Femine streak: More women win top retail spots

The chairman of Zale Corp. has two brothers and no sisters. He went to an all-male high school and college. And he spent three years in the military.<br><br>So how did Robert J. DiNicola end up with so

Tuesday, March 14th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The chairman of Zale Corp. has two brothers and no sisters. He went to an all-male high school and college. And he spent three years in the military.

So how did Robert J. DiNicola end up with so many women running his company?

"You're not necessarily a product of your environment," Mr. DiNicola said. "I didn't even get to talk to a girl until I went to work for Macy's out of college."

Still, he gets credit for the fact that Zale's chief executive officer, chief administrative officer, chief financial officer, and the presidents of the two largest divisions -- Zales Jewelers and Gordon's Jewelers -- are all women.

Nine of the 25 people in the company's management group are women, including three of the five executive officers.

The Irving-based jewelry retailer's moves are part of a broader trend.

More and more high-level executive positions in retail are going to women, and it's no coincidence, according to headhunters and retailers.

"It's about time," said Leonard Berry, director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University.

"It should have happened earlier. Talent isn't gender-specific, but the number of women participating should have been leading more women into the executive suites."

Women dominate as retail customers: They make or influence more than 80 percent of general merchandise purchases.

But as recently as the early 1990s, it was difficult to find a female CEO and president in retailing beyond Rose Marie Bravo, who held those titles at I. Magnin and Saks Fifth Avenue, respectively. She is now CEO at British luxury retailer Burberry and no longer an anomaly.

Beryl B. Raff, who was promoted to CEO at Zale last fall, said: "We had role models in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it wasn't 50-50. Over time, though, females have slowly crept up."

In addition to Zale, Neiman Marcus' top ranks for the first time include a female division officer: Sharen Jester Turney was named CEO at NM Direct last year, and Karen Katz was promoted to executive vice president of Neiman Marcus Stores the year before.

"Neiman Marcus has been around 92 years, and I'm the first woman to be a CEO," Ms. Turney said. "I think it's because women got a late start.

"It wasn't a priority for us to even go to work for a long time. I was a farmer's daughter. I was going to be a schoolteacher, get married and have children."

Recent changes

At the Dallas office of Kenzer Corp., an executive headhunting firm that specializes in retailers, recruiting and placement activity is about 50-50 male-female these days. But as recently as the early-to-mid 1990s, it was "probably 80 percent male and 20 percent female," said Don Jones, vice president.

"Our database of women is constantly going up. A lot of the best people are women now, because they've been getting the experience and doing a good job."

One reason for the increase is that more of the female baby boomers who joined management trainee programs in the '70s and '80s are in line for upper management, having gained the profit-and-loss job experience that leads to top-ranking positions.

"Companies are calling us and saying, 'We need an executive vice president of operations' or a similar-level job, 'and we'd like a strong female because we're trying to round out our team,'" Mr. Jones said.

Gale Duff-Bloom, president of communications at Plano-based J.C. Penney Co. said: "There are more promotions happening in the retail industry and in banking, but there's still a whole lot of room for improvement." The 1999 report from research group Catalyst, which is based on 1998 numbers, concluded that it would take women 11 more years to make up just one-fifth of the officers in top U.S. corporations if promotions continue at the current pace.

Room at the top

While women make up 46 percent of the U.S. workforce, they represent only 12 percent of top officers in the Fortune 500, according to the latest Catalyst survey. But that's up from 8.7 percent in 1995.

The 23 retail companies in the Fortune 500 group matched the national average of 12 percent.

The company with the highest percentage of female corporate officers, 43 percent, was Avon Products Inc. But that number was calculated before last fall, when Andrea Jung was promoted to chief executive officer. Ms. Jung, who is a former Neiman Marcus executive vice president, was on Zale's board of directors from 1996 until she stepped down due to her accelerated duties at Avon last year.
At J.C. Penney, just in the last year, six women have been promoted to high-ranking jobs, including chief operating officer Vanessa Castagna, who was hired away from Wal-Mart to turn around the struggling department store chain.

Experienced shoppers

"Women know what shopping environment we want. We've been the ones out there shopping for many, many years. We know how busy we've become and the shopping environment we need," said Ms. Duff-Bloom of J.C. Penney.

