How Coach scaled from a single store into a global icon

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Jeff Berman** (0:48)
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**Bob** (1:33)
Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show because every Friday, we release a second Rapid Response exclusively in the Rapid Response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford's CEO to NASA's Administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find. Just search Rapid Response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there.

**Lew Frankfort** (2:14)
He said, well, I have a friend from childhood who has a small pocketbook company called Coach.
It's $6 million in sales. He's 60 years old, and he's looking for a protege. And he's looking for someone who has two qualifications. One, they have no fashion experience. That was me. And the second was good values. And I said, well, I got good values, I think.

**Jeff Berman** (2:44)
What did you join Coach as? What was your role coming in?

**Lew Frankfort** (2:48)
Effectively, as an assistant to the CEO, I got the title VP for Marketing and Special Projects.

**Jeff Berman** (2:56)
I mean, titles are free, isn't that great?

**Lew Frankfort** (2:58)
Titles are free.

**Jeff Berman** (3:00)
This is Masters of Scale. I'm Jeff Berman, your host today on the show, Lew Frankfort. Lew spent decades as CEO of the iconic brand Coach. When he started there, the then small New York City brand bag maker was doing about $6 million a year in sales. Under Lew's leadership, Coach grew into a billion dollar brand and an international icon known for a new category of accessible luxury. In his new memoir, Bag Man, Lew reveals fascinating insights about how to scale, and he shares some of those insights with us here today.
Lew, welcome to Masters of Scale.

**Lew Frankfort** (3:35)
Delighted to be here with you, Jeff.

**Jeff Berman** (3:37)
One of the many reasons that I've been looking forward to sitting with you is you and I have a couple of things in common. I'll flatter myself, and one of them is we both started our careers meaningfully in public service. I'm curious just how you got started in government.

**Lew Frankfort** (3:52)
I'm a product of the 60s and I came of age thinking that my generation would create a better world. John Lindsay was mayor and he was recruiting young people, idealistic people who wanted to go on a journey with him.
After one year, I decided I was either going to leave city government because I was surrounded by people who were looking to just get to Friday or get to vacation. I was looking to improve things. I thought I would take a chance with one more job. I looked for a mentor who really wanted to make a difference. I found that person.

**Jeff Berman** (4:35)
How did you go about seeking a mentor?

**Lew Frankfort** (4:37)
I networked in city government and asked about who's smart, who cares, and who can get stuff done. There were two people that were mentioned at the time. One was this guy, Herb Rosenzweig. I reached out to Herb and he hired me.
I went with him as he moved to different positions and ultimately, my profile was high enough so that when the city was looking for someone who might be able to go in and try to fix the daycare and head start programs in 1976, when it was supposed to child for inefficiency and corruption, people thought of me.