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[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Jessica Lawson, one of the View From The Top student leaders.
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On behalf of the leadership team, thank you for joining us.
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Today, we are excited to bring you yet another outstanding speaker to inspire us all as future leaders.
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And now, it is my pleasure to welcome Dean Levin to introduce our guest.
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>> It's a pleasure to welcome Sonia Syngal, the CEO of Gap to the View From The Top today.
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Sonia is a Stanford alum.
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She received her master's degree from the engineering school in 1995 and has worked at Sun Microsystems Ford Motor Company before joining the gap, where she has been for more than 15 years, including as the presidency of Old Navy and became the CEO of Gap, just at the beginning of the pandemic.
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And it's a great pleasure to have her back to Stanford and really looking forward to hearing about guiding the Gap through the last year in her career.
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And I commend to all of you if you have a chance to read the wonderful leadership profile, Sonia that was in the Wall Street Journal this last weekend.
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It's really a nice insight into the year that she's had in such an important role.
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So, great pleasure and looking forward to today's conversation with Adriann Negreros, MBA 2021.
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>> We are always so grateful to have alum back with us.
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Thanks for joining me today.
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>> It's good to be here, Adriann.
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Nice gap t-shirt too, thanks for that. >> Appreciate it.
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Sonia, there's a lot I want to talk about, let's just dive right in learning more about you and your family.
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It became very clear to me you had their support forever.
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Your mom recognized your natural creativity, your design skill.
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Your father said, Sonia, you can break any barrier out there in the male dominated corporate world.
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That sounds like a pretty unique upbringing to me.
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Could you tell us more about it?
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>> Sure, listen, my passion for fashion started at a very young age, right?
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I was 12 years old, I was 5 foot 7 and 95 pounds and nothing fit.
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So for me, it was a convention born of necessity.
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We didn't have a lot of money.
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I had to make my own clothes so that I felt good in what I wore.
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And my mother was amazing, driving me around Montreal to any fabric store that I wanted, and really enabled that creativity.
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In addition, one of the things I'm really grateful for for her is she made sure that I could be highly functional in any room.
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And she insisted that every weekend we socialize with her friends and family, and other people that just happened to wander through our house.
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And it was an expectation that we would talk, engage with adults [COUGH] from a very early age and as I've walked into all the various scenarios this year that's been quite helpful.
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So, her and my father really just expecting us to do, my sister and I, to reach whatever height we wanted and that really being the expectation through education, which is what brought me to Stanford.
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>> Incredible, I love that, and I'm excited to talk about you socialize with people older than you.
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We'll get back to that in just a second.
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So, Sonia, actually right now, Kettering University, right?
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That's where you go to college? >> Yeah. >> And it's in Michigan.
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Well known for the automobile CEOs it produces and you start at Ford.
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And you're 21 or so with your pencil in one hand and clipboard and the other on the night shift, asked to evaluate the productivity of 50 to 60 year olds.
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So could you tell us about that?
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>> [LAUGH] Yeah, that was whenever I think what was the hardest job I ever had to do, I think of that job.
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So this job is a piece of cake relative to that one.
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Union shift, union workers midnight shift, and my job is to make them more productive.
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A 21-year-old fresh engineer that really didn't know a lot and that was fun.
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You realized that connecting with humans at a human level, laughing together is really the source of unlocking value, did I discover any opportunities for maybe a little bit here and there.
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But relating to the working people on the shift, and then observing, very closely observing how work was done was what made me successful in that moment.
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And, it didn't get a lot of sleep, it was midnight shift. So there's that.
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>> [LAUGH] Yeah, and I think, you're right.
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You call those the boiler room jobs before.
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I think it's where we really learned a lot about ourselves.
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>> Yeah, and I think, listen I'm a big fan of getting your hands dirty and investing your personal time and your careers where value is inherently created in this world.
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And so for me, I've always been drawn to that to making things to creating that value to observing that.
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And to me, tied to the making of things, watching product and scale happen in the auto industry was incredibly stimulating exciting so much complexity.
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And, that was one of the many jobs that I did there.
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>> At this time Sonia, you also recognized you can't be what you can't see.
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What do you mean by that?
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And how did it maybe influence your decision to move out west?
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>> I think Kettering was an incredible education I had.
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[COUGH] As a co-op program for five years, I worked ten different roles in the bowels of a large Fortune 500 company at the time.
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Ford was at its top in market cap.
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In its history when I was there so much to learn, but I stepped back and I looked up and the entire executive team were largely white, largely male, the entire board theme.
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And the calculus that I made was, do I want to work through all that or do I want to go to sunny California and you don't want to go to graduate school anyways.
