Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
Interviewer: Ellie Austin, Fortune

Most Powerful Women Summit 2024: Beyond Blue Jeans 

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Michelle Dos is the boss at Levi's Straus, one of the most recognizable and iconic brands in existence. She joined the company last year and now leads it as its first female ceo Michelle's got big plans to take Levi's beyond just cool comfy jeans. She wants it to appeal to even more people and to help achieve that vision. She's teamed up with another cultural, another cultural icon, Beyonce. Michelle will join us in a moment to chat about this and more. But first, let's take a look at Levi's collaboration with the one and only Queen Bee. You call me pretty little thing and I love to turn them on. Uh I had to fema um that thing and, and bye. So you. Hello Michelle. Hi lie. It's not every day that you get to start a conversation um with Beyonce, but that is where we're going to begin. Um So as Emma mentioned, last month, you launched your reimagined campaign with one of the world's most famous women and also a woman who is very selective about the project she takes on. Now, it was all started by the release of a song on her latest album called Levi's Jeans. I want you to tell us about the day that you learned about the existence of that song because I imagine a pretty good day for you. Yeah. It's sort of like a dream come true to have Beyonce name a song after your brand. Like that's a once in a lifetime moment. So we did get a little whisper literally just days before, not like months and months before it was truly completely organic. Um You know, the back story is that she's been a fan of the brand for decades as we've been a fan of her and way back when in the nineties, when she was part of Destiny's Child, believe it or not, we did outfit the group in Levi's way back then. We still have a pair of her jeans in the vault. And so that relationship has just been sort of nurtured over time. And so she made this decision to name a song on her Cowboy Carter album. It's spelled Levi. I si did have a lawyer ask if we were worried about the trademark infringement. I'm like, are you crazy? This is like a gift. Um So, but in any way at all, now, we're all super excited and the team, once we learned it was going to happen, literally kind of days before um moved very quickly. We changed our handle on all of our social media to represent the song and then it just kind of like went crazy. I love the song at that point. Oh Yeah, I mean, once it was released as literally when it was released though, not, not sooner. Um But, you know, you don't have these moments very often, obviously. And so we really took the opportunity once we saw the reaction and the populated song say, well, maybe there's something more here. And so a few weeks later, um a couple of us self, our head of marketing, our chief marketing officer and our chief product officer had a dinner meeting in L A secretly to talk to a couple of her two key people and just sort of started to reimagine what was possible. Literally, within weeks after that, we, you know, came up with Kenny is our chief marketing officer. Him and the team came up with a big idea around this to actually, I mean, not only is it Beyonce, but it actually pulls from the heritage of the brand. It's a remake uh very popular ads in the mid eighties. So, you know, the, the wonderful thing about Levi's is we've got all this incredible heritage. So to take this and now move it forward with one of the world's biggest icons. Um So all of this happened literally within five months from the idea to signing the contract two weeks later doing the shoot. Um And here we are launched and it's been a great lesson also with the team as we become, I know we'll talk about this but really become a retailer, how you can move with speed and agility and capture these moments because they don't come around very often. They truly don't. And one more question on Beyonce before we move on, how are you measuring impact? You mentioned to me about Beyonce's school cards? Tell us. So we do, I mean, we do have a scorecard and the last one I looked at now we've only been live for two weeks. Um But we've had over 2.4 billion impressions, 2.4 billion. I mean, when you think about, I still have a hard time getting my head around it. I mean, this, she is a cultural icon, a culture shaper. She's got over 300 million global followers. Uh So it's just, it's incredible. It's a privilege. It's an honor and like we've had a relationship with her for decades. You know, our hope is that decades to come. This particular campaign is happening in China. So that was chapter one. She is wearing a pair of 501 s but she will be wearing other things in the chapters to come. And I have to say Ellie, there's been a lot of questions about my dad today. So I think we have to take the mystery away. But actually, this was one of the many options that was created for Beyonce for the shoes, but she did not choose to wear it. So I get to wear it. Um But uh I will tell you, given all the feedback I'm getting at this conference, I suspect this will be in production um here in the coming year. So stay tuned. Um So you joined Levi's last year as president and designated CEO. Um And then you spent a year working alongside your predecessor, Chip Beg. And then at the start of this year, you became officially CEO. Now that's an unusual and really interesting succession plan. Can you take us back to the conversations between you and Chip that led to that structure? Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, I'd say it was unconventional, um but quite intentional and the unconventional piece was not only was it a OK, I'm coming in, I'm gonna take a year to learn the business, the culture, importantly the team, but I was a sitting CEO at Kohl's for five years and one of his biggest customers. And that's how I got to know him over a decade ago. We sold a lot of Levi's and, you know, I instantly fell in love. I mean, I already was in love with the brand, but the company, the team, the values everything it stood for. So as he started to think about retirement, um he called me and just said, what do you think about this idea? And I think you actually at NP W-2 years ago when you were having some of that, that was indeed two years ago I think I was on the stage when I was still with call. Um But that's when it all started happening. Um It moved very quickly. Um But it was really important. I mean, when you think about Levi's right, we're 100 and 71 years