. That health outcomes, economic outcomes improve when you provide that bonding time when you provide that leave, uh, for both the, you know, Children, mothers, families and we're really excited to be able to do that. And also for our part time employees who are benefits eligible. So, um, you know, in the meantime we're going to continue to fight the good fight around the public policy and um and hopefully getting winning paid leave for all. But I hope other business leaders will will join me because this is actually a moment because of all of the cost cutting, because everything is happening. People are it's going in the opposite direction. People are pulling back on offering uh paid parental leave. And so, you know, we need to lean in at this moment. We need to give our our our parents the stability, the support that they need to be able to come back to work it for their mental health, for their economic health. And it's certainly for their family health. And I think we all the R. O. I. On that will be positive for everybody if we we all embrace um better forms of paid parental leave. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.