We were thrilled when we learned that Michelle Poole, president, Crocs, was named the recipient of Women in Retail’s 2023 Top Woman of the Year, an award created in partnership with with CommerceNext for its 2023 CommerceNexty Awards program. The award, which was announced at CommerceNext’s event in New York City in June, recognizes a woman leader in retail who has both contributed to the community and is a mentor to other women in the industry. Award winners are selected based on votes by CommerceNext’s judges of industry leaders along with an equally weighted popular vote.

Poole is one of our favorite retail leaders. She became president of Crocs in September 2020 and has oversight of the Americas, Asia and EMEA regional commercial teams, as well as the product design and management, merchandising, and marketing teams. Poole, who joined Crocs in 2014 and held numerous leadership positions since joining, has more than 30 years of experience and proven success in the development of leading global fashion and lifestyle brands including Sperry Top-Sider, Timberland, Kangol, Converse, MTV Europe and Pepe Jeans, where she held a range of marketing, merchandising ad product management roles.

In the following interview, you’ll learn all about Poole’s career journey, her branding best practices, why mentorship is so important to her, and more.

Inner Circle: What led you to become the president of Crocs?
Michelle Poole:  I’ve had an amazing career: Unexpected, adventurous, with a lot of risk taking. I got started in retail right after getting my fashion marketing degree in the U.K., and my whole career prior to this role has been in either marketing roles or product management/merchandising roles. Nine years ago I joined Crocs as chief merchant, and was then asked to lead marketing as well. Then, three years ago, I was asked to step up to the president role, which involves bringing the brand, product creation, sourcing and the commercial teams all together to operate as a single brand leadership team.

IC: What have you accomplished professionally in the last year that you’re particularly proud of?
MP: For me, it is how Crocs has been able to find success after Covid. Our products and brand had an amazing surge during Covid, but the downside to that was we were labeled as a Covid phenomenon, even though we had been doing a huge amount of foundation laying before Covid. I think people doubted our staying power, so what I’m most proud of is that we continue to prove our long-term staying power. In fact, we just announced record results for the brand in our Q2 earnings. And there’s two big reasons for this: 1) great products and a relentless speed of innovation; and 2) international growth. We are 20 years old, but we’ve never really had the brand firing on all cylinders in every country of the world before, like we do now.

IC: Your career was spent building some of the most iconic brands. Can you share some high-level best practices or tips around how to build a successful brand?
MP: There are four key things I think about when I think about how to build a successful brand. They include the following:

  • Start with great product. Companies can trip themselves up talking about all sorts of things, developing very complex strategies, etc. And obviously, you need good operations to run a business. But the very, very heart of every great brand is great product. I think of it as the heartbeat of a company.
  • Keep it simple. If you can’t outline your strategy on one page, it’s going to be really hard for your team to understand. So, simplicity has really been core to our success. Actually, one of Crocs’ core values is inherent simplicity. I think it really helps teams focus.
  • Stay hungry and move fast. Sometimes people say to me, “It must feel so great working at Crocs. Now that you are a successful brand you can kick back.” But this is actually the exact time you should NOT be kicking back. If you start to get complacent when you are successful, other brands will come in and take your place. Anticipating competition and moving fast is really important. When you’re at the top is when the competition is studying you the most, and actually trying to take your lunch. I think the beauty for Crocs in the early years was that we were really underestimated.
  • Build a really talented team. Without the right team, you can’t bring your vision to life. There is nothing like it when a team is in its flow and you have the right players all pulling together. It makes the hard work easier, and you can all celebrate the successes together. And when you have someone who isn’t working out, move fast. It’s hard, and it never stops being hard. But ultimately, if you don’t have the right people in the right roles, they probably know it too, and they’re probably not happy.

IC: Women in Retail’s Top Woman of the Year Award, created in partnership with CommerceNext, recognizes women retail leaders who have contributed to the community and mentored others to get ahead. Can you talk about how you mentor and support women?
MP:  I’m super passionate about this. In 32 years, I have never had a female boss. And, when I joined Crocs, I was the first woman on the Crocs leadership team, ever. It’s changed very much since I have been here, however, and now our leadership team is two thirds women. So I think it’s really vital for women in our industry to mentor and support each other. I think it’s a win win. And I think women are wired that way to support each other. So, I try and mentor in a variety of ways. For example, I mentor an alumni of the university I attended who’s now doing the exact degree I did. I also mentor colleagues — particularly young women in the organization– to help them as they navigate their careers. And, I always look for opportunities to make myself open to mentoring.

Another thing I would like to mention here is the power of a kind word. Just the other day, I sent a complimentary email after a meeting to someone who showed up really well in the meeting. I just said, “You just did a really great job. You showed up really well. I’m impressed. ” He loved it and it boosted his confidence. So, I think kind words, when it’s real and when it’s well-deserved, are so important.

IC: How would you describe your leadership style?
MP: I’m a very authentic leader. I always view myself as part of the team, not in charge of the team — like the hub of a wheel. I’m not someone who walks around with my title in front of me as a barrier or as armor. I think I’m very disarming and I try and lead with humility. Humor is also a big piece of it. I think that breaks down a lot of barriers. I also lead with positivity. I’m a very “glass half full” hopeful person. I like to celebrate the wins and believe it fuels the work ahead.  I am also really inclusive. I do think about high performance and set a high bar. But that’s so we can all enjoy looping over it.

IC: What are you most looking forward to personally and professionally this year?
MP: Travel is so important to me, and it’s such a gift to be able to travel the world with the brand. I’m going to Japan on Sunday, and I’ll be back in Europe later this year. So, continuing to see how the brand shows up around the world is definitely something I am looking forward to as we round out the year. And then my son goes to high school in three weeks. So I am excited to help guide him through this new experience.