Women in Business Q&A: Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur, Founder & CEO, MM. LaFleur

Women in Business Q&A: Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur, Founder & CEO, MM. LaFleur
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
MM. LaFleur

Before founding MM.LaFleur, Sarah worked the luxury goods portfolio of Starwood Capital in New York and Paris. Prior to that, she was a management consultant at Bain & Co. and TechnoServe, where she advised consumer packaged goods and financial services companies as well as agribusinesses. She graduated from Harvard and sits on the junior board of the International Rescue Committee. MM.LaFleur is named after her mother, whom she calls her biggest inspiration.

How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?

I grew up overseas surrounded by a lot of people who were very different from me. For high school, I went to a small, all-girls Catholic school in Tokyo—which I loved. My class had Muslim girls from Pakistan, Hindu girls from India who spoke Japanese as their first language, Japanese girls whose parents were from China, and so many other examples of cultural diversity. I learned to truly appreciate difference and to really listen to everyone’s perspective.

As a business person, I feel like I’m always searching for that utopia where everyone feels their unique voice is heard. I’d like to think that our company embraces the differences that exist from one employee to the next. As a company, MM.LaFleur is incredibly diverse, and my six-person executive team is made up of seven different nationalities. I always tell my leaders: Hire diversely. It’s not because of some quota we’re trying to meet; it’s because I think that is truly the best environment to work in. I want to be with people who think differently from me, and who push me to see things in a way that transcends my own perspective.

I find homogeneity disturbing. As a woman in business, I believe there’s nothing creepier than a boardroom chock-full of old white men. What a missed opportunity! I think it’s a fiduciary duty to solicit differing opinions. Your business will be better (and more profitable) the more diverse you are.

How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at MM.LaFleur?

Were it not for my previous employment experiences, I’m fairly certain I couldn’t have grown MM.LaFleur to where it is today. I studied Social Studies in college, which was about as impractical as it sounds, and despite several internships, I knew very little about being a business person when I graduated from college. My first job out of school was at Bain, a management consulting firm, and it was like training camp for good business practices. I learned how to “play with the grownups.” Part of it was the simple things: how to write a good email, how to prepare an agenda, how to walk away with concrete next steps, etc. I also learned the business fundamentals: financial statements, key performance indicators, organizational structures, etc. I never went to business school, but Bain gave me a business education. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t use something that I learned there.

I also spent some time working in South Africa for a nonprofit that aided local entrepreneurs, and that experience led me to stop making excuses for myself. The nonprofit worked alongside rural farmers who were trying to start their own farms. Most of these people had grown up during Apartheid, had very little formal education, didn’t have bank accounts, and yet were starting businesses in a stunted economy. It was a kick in the pants for me. Even now, I try to remind myself how lucky I am to run a business in a (relatively) corruption-free economy, and have a good education and access to capital. I try not to take those things for granted, and I make giving back to our community a core tenant of our company. Over the past two years, we’ve partnered with the International Rescue Committee, which is committed to helping female refugees work and achieve their career goals.

What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at MM.LaFleur?

Most of my highs and lows have to do with my employees. I care for them deeply. When someone who was a summer intern comes back to us as a full-time employee, and then gets promoted (three times over), and I see her succeed as a business person—it’s a real high. When our business is growing faster than we expected and a certain team becomes over-worked and exhausted, it’s a low.

I subscribe to the philosophy that Danny Meyer laid out in his book, Setting the Table: Employees first, customers second. It’s a tricky balance, but I really believe this to be true. I cannot speak with every customer that comes through the door—though I would like to—so I know if we take good care of our employees, who are the ones interacting with our customers, we can create a culture and a business that our customers love.

What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?

Stop over-preparing. I’m generalizing here, but I think a lot of women, especially those who are more cautious, believe that you need to have worked at so-and-so, or have gotten such-and-such a degree, or secured $X in funding to start a business—and it’s rarely true. I had never worked in fashion before I started MM.LaFleur. Not one day. And you know what? I think my initial ignorance about the industry actually helped me ask the right questions and challenge assumptions that an industry veteran might not. When I was first meeting with fabric mills, I would always ask, “Which fabrics are machine washable?” and they were all like, “Huh? We don’t know. Why would you want to know that? No luxury designer ever asks that question!” I insisted on knowing the answer, because I wanted our clothes to be machine washable, and that’s what I intuitively knew would be important to our customer. I doubt I would have insisted on that if I had had formal training in high-end fashion.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?