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And so, all the grad schools I applied to are on the west coast.
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And that's how I ended up here with making that decision to move to the light.
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[LAUGH] >> Sonia, you said you started at Stanford, of course the West Coast, I think we have a picture to show everyone. >> God.
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>> Hope you're okay with this.
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>> [LAUGH] >> Could you tell us what's what's happening here?
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>> Yeah, so this was one of the courses that we were taking in is the objective here was a race around the quad.
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And we were in partner teams and we had to make this vehicle of using materials that were pre-described and whoever got their fastest around the quad one.
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So you can see me in the middle there with my partner on the left and we came in second so not quite satisfying.
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And, I think it is a Gap sweater that I'm wearing in the 90s.
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So there's that although my fashion says there's leaves something to be desired, but that was a fun moment.
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Again, engineering, you look around and what's obvious is, Continuing to work in in a sort of a high male, 90% male dominated industry, whether it was auto or tech always been a feature of my early professional time.
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And it was very forming as well, so an example of that here.
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>> Exactly, and Sonia, I also heard from your team, you met your husband on your very first day at Stanford, is that true? >> I did.
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The best thing that came from Stanford was that I met my husband and that leave with a sort of complete freedom to believe anything is possible.
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But let's start with my husband because that's hands down the best.
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Yeah, we met at the welcome picnic the night before and I shown up with my pencils all sharpened, and my schedule all laid out, and all ready to go, quite organized.
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And he showed up, having flown in from traveling and trekking around the world for the last four months, with a goatee, in his Birkenstocks.
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And literally had flown in the night before.
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So quite different, but I guess opposite the tracks, and really where we connected was certainly all over campus, but our shared values.
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I think we really discovered how similar we were in one of our classes, and ambidextrous thinking, which was a fun class at the time.
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>> It's incredible and to all the students listening, love is out there, be patient, be kind, it might just happen on the Stanford campus.
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>> And as my mother tells me, the most important thing, the most important decision you make is who you partner with.
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And so I consider that my ultimate Stanford success.
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>> Absolutely, completely agree.
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But Sonia, you've been on the West Coast for a while now, you're at a decade with Sun Microsystems and then join Gap Inc. Let's do it.
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Let's talk about Gap Inc for a little bit.
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It's close to home, right.
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It started in 1969 when Don and Doris Fisher are selling Levi's jeans and records.
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And thus Don says, let's call this company pants and discs.
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I think that's super trendy in 2021.
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What are your thoughts on that?
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>> Well, [COUGH], let me get to that.
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But I will say when I was at Stanford graduating, I attended a view from the top and heard Scott McNealy speak, and joined Sun Microsystems for a decade because of that.
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And it was a wonderful decade for me, I'm motivated by his inspiration.
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And for me really what that taught me was think big, really think big.
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But then when I joined Gap, very deliberate for me going back to what really turns me on personally, and what do I really connect with, and fashion at scale was something that was right.
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And then, as you said, the early years of Gap, what a legacy that I have to honor, right.
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And Don and Doris at the beginning founded this company in 1969, they each put in $21,000 of their respective monies.
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And thank God Doris took over the naming of the company because, pants and disk versus the, it started as the Generation Gap and then truncated to the Gap.
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Was really much more compelling and captured the zeitgeist of the moment, which Doris did. >> Got you.
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So pants and and disc isn't coming anytime soon?
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>> [LAUGH] Listen, we can sell pants and we can play music.
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You don't have to call it that. >> Got you. Makes sense.
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So Sonia, your first role at Gap Inc was for Old Navy or not your first, but your most recent role rather was for Old Navy.
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And as Dean Levin said, you did an incredible job there growing the business from seven to $8 billion.
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Their motto starts with imagine that the world runs right.
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How did you help Old Navy run right?
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>> So, I think Old Navy plays a special part in people's lives and it's a brand that was begun to give a respectful and aspirational environment and clothing as a result where there was no compromise for the value sector.
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Before then you can only shop for your clothes at Kmart or what have you.
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And my husband used to tell me when he was young, his mother used to have to drag him there and he was so embarrassed by having to wear those clothes to school.
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And the whole objective of Old Navy was pride and respect for our families.
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And that's what imagine the world runs right, is everyone feeling included, everyone feeling welcome.
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And taking Old Navy from seven billion to eight billion was sharpening our focus on that differentiation.
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Making sure that came through in the branding in the products that we offered.
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And being relentless in no compromise around fashion, around the fun of the brand, the family essence of the brand, and the value that that brand created.
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So, I stepped back and looked around and I felt like okay, our strengths at the core neeed a little bit more focus, so we did that.
