Going from Designer to CEO
 

The journey to becoming a CEO for a celebrity of a designer involves getting the right skills and the right infrastructure. Since designers are not taught the business aspect of their brand, they need to have the right empathetic infrastructure. This is an infrastructure that supports their creativity and people who will support their dreams. You will need to hire the right people to work for you and helping in the management of every aspect of your business. These are the people taking care of areas of business that the designer is not skilled in, like litigation, human resources, business development, marketing, and more.  
 

In an interview with Anthony Egbuniwe sat down with Kenneth Anand, COO at Roth House to discuss how a designer can go from a designer to CEO. The interview shed some light on how designers and celebrities can grow to operate their own business.  
 

Get the Right People to Work with You
 

Yeezy is a great example of a brand that grew after the founder sort out the right people to work for the brand. Even before establishing Yeezy, Kanye always said more designers and artists should have fewer managers and agents who just take their cut. Instead, they should have more CEOs and heads of business development who bring revenue and chances for growth to the table. This view can be effective in building and taking a business to the next level. 
 

If you are a celebrity looking to create your brand, it would make more sense to bring in someone who can grow your brand for you. Not someone who will help you, manager, your business for a cut of your profits. When Kanye realized the importance of working with the right people, he created an infrastructure for growth by bringing in people who could add value to his brand.
 

For you to go from being just a designer to a CEO, you need to align yourself with the right kind of people. Virgil aligns with top lawyers to ensure his deals are done correctly and that his brand is growing in the right direction. This is the same thing that designers, celebrities, and creatives need to do for their brand or their business to move to the next level. You need to align yourself with the right lawyers, a good CEO, and people that will help you run your brand as a business.
 

Looking at an artist like Jay Z, they manage their business so well by having the right people by their side. He has different kinds of people that he trusts to run his businesses and ensure everything is running smoothly. His team comprises of lawyers, staff, business development people, agents, Roc Nation, and more. These are the people ensuring that his brand is growing and meeting each target. The add value to the business on their own unique capacities. For instance, lawyers take care of litigation issues, business development people work to build the brand and protect its reputation. 
 

Having a model where you got different people taking care of different aspects of your business will definitely take you to the next level. As a celebrity, you should not be thinking your manager will handle everything. As much as this may sound cool or an easy-to-implement solution, it will weigh out both you and your manager. But with a proper model, you will be able to take everyone accountable for their actions and contributions to your business. You will be able to ask questions like why the CEO is not brought in more business or the salesperson is not out there selling my merchandise. 
 

Although artists and celebrities are used to doing everything on their own, they need to get to a place where they can trust and believe in other people. If you bring in the right people, then you can grow into a conglomerate that runs its own business. You will not have to worry that your manager is not doing enough. Instead, you will have people handling specific areas of their specialization in the business. 
 

Building Infrastructure with Empathy

Most people do not empathize with artists because they do not understand them. They look at them as a freak, asking questions like why do they dress in a certain type of way or presenting themselves in a certain type of way. They may not understand why artists wear a certain type of hair or why they rap in a certain way. As a result, most artists are not understood until years later. However, artists are the people that pave the way for innovations and new creative ways of doing things. By putting an infrastructure around the artist, we empower them to manage their own art and their own business. 
 

Celebrities and artists usually lack the capacity to be their own CEO and business managers. Without proper education, they need a partner to manage their business for them and ensure everything is running smoothly. This is where the importance of having proper infrastructure to grow them as a brand comes in. A business structure in which the brand is managed as a business with all the right people reporting to the designer as the CEO. Although a designer may lack ability to be CEOs, they can be taught that and how to manage their business better. For instance, the 10% that they spend to run their business with other people around them may be enough. However, if they are not taught this, other people keep on taking advantage of them under the name of an artist manager asking for a 25% or even 40% to run their business.
 

Bottom Line

Artists need to understand and appreciate the fact that they draw all the income. They are the ones who got the juice, swag, art, creativeness, and everything needed to bring in the money. Getting into a deal with someone who takes 25% or 40% of what you bring to your business is not sensical. You need to build a team of experts capable of handling every core aspect of your business.