old, tremendous responsibility, anybody who takes the mantle of leadership for this company and for all of Levi's stakeholders, chip the board, the Hoss family still owns over 70% of the business. It was really important to have an insider, be able to transition and transition effectively. And I know it was um unconventional. I got lots of questions. Wait, you're ceo of this big company and then you're gonna take this year. I viewed it as an unbelievable gift and I encourage anybody who has that kind of opportunity. I think it was Patty who talks about the jungle gym and not the latter. Um I'm all about the jungle, jungle gym. I mean, if I think about my career, so many of the opportunities that were unconventional led to the biggest opportunities. Was it nerve racking? Was there ever a chance that you wouldn't get the top job during that year? There's always a chance. I mean, you know, you're not in it until you're in it. Um But you know, like anything, there's a level of any kind of risk when you make a move like that. Um But I just so believed in the company, the brand tip the team. Um And as soon as I landed there, it was like, oh my God, this is a dream come true. And I felt like all my experiences going back to Procter and Gamble 17 years at Starbucks, a decade at Kohl's having been a CEO prepared me for this role, which is truly a dream job. Let's talk about numbers for a minute. So last year, Levi's reported revenue of 6.2 billion. Um Before you came on board, your predecessor had said that by the end of 2027 the company would hit $10 million in revenue. You've recently delayed that timeline. Um You've been really transparent about why saying it's high cost of living impacting consumer spending at NPW. We talk about the high points and we also like to talk about more challenging moments. So how does it feel to have to go out there and publicly say, hey, we're not gonna hit that target? Yeah. No, I mean, I think from when that target was, was announced, um the world looked very differently and we're a lot smarter today on all the headwinds that are happening around the world. So we haven't put a new date out there, but I have unbelievable conviction that we, we will become a $10 billion company. I mean, Levi's should be at least a $10 billion company and we have clear line of sight on how to get there. I mean, when I go back to succession when Chip joined 12 years ago, company was in a tough state. The brand was in a tough state. He put the brand back in the center of culture, right? So I'm building up a great foundation. That's how you get opportunities like that, right? We never take it for granted, but our growth is going to be to really go from being the best pair of blue jeans on the planet to head to toe denim lifestyle and selling lots of things like this and denim shirts and, and the jump suit I was wearing yesterday and everything that complements it. And we're in the early chapters of this, right? We're going to become a true apparel company and we're going to do that through direct to consumer set another way, retail through lots of stores. We actually have 3000 stores globally. A lot of people are surprised by that because smaller here in the US, but in many parts of the world we're seen as a retailer and in our e commerce business, you know, we're just getting started on that as well. So it's pretty incredible to be here with such a rich foundation again, 170 years, but feel like, you know, the next chapter is ahead of us and we're just getting started. We've only got a few more minutes, I'm going to whip through a couple of things with you. Um One thing that you talk about a lot is winning with women. Um, because I think it's only a third of levi customers at the moment who are women. So, um, what does the company, what does the company need to do to better market to and serve the people in this room? Absolutely. Well, for many, many years, the legacy of the company was not only was it down in bottom, it was guys jeans, right? And so you, it takes time to not lose the core of who you are. So men are still very important to our business, but to evolve very thoughtfully. So you can stand for something much bigger. And as I said, you know, having people really think about it as an apparel company or we like to say a denim lifestyle company because it always does center with denim. But for women, it's a third of our business and that should be at least half of our business. I mean, just look at who the a lot of the apparel shoppers are out there. And if you look at my husband's closet versus my closet, that would say, you know, there's a lot of consumers, female consumers to serve. And our data says actually when they're coming in the store or online, they're actually buying stuff for, you know, guys as well often, but we're barely scratching the surface, right. So first, it's about having relevant bottoms making it easier to shop denim bottoms that can be very intimidating. So how are you going to make it easier through great tools and we're still working on them on our e commerce, right? So fit navigation. Find your favorite fit. What's your right size? Our stylist in the sort of part of becoming a retail company is really thinking about the front line first and I'm really excited about the cultural changes we're making as well. I mean, this isn't just business transformation, it's cultural transformation to have people who work in say corporate to be thinking all the time, what can I do to serve that stylist who's going in turn serve the customer? So back to having the the customer come in, you know, leading in fashion fit. So whether it's skinny, high, waist, low, waist, loose, baggy, like, you know, we want to help you find your next favorite Levi's um tops jackets, jumpsuits, skirts, I mean, we're barely in some of those categories but the proof points are coming. So um you look at our last couple quarters, women's has dramatically outperformed and there's a big benefit of me being here for a year is to work with the teens. Um um to as we start addressing these, these new Arbor too, women have outperformed. You were saying in the last couple corners outperformed a couple of quarters. So we started to implement some of these changes and expand Atan product lines. Ok. There's lots more I want to touch on with you, but we are sadly at times, but Michelle is going to be with us for the afternoon and the evening. So I'm gonna take the liberty of saying come find her to ask your questions about Levi. Um Thank you so much Michelle and also for the world's greatest jacket. Thanks. Thank you.