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And then we had the ability to grow the brand through expansion, both digital and stores that we did while I was there.
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>> Sorry about kind of sharpening some of the points around Old Navy inclusivity for one.
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Gap was founded to do more than sell clothes, right?
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It's kind of in your DNA to create for all and be created by all, to design for all and be designed by all.
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You said in previous interviews, you don't want the Gap Inc legacy to be a flash in the pan moment.
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You want to really embrace inclusivity and live it every day.
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So now as CEO of all the brands, how do you think about making sure that happens?
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>> Yeah, for all of the assets and the values that we've had as a company, we're a company that needs radical change so that we can take on the next 50 years with an acceleration towards growth.
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And as I reflect on the past 50 years and thinking about the next 50 at this juncture, that's really what I think about.
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And while we had all these attributes, we had great founders, great legacy, great values, great brands.
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We didn't have the singular clarity of why this company exists.
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So the work that I did in the first year in addition to losing 70% of my revenue at the height of the crisis and burning 140 million of cash a week in those early years, in those early days, was declare what why do we exist.
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What is our company purpose?
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And so as a team, we landed on that, we landed on we are inclusive by design.
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As our North Star we articulated that and that's given us great business focus, great great business focus and to make our decisions and whether they're small decisions or big decisions.
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So great legacy that needed a clear articulation which we did. >> Absolutely.
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And I think looking at your leadership team, right, eight out of 12 are women, people of color represented.
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To me kind of thinking about the four days and you can't be what you can't see.
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Seems like you're executing it right now I think.
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>> Well, part of it is just good business sense.
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I mean, we want to reflect customers, our customers, our customers are 75% female.
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We reflect the diversity of America, and we want to have that empathy, and that understanding, and that diversity of thought such that we can best service our customers.
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So to me, I'm looking for that different points of view, but in reflection of who we're serving our customers is an important step for us to take.
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>> Personally, I really appreciate that Sonia.
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I think a lot of companies, organizations want to do that again, it's so cool to see Gap Inc execute.
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I want to talk about something you kind of mentioned about looking 50 years forward.
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You've talked about risk taking a lot.
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We had Satya Nadella with us last year from the top and his parting advice for the MBA students was to be bold and to be right.
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If you're not bold, nothing cool will get done.
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And he said if you're not right, you're not going to be around too long to see anything happen period.
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So where is Gap being the boldest and hopefully right?
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>> And so I talked about our why we exist as a company.
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We all, you guys have all taken the class I'm sure around culture eats strategy for lunch, right?
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So the most important thing is defining your cultural tenants for a company.
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The number one we've said is we staked our future on is create with audacity.
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So creating with audacity is really to signal this idea of boldness.
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This idea of taking risks, you know?
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And so, to me, that's, you know, that's going to be a big part of our next chapter.
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>> And you know, you're seeing that in some of our decisions as we navigate and move to acceleration. >> Absolutely.
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Could you tell us more Sonia about some of the new initiatives, the partnerships, the franchise agreements and how perhaps those decisions may have not happened just a few years ago?
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>> Yeah, listen, I think at our core we're best when we're at the Zeitgeist of culture.
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It's a little bit back to where the company was founded.
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Right, we captured this generational divide that was happening in the late 16th.
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And anchor the company on that. It's no different today.
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We're at our best when we're at this intersection of culture and with the right products and services.
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So as we thought about this moment in time and the partnerships and the people whether it's a partnership with easy or a partnership with the largest licensing company.
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That is part of our calculus is that's going to feed our query with a Dasa T.
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It's going to extend the reach of these brands that are known and loved and are woven into American fabric.
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And it's going to allow us to expand on both of those dimensions. >> Super exciting.
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I think all of us consumers can't wait to see what we can purchase the next few years at the gapping stores.
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Let's talk a little bit about mentorship and leadership, Sonia.
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So first of all mentorship.
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I think we have a photo again, this one isn't from 1995.
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I think it's more recent.
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This is Doris right >> Yes Yeah, so that's Doris and I that's Doris are one of our co founders.
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And aren't we fortunate to have Doris who also studied at Stanford, got her economics degree in 1953.
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Co started this company and was very involved in I like to describe Doris as the heart of this company.
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Not only was she smart enough to name it, right, and we're going to first head merchant But she is a woman who always spoke her mind.
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And that's what we all remember about her in addition to the fact that she was a mother, an activist, a philanthropist.
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And put everyone ahead of herself, but always spoke her mind.
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So she's a great role model for me personally and for all of us and we all stand on the shoulders of those that came prior.
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And she's one that of many that I look to for inspiration. >> Incredible.
