The CEO of a Running Company That Can No Longer Run (Published in 2022)
Jim Weber, the longtime CEO of Brooks Running, was a dedicated runner for many years. The hours spent running the miles were more than exercise for him. They were a chance to meditate on life, strategize for business, and reflect on the thorny issues that come with running a business with annual sales in excess of $1 billion.
Then, a few years ago, Mr. Weber was diagnosed with cancer. He had to relinquish running the business, endured difficult rounds of treatment and emerged cancer-free, but was missing a lung.
Although Mr. Weber can no longer run, he is still active and running circles around Brooks’ new headquarters in Seattle. The company, which is part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, is profitable and growing rapidly.
And Mr. Weber, who has been CEO for more than two decades and led it from near-bankruptcy, through private equity ownership, from a subsidiary of Fruit of the Loom to a standalone part of Berkshire Hathaway, still enjoys of what he calls his “dream job,” with no plans to retire.
This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.
Tell me about growing up in Minnesota.
I was one of six children within eight years of each other in a working-class neighborhood of St. Paul, and it was a very chaotic and crowded home. My father was an alcoholic and he was never happy, and almost a bully at times. He had so much negative energy that I ended up avoiding him. So I was pretty independent and I decided I wanted to be a half full person. I wanted to kind of break out and be happy and strive to be good at something and not be bitter. So I threw myself into hockey, but my plan B was to run a business.
One of the things I’ve gained perspective on, although it’s really kind of tricky, is that I was born a white male in the Midwest. Everyone gets as many cards as they are born, and I was born with a good hand. That’s a wider lens now that I have in life.
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My first job was a commercial bank clerk at Norwest Bank in Minneapolis, learning how to analyze a company financially, from a profit and loss statement to cash flow. I became a really good financial analyst in that first banking job, but I knew that at some point I wanted to sit on the other side of the table and run a business.
Some Berkshire Hathaway companies were laid off during the pandemic. How did you manage not to have them with Brooks?
If you don’t know what’s going to happen, the conventional wisdom of all the CEO colleagues I talk to and most of the private equity people I know, and most of the bankers, is to crouch down, close the shutters and stuff overboard, don’t need to. Loss costs, because it is first and foremost about survival, and not only about survival, but also about protecting the profit.
But we didn’t have a brand to protect. We created a brand, we added new customers. We are in an entrepreneurial mode, now for 20 years. So in April 2020, when everyone was firing people, my own board said, Jim, you know, you’re probably going to have to lay people off.
But we thought running is helpful in stressful times. It’s cheap. People could run. So we paused, and as soon as we saw runners running and digital demand picked up, we went back to our supply chain, and I think we probably did it at least eight weeks before anyone else. It’s hard to describe how meaningful that was. We maintained our marketing spend. We didn’t lay off one person and we grew 31 percent last year. And this year, without our supply chain issues, we would have been up more than 30 percent.
When did you realize Brooks had the potential to compete with big companies like Nike in the running market?
When the Great Recession hit in 2008 and 2009 and the world came to an economic end, it just crushed the clothes. We then resigned. But in February 2009, shoes began to sell.
Nike is one of the greatest brands ever built, and it’s about competitive, athletic performance and breaking the tape on stage. It’s just so powerful. But we saw running as the most unique sport in the world, and we had this ‘Run Happy’ ethic, which was unique.
Running is perhaps the original sport from a competitive point of view, with cross country, track and field, the Olympics, road racing, trail running and ultramarathons. But it transcends sports, because it is an investment in yourself. One hundred and fifty million people run as part of their fitness, health and wellness meditation regimen. It is a tool to invest in yourself. That’s why we positioned our brand at the heart of the running lifestyle. We’re doing something no one else has done before and creating this unique brand that’s all about running. And it is the largest category of sporting goods.
It’s rare to be a CEO for 20 years. Why didn’t you leave to take other jobs?
All the heroes I had in business had built incredible brands and fantastically dominant companies. So once I got to Brooks and saw that it could be a great company, and that you could attract a customer for life and sell them three pairs of shoes a year, I saw it, that flywheel in the company.
I almost left a few times. But I like to build things. And here’s the other thing about Berkshire: This is the closest thing to owning this company. I’m the chief culture officer, I’m the chief strategy officer, I’m the chief risk officer. I am responsible for everything in the short, medium and long term. I have a dream job. So that’s what kept me. I knew this was a gem.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about good leadership today?
I think the whole command and control thing is a relic. It’s about getting people involved and creating a North Star, a goal, so that the team is going to give as much as they get.
So what’s the misconception? The misconception is that you can command and control your way to really create value in culture. If you want to attract great talent, you have to create a purpose and mission and an opportunity for those people.
How do you deal with your stress as a CEO?
Running became absolute therapy for me. When I dropped out of competitive hockey in college, I was running three to five days a week and doing marathons and stuff. But most of the time I was running alone and mostly without music because I was processing. If I had a notebook with me, I would process big decisions and puzzles and solve problems. It was really meditation for me.
I got cancer a few years ago and I can’t keep my heart rate up so I can’t do these six mile runs anymore. It hurts me, but I’m still active. I can do intervals, I can walk and go to the gym. But running has definitely been my best processing time my whole life.
Besides affecting your running, how has cancer impacted your professional life?
It wasn’t great. It took four years and the operation was brutal. I now have one lung. But I learned what I really value and how I want to live life. I want to live every day and I want to make the most of every day. I don’t want to be the cancer survivor and make speeches about it. I want to be a CEO, and a father, and a daddy, and a runner. That’s who I am. So I just decided I’d beat this thing, and I’m cancer free today.
Did you ever think about resigning when you were sick?
No. And in fact I called Warren on day 3 of my diagnosis and told him, ‘I’m going to fight this thing. It may take a while. I may have to go away for six to eight months. And my biggest fear is that I’ll get healthy and in eight months I’ll have no job and no team and nothing to do.
He said, ‘Don’t worry, Jim. Brooks will be there when you’re well again.’
Am I defined by my job? Yes. I love this job and I love this team and this brand. And so that was a huge fear of mine because I don’t have a retirement plan. I don’t want to do anything else. I do exactly what I want to do, and I didn’t want to change that.
Do you think Brooks is essentially the company it should be right now, or is it still growing and changing?
We just laid out a 2030 vision for Brooks to continue on this path of becoming a leader in performance running, targeting runners, and we think that niche is definitely a $4 billion business 10 years from now. We’re building something in a category that’s bigger than outdoor or fitness. Running is bigger than all that. I don’t know when I’ll retire, but I’m not going to do another gig.