Mike De Bell took an unconventional route to his position as vice-president of Asia at shoe company Crocs. Now in charge of a fast-evolving brand with an expanding retail network, most of his experience prior to joining Crocs in 2006 was in the electronics sector. Over the course of 16 years, he worked for a series of Asia-based enterprises where he gained the transferable skills and confidence to take on new business challenges. His priority now is to keep pushing for growth, while steering the still young company through the transitions and rationalisations that come with ambitious targets and a rapidly-changing product line. He talks to John Cremer.
What do you focus on as a manager? We have a fairly complex business model that, just in Hong Kong, involves sales, customer service, finance, HR, distribution and planning. Manufacturing is in Shenzhen, and our Asia region includes Australia, India and South Africa. Every market has its own nuances, but they are 80 per cent the same, so I try to let the local organisations understand the local nuances, while I look at the drivers and results. It is not a matter of concentrating on profits, but on doing things correctly and realising that people can overcome a lot if they have a passion for the business.
How do you deal with pressure and find ideas? It is easy to get caught up in day-to-day work and forget the fundamentals. My routine involves e-mails before leaving home, meetings from nine to five, and then more e-mails and late night calls to the United States. Sometimes, it is best just to say 'enough work', turn off the BlackBerry and computer, and read, walk, play golf, and give yourself time to think strategically, when you are not dealing with tactical issues or putting out fires.
As a manager of people, what are you trying to improve? The feedback I've had - and this was from the US - is that I need to work on being a bit nicer at times. I tend to be a bit direct and sometimes it offends people. For that reason, I'm trying to be more open to listening to other people and their ideas, and a bit less abrasive in my approach.
What is your strength in business? My ability to break things down, identify the cause of a problem, and then find a way to resolve it logically. When doing this, I'm not that emotional, or if I am, I just let it all out and then concentrate on fixing whatever is not right. As part of that, my staff know that if they come to me with a problem, they must [propose] two solutions. I want to encourage them to solve their own problems and, if they come with ideas, it opens the way for coaching and discussion.
What major challenges are you facing?