"You have to be a customer. You can't just walk in a store and say: 'It looks good. I don't understand why it's not doing better.'"

"I think that if companies are smart, they will absolutely try to develop, recruit and retain women because they are also reflective of the customer profile and the customer base," said Ms. Castagna.

"I think the average for most retailers is that 80 percent of the purchasing power still is in the hands of women. There's no question that that has an influence."

These examples aren't isolated. Last month, Christina Johnson was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Saks Fifth Avenue, and in Fort Worth, Carmie Mehrlander was promoted to CEO at The Bombay Company Inc.

The dot.com world is also seeing a flurry of female promotions.

Last week, Wal-Mart.com said it hired Jeanne Jackson, Banana Republic's CEO since 1997, to be its top executive.

At Fort Worth-based Tandy Corp., Evelyn Follit was promoted last summer to chief information officer and senior vice president -- the company's first woman to lead and implement Radio Shack's online strategy.
Family issues

The retail executives who have children said a supportive workplace and network of family and friends were key to their ability to advance.

Since Ms. Turney's son was born six years ago, she has had three promotions.
"Being a mother has made me a better manager," she said.

"Burt Tansky [Neiman's chairman and CEO] loves children. I remember when our son was a baby, it was late, and Burt came into my office and said, 'Your son called me, and he wants you to come home.'"

Mary L. FortÃ©, Zale's chief administrative officer, doesn't have children but is now in need of some of the same considerations that a parent requires.

"Mom moved in with us six months ago. She can no longer live independently. There are doctors' appointments and hospital stays. You try to figure it out ahead of time but can't always."

Those family-related issues usually become the woman's responsibility, Ms. FortÃ© said.
"It's still a boys' club," said Ms. Mehrlander, Bombay's president and CEO. "We have to work harder and do better -- be quicker, smarter, faster. There's more scrutiny on us."

She credits the "women's lib movement" with helping her career path, but, she said, "I made my own breaks.

"But as more Beryl Raffs and myself get elevated into these jobs, and we do well, it will make a difference for all women in the workplace," Ms. Mehrlander said.

Cultural changes

At Zale, Ms. FortÃ© said, the corporate culture has relaxed somewhat as women were promoted to higher ranks.

"I remember when I first came to work here and wore pantsuits," Ms. FortÃ© said. "People came up to me and wrote me notes, thanking me and saying this was so great. I was taken aback."

That was 1994.

The women who've made it to the top do seem to be making a difference.

The Gap, one of the biggest retail success stores of the last few years, has women in several key posts.

Last year, Heidi Kunz was promoted to chief financial officer, and Jennifer Ming was named president of Old Navy.

Amy Schoening, senior vice president of Banana Republic, was named marketer of the year in 1999 by Brandweek magazine for shaping the image of Gap's higher-priced chain.

Ms. Mehrlander rebuilt Bombay's merchandise team and made major changes in marketing and how the stores are run. Sales have been showing strong quarterly gains, and the furniture and accessories retailer reported Thursday that it was profitable for the quarter and year.

The Zale team

The management team that Mr. DiNicola put together after he was hired by Zale's board in 1994 inherited a company that had been through a bankruptcy and a recession, preceded by a leveraged buyout, hostile takeover, the exit of the founding family and other travails.

Zale has posted 20 percent-plus gains in profits each of the last five years.

Most of the Zale executives began their careers as management trainees, often as buyers at Macy's or other divisions of Federated Department Stores such as Bloomingdale's and The Bon MarchÃ©.
Ms. FortÃ© and Ms. Raff first worked with Mr. DiNicola in Philadelphia at Bamberger's, a Macy's chain that later took on the Macy's name.

Ms. Raff worked with Sue H. Davidson, president of Gordon's Jewelers, and Pamela J. Romano, president of Zales Jewelers, at Macy's.

Mr. DiNicola put them all back together.

"I never noticed that they were women. I just noticed that they were top-notch executives."
He had four male chief financial officers before he promoted 19-year Zale veteran Sue E. Gove two years ago. And Alan P. Shor, executive vice president and chief operating officer, is a man, as are most of Zale's senior vice presidents.

"We show no mercy here. They all get the same pounding," Mr. DiNicola said. "Women rise to the top with bottom-line responsibilities, and I've never been afraid to give anyone that responsibility as long as they have the track record to deliver."