Always show up. Be consistent. For most of my twenties, I thought I could do everything stronger, better, faster, and—if I just had that extra cup of coffee—maybe a little bit longer. I once scheduled a conference call at 3:30am with a team in Paris because, well, why couldn’t I? Needless to say, this kind of behavior didn’t make me “good at my job”; it just made me inconsistent. Now that I manage a team, there’s nothing I appreciate more than someone who always shows up. That batter who gets to base ten out of ten times is more valuable than the occasional home-run hitter, because I need team members I can rely on.

How do you maintain a work/life balance?

I don’t strive for work/life balance on a day-to-day basis, but more on a monthly or quarterly basis. I enjoy being lazy (I could sit on a sofa and watch TV for hours on end), and I’m kind of an all-or-nothing person, so I don’t really give myself downtime between Monday and Friday. I run in the morning, race to get to the office, work, and don’t get home until fairly late. My husband and I have dinner with a requisite glass of wine or two, and I go to bed pretty soon after.

I’ve had jobs where I left at 6pm every day, and I went insane. I think if you have kids, it works, but for someone who doesn’t have kids, I felt like I was wasting time between 6pm and going to bed. I’m not very good at having hobbies.

What I really love doing right now—and what helps me appreciate life outside my career—is traveling with my husband. Spending time with him, ideally in a remote location in the wilderness, is my greatest joy in life. I actively make time for that, usually once a quarter. Being in my 30s, I have a newfound appreciation for nature and being in the outdoors. It’s more relaxing than the best massage.

What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?

Feeling like you can’t “be yourself” at work. I’m so glad that we are having more conversations about how to get more women to participate in the workplace, and that we are seeing improvements, but I feel like this is all for naught if women feel the need to behave like “one of the guys” in order to fit in. This is something that has become clear to me now that I run a company that is 70% women. The women at MM.LaFleur do not act like the women who worked at my previous jobs or at the companies I visit, where the workplace is dominated by men. I’m biased, of course, but I think the women at my company are more free, both in the things they say and the way they behave. They are themselves. They are also incredibly strong team players: they listen to what everyone has to say (no one is ever talking over the other person), they give credit to each other, and there’s a feeling of “let’s just put our heads down and get the work done.” It’s less ego-driven, and our results and growth speak for themselves.

So for me, it’s not just about hiring more women; it’s also about allowing them to reject the patriarchal corporate culture that often prevents them from being who they are at work.

How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?

I’ve had moments in my life when I didn’t feel I was smart. And when you feel that way, you lose confidence in your logic, your ability to reason, to think critically, to be creative. You start worrying about how stupid you are, or how stupid you sound, rather than actually thinking. You lose heart. It’s a downward spiral.

Every time that has happened, by some force of nature, I’ve had a mentor who was there to tell me, “No Sarah, you’re smart.” Who knows if I’m smart? That’s not the point. The point is that someone was there to give me the confidence that I needed at the right time. I’m convinced that when you believe you’re smart, your brain actually works better. You think more clearly.

I’m grateful for those mentors (I’m thinking of three, specifically) who were there to offer me that encouragement at the right time. They gave me that confidence boost when I needed it most.

Which other female leaders do you admire and why?

My mother, who is an entrepreneur as well. She and my father taught me the value of work and finding purpose in your work. My mother was the daughter of a prominent politician, and she married a diplomat (my father). It would have been acceptable, and frankly easier, for her to not have a career, since she had to move every three to four years according to wherever my father got posted. Indeed, most spouses of diplomats are forced to give up their careers. But she wanted to work so much that she decided to start her own business, which would allow her to maintain her sense of independence but also move around the world with my father. Growing up and watching her work, I noticed that she really seemed to love her job and got such satisfaction out of her career. I grew up thinking this “working thing” must be fun, and I couldn’t wait to get my first job. I realize that I’m incredibly privileged to be able to feel that way. Thanks to my mother, I think of work as my passion and as my calling.

What do you want MM.LaFleur to accomplish in the next year?

We’ve always dreamed that MM.LaFleur would be the go-to resource for all professional women. We used to put in our clothing labels: “Made in NYC for purposeful women around the world.” But right now, we’re limited in the sizes we offer (we start at size 0 and go up to 16), and in the regions we offer them (we only ship within the U.S.). But, we’ve received thousands of requests from women who fall outside of our current parameters (petites, plus-size, women who live outside of the U.S.), and we’ve heard them. So that’s our goal for 2017: MM.LaFleur for all!

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot