Of learnings, failures and triumphs: A retail CEO’s journey

During his SOLOx session, Mark Tesseyman, Chief Executive Officer of LIWA Trading Enterprises shared his journey from a sportsperson to a retail leader and many learnings along the way.

Belonging to a family that travelled a lot, as Tesseyman’s father was in the military, he changed schools every couple of years, thereby learning to integrate with different people, becoming resilient as a result.

Tesseyman was considered a “disruptive child” by his parents. A quality that he has held on to, implementing several disruptive ideas to grow retail businesses that he has been part of over the decades. But interestingly, retail wasn’t his first career choice, because Tesseyman wanted to be a professional sportsperson.

“I was a scratch golfer at 16 and wanted to make a living playing golf. I also played cricket. During winter, I played golf and during summer, I played cricket, which was great. But I didn’t make any money, because I wasn’t good enough which is a sad failure and a great life lesson. I had to accept that I was not going to have a career as a sportsman, which was hard,” he shared.

When he decided to go to university, fate had other plans as Tesseyman started working in retail. Over the years, he rose through the ranks with different retail organisations working in every conceivable function including finance, audit, buying, merchandising and more, turning around several brands.

Sharing some key learnings, Tesseyman said, “Retailing is simple, so keep it simple. Give customers what they want, when they want it at a price they are prepared to pay. Product, people and place define a brand, work on them all. I was always told that the world is average, and to not be average, which taught me to be unreasonable in the pursuit of excellence.”

In summation, he shared three pieces of advice. “Get your strategy right and be prepared to fail, but make sure everyone understands the strategy from the top to the bottom of your organisation; employ talented people, but never let a finance guy run a creative business; and get the right real estate and distribution channels.”