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So now I'd love to hear more about mentorship, I guess broadly as well.
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So have you thought about finding mentors throughout your career?
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Then maybe even today transitioning to being a mentor for others?
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>> For me, it's always been about what do I need to learn?
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You know, what do I need to learn?
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Where am I and there's always things to learn.
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The mentors I have right now are incredible and You know, I'll always be seeking them out.
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Your first and most important Mentor is your direct boss and people underestimate that that's a very important relationship to fully activate.
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I've gotten so much value over the course of my career from the direct boss relationship.
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And then of course there's mentors.
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That all wants to help you people are really very, very helpful.
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So, you know, personally I reached out to Scott and I have he's been very helpful come at me like who was the CEO of my prior company helping me right now is I think about the work that I'm undertaking.
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The chairman the board, I've got a mentor.
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That I met with a capitalist organization which is an organization that's really about accelerating women in leadership and I met her 10 years ago and really wanted to choose her because she had complementary skills to what I had.
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And she was a marketing expert.
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I didn't have as much of that.
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So those are examples of how I've chosen mentors.
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And then how I choose the people that I mentor. It's a tough one.
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>> I mean, I think that I'm personally drawn to mentees that have a lot of fire.
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>> [LAUGH] >> And a lot of ambition and that perhaps I can help guide and accelerate that.
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But to me, I don't like people that are whiners, I really have very low tolerance for that.
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So I tend to choose people that can help themselves and that I can then hopefully give a helping hand to, >> For sure.
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And I think Sony, you mentioned something that I think a lot of us think about a lot at Stanford, feeling uncomfortable asking for help and then maybe feeling like you're invading on someone's time but to what you just described you know, you can always get it back later and people they want to help.
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>> Everyone wants to help.
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It's really you knowing yourself to know where your where your gaps are.
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And to choose mentors that can help you accelerate that gap.
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And then it becomes a very symbiotic relationship.
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I've always found that I give as much as I get on both sides of that relationship.
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>> It's wonderful advice.
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Sonia, I want to close by talking a little bit about leadership.
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Over this past year, maybe than any other CEO in the world.
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You had quite a unique Situation you're named CEO of gapping.
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Late March of last year, all your stores then closed down as you mentioned before, could you take us through those early moments those first few days? What were you thinking?
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>> How did you lead this company?
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>> Yeah, it's a I'm probably going to have PTSD around it Adrian at some point, but I will tell you in that moment being named and then 48 hours having to Take 10,000 headquarters employees to shelter in place and then 48 hours after that how to defer low 100,000 employees and losing 70% of our revenue realising we had seven weeks eight weeks of cash at the burn rate base because of our fixed infrastructure.
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But when I step back and maybe in that moment of crisis, everything becomes super clear.
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It's like that Apollo 13 moment, when you just have to get it done.
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And the situation requires us to step into the leadership required.
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And so that's what happened in You have to believe that we're all here for a reason I was in that role at that time to lead and had to feel confident that the training and my life had made me ready for that.
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And humans are very, very capable. They really are.
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And so just competence and belief and focused on the work was what got me through those early days and then we quickly pivoted We got the largest bond offering in the history of retail because everyone recognises the value of the power of these brands.
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And as soon as we secured our liquidity, we quickly pivoted to offence and have not looked back and declared our strategy, our power strategy and our growth strategy and We're off to the races.
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So now I'm having a lot of fun and every day is fun and every day is full of challenges.
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But, I'm thankful that all of the experiences I've had over the course of my journey has prepared me as best as anyone can be prepared.
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>> Okay, well I'm glad you're having fun now.
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I just saw your Generation Good campaign yesterday.
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That's sounds incredible, super exciting, so glad we're back on the offense at Gap Inc.
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>> Yeah, listen, it's an incredibly fun company and a fun, and why did I chose Gap Inc.
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You know, for me that impact first of all, the fashion industry puts more food on the table of families around the world than any other industry other than the food industry.
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A lot of people don't know that.
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So for every job I have 15 jobs come with it around the world and So that's one and then the other is you know, it is highly technical 1500 engineers, it's highly creative 2000 artists and designers, there's workers in 30 countries around the world we sell in 93 countries.
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So the complexity and the impact and all of these different kinds of people. is amazing.
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And then also it's just fun and cool.
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Like if anyone had told me that I'd be meeting with President Trump and Kanye within a four day period to transact deals.
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I don't think I would have believed it.
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Or what have you, but it just happens to be again back at the intersection of what's relevant today.
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So yeah, it is a lot of fun in the daily basis. Thanks, Adrian.
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>> You mentioned President Trump Kanye.
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I almost asked about the conversations, but I won't.
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>> I'll let my classmates continue this discussion, Sonia, we have a couple questions from the audience.
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>> I wanted to ask you how you navigate being considered an over represented minority while also being the only Female South Asian Fortune 500 CDR.
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>> Yeah, you know, I really struggled with it at the beginning.
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I was, you know, I didn't want to be known as the minority female CEO, right?
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And I was sort of adamant about that.
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But it is inevitable because that is what I am and there's not many of us.
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In fact there's there's not as you as you point out Well, there's a couple but.
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I guess and by the way, I'm no longer trending, we have Rosalyn Brewer is now the new one.
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So it's great, now people can just evaluate me based on my results which is what I would like.
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So I guess I moved into ease with it over the year, started out sort of not wanting to that to be the determinant realizing though that it also is an opportunity to inspire the next generation.
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And really for me, though, my ultimate sense of self and sense of success is going to be winning.
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I am motivated by winning I'm really motivated by winning.
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And so the benefit of that is I get to stay in this job longer.
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And I get to role model, hopefully, the next chapter the next generation longer.
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>> Hi, Sonia, thank you for being here today.
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And thank you for give me this little window and some of the challenges you faced over the last year.
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Question for you is how do you envision the future of retail and post COVID?
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Or the physical retail stores? In a post COVID world?
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Yeah, I think physical is really really important.
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You know, humans are five dimension.
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You know, we've got five senses and I would argue six senses.
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We've got the obvious five senses and then we have the heart which is our sixth sense what we feel, and retails I mean apparel in my sector, but in general retail large largely transacted 80% in a physical environment.
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So sales are generated primarily the physical environment.
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Now, that physical environment has to be relevant.
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It has to be differentiated.
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I mean, I've got it, we've got the next generation that pretty much only transacts on their iPhones, yet they crave experiences, right?
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And they will go to want experiences.
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So the obligation on us is to create those experiences that are relevant.
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That's going to change all the time.
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I think if we can do that and we will It maintains this premise that humans go through the world, the physical world, physical human beings.
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That interface is really, really important.
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it's incumbent on us to make it good. >> Thank you.
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>> I think there's something exciting Sonia about the physical store.
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Still, I always get excited when I walk into a gap store I probably never leave without buying something.
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So, as a consumer, I think we're all excited to see what kind of changes moving forward in that experience.
27:53
Thanks Adrian yeah in 86% of apparel purchases are emotional purchases.
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So, what you're what you just express is how I make my money for this company and I appreciate that please go shopping more stores. We need the revenue.
28:06
>> This is why I have too many black sweaters.
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You can never have too many just see my closet.
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>> I want to close with our lightning round on view from the top. It's a tradition. Be ready for it. >> I think so. >> Okay.
28:19
So best date spot on the Stanford campus. >> Gosh. I'd say the Dutch goose.
28:26
I don't know if it's still there, but that's where we had many drinks.
28:29
When, when we were there. >> Got it. Perfect.
28:33
Your favorite or best new quarantine hobby slash skill, >> Cooking.
28:40
I mean, I think I really have embraced cooking.
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I hadn't done, I hadn't done much of that in recent times, but it's very therapeutic and enjoying it. Completely agree.
28:50
Sonia, could you tell us the best piece of advice to leave the Stanford community?
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>> Unknow yourself, know you self, get your hands dirty.
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I mean don't be the student that is worried about. Creating the wealth.
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Get your hands dirty, get in the muck.
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And you know, it's cliche but getting the muck and follow your passion and know that you can change the world.
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>> Watching others or helping others do it is not nearly as fun. >> Agree.
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So now the last one is very easy and I'm this open ended situation so I'm going to give you some options.
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Okay, >> [LAUGH] >> so the best brand, Banana Republic, Old Navy, GAP or Athleta? >> Boy.
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It's like asking me to choose between my children.
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>> Okay >> I sort of, here's the way I would answer it.
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There's four characters and Sex in the City.
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As a woman, we all relate to all of them at any one given time.
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So I have this theory that we're all those four women.
29:54
And so it's the same with these brands.
29:55
We all affiliate with these incredible brands, sometimes your Banana Republic, my mode when you're interviewing, sometimes you want to go feel free and you buy that hoodie from GAP and Sometimes you take your family for their kids clothes too old maybe and sometimes you got to really win on the workout field and you put on a flutter it were all all are important.
30:15
>> For sure, they're all incredible Brands, Sonia >> Thank you so much for joining.
30:21
We can't wait to see what happens at GAP Inc over the next few years under your leadership. Thanks Adrian. [MUSIC]