 Co-Branding and Collaborations Within DTC

Multiple co-branding and collaborations are offering more benefits to DTC brands. This has seen companies producing better products and meeting the needs of their customers better. However, designers need to be careful when making deals or entering into partnerships with established companies. Before entering into any partnership, designers need to determine how much they are bringing to the partnership and what the brand is offering.
 

Choosing the Right Collaborations
 

The reputation of a company in the market is determined by consumer perception of it. The better the reputation of a company, the better it will perform in the market. If a brand is labelled as unreliable or untrustworthy, it is unlikely it will perform well in the market. Such a reputation negatively affects how partners choose to engage with the company for a co-branding venture. The opposite for this is true as good reputation results in a favorable company performance. 
 

Looking at Virgil Abloh’s model of operation, not everyone can work with it comfortably. His model works in a way where consistently Virgil has not watered down his core values and aesthetics. He has done it so many times that it looks more legit every time he introduces a new product. However, other people would choose a different model from what Virgil does. If you were to do a collaboration with Coca-Cola or AVR and it did not come out successfully, you will likely think they sold you out. However, Virgil has done it to a point where it is no longer a sellout. In fact, this has turned out to be his nature or being when dealing with others.
 

As a designer, you need to consider whether you want to align yourself with any particular brand. You need to think beyond the collaboration and what it will do to your followers. Think of whether your followers will vibe with the collaboration or they will think that you sold out. For instance, if you decide to collaborate with Fila, will your followers think you sold out or they will now like Fila even more. When Yeezy collaborated with Adidas, it had a phenomenal impact on its followers that influenced them to wear more of Adidas. 
 

Designers Need to Impact the Company the Work With 

A real designer should have a significant effect on a brand they choose to collaborate with. Think of whether you are going to put a halo effect on the company or you're going to leave your followers looking for solutions elsewhere. Although it is difficult for an artist or a designer to build confidence in themselves, it can go a long way in imparting a company in the right way. A good designer should be able to walk up straight to a company and tell them that is is what they are bringing to the table. 
 

Nobody saw a pair of Jordan 1 the same way until Virgil cut up the tongue, slicing up the upper part. He brought a new idea that no one has seen before, impacting everyone across the board. Although some people may argue that he only rethought of a shoe that already existed, no one saw that before him. As much as it is easy to hate it after it has been done, it is very difficult to spot it before it is done. 
 

If you are a designer, you need to look at life from your own lens. Think of how you can make something better, and then present your idea to a brand of your choice. Give the company or the corporation a reason to hire you. They should have an interest in what you bring and the uniqueness of your brand.  
 

Why Companies Do Not Give Full Recognition to Designers 

If you are the CEO of a big company, with all the investors and shareholders, you will be more concerned about their trust in your capabilities. Going to the shareholders and announcing that Kanye West is the sole reason the brand grew 5X over the last five years could trigger negative reactions and perceptions to the company. You need to think of what would happen if Kanye walks away when partnership does not work or the sales start to decline for some reason. So, the focus on the CEO and the management is to tell the shareholders that everything is going great without having to give any recognition to a particular designer. 
 

While the consumer will focus on how good certain shoes are selling, the CEO will look at it from the standpoint of how great the company is doing. They will attribute the growth of the company toa certain product without necessarily praising a particular designer. There is no way the CEO will put all his eggs in one basket. Instead, he will look at the whole portfolio and what it means to the company. The moment you attribute the success to a particular designer, it could signal your downfall if the sales decline or the partnership fails to work out. 
 

Designers Outside a Brand are the Disrupters

The nature of work or the contributions of the designers to a particular field makes them disrupters. Essentially, the work of the designer is to make you see things in the way you have never seen or thought of before. They will always ask why things have to always look in a particular manner and try to put something new out there. They have the ability to connect in ways that have never been done before and speak to others of many different levels. By introducing new ideas and ways of doing things, designers are the ultimate disrupters.