Gordon ’60 and Carole Browe Segal ’60 started Crate & Barrel in 1962 with a single store in Chicago and grew the company into a global lifestyle brand, today boasting 7,500 employees and $2.5 billion in annual revenue. The couple are long-standing supporters of Northwestern and donors to the newly announced Full Circle Campaign. Gordon recently sat down with us to lift the (undoubtedly chic) curtain on their renowned career.
1. If you could go back in time and give advice to your younger selves when you were first starting Crate & Barrel, it would be:
To have more confidence to grow a bit faster than we did.
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you with taking risks?
9 to 10. I’m very comfortable with taking risks, which we often did in our early days.
3. If you hadn’t been an entrepreneur, what career would you have pursued? A) Artist B) Teacher C) Something else?
Something else — a real estate developer or a restaurateur.
4. What’s the most unconventional idea you’ve ever championed?
Buying another retail company that sold serious furniture when we had never been in the furniture business.
Editor’s note: That gamble turned into a massive success. After acquiring Massachusetts-based The Upper Story in 1970, Crate & Barrel expanded its existing stores to feature contemporary, European-inspired furniture. Customers who were already enamored with their sleek housewares flooded in, and furniture remains core to the business today.
5. If you could redesign one everyday item, it would it be:
Glassware
6. Your personal design philosophy can best be described as:
a. Function over form
b. Form over function
c. A balance of both
d. Innovation above all
Form without function never works.
7. A business book that changed your perspective is:
Stanley Marcus’ “Minding the Store.”
8. How do you typically approach a big decision?
a. Rely on gut instinct
b. Gather as much data as possible
c. Consult with my team
d. Sleep on it and decide later
9. What’s the next big trend that you think will transform retail over the next decade?
More customer-friendly stores and balancing merchandising and visual display with technology.
10. In your opinion, the important quality for a business leader today is:
a. Empathy
b. Resilience
c. Strategic vision
d. Decisiveness