Levi Strauss CEO says he regrets ‘not exiting people soon enough’

Some of the regrets that the CEO of Levi Strauss & Co holds involved staffing-related decisions, according to a recent interview he did with CNBC. 

“This is a corny saying, and it gets said a lot, but probably not exiting people soon enough when I knew there was something not right, not making the right people moves fast enough, not moving really talented people ahead fast enough,” CEO Charles Bergh told the outlet.

Bergh reportedly also said that Levi Strauss & Co had people leave because he had “held on to somebody longer than I should have.”

“At the end of the day it’s a people game,” he said to CNBC.

Levi Strauss & Co, headquartered in California, had a workforce totaling 18,000 employees in late November, according to its latest annual report.

The company behind the Levi’s brand and others saw its financials lift after Bergh became CEO in 2011, with its revenue hitting notable growth rates in 2017 and 2018, CNBC reported. 

He told the outlet he had let go nine out of his 11 direct reports within the first 1.5 years at the company in a bid to prompt change in its direction.

Levi Strauss & Co’s market capitalization came in around $5.16 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, with the value of its shares having experienced a decline of over 18.5% over 12 months.

KOHL’S CEO MICHELLE GASS TO STEP DOWN, JOINS LEVI STRAUSS

Bergh’s so far 12-year tenure as CEO is expected to come to an end sometime in the future, with former Kohl’s CEO and current Levi Strauss & Co President Michelle Gass slated to move into the top job at that time. Levi Strauss & Co, while revealing in November that she would take over, pegged the transition timeline as within 18 months.

Bergh told CNBC that when exactly Gass will become CEO is a “board decision.”

“What I will say is, the transition has gone incredibly well,” he continued. “I’m very optimistic that this is going to be a very smooth transition.”

Kohl’s picked Tom Kingsbury to serve as its CEO after Gass moved to Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co has said that it will put out its results for the third quarter next week. 

In early July, the company said it had brought in a total of nearly $3.03 billion in net revenues in the first two quarters of the year. It generated $3.06 billion in the same time frame last year.