Rhee took over Ashley Stewart, a 22-year-old clothing chain that had declared bankruptcy once and was spiraling toward liquidation, in 2013. He saw a company with limited resources, tremendous loyalty, and great potential — and need to persuade both doubters and supporters:
The hardest thing to do was with my own employee base and customer base saying, “No, no, I'm not here to save you. I'm here because I back people and causes with merit that just could maybe use one little helping hand.”
And so capitalism, it is effective, but it depends on who's wielding the weapon.
Subscribe to The Design of Business | The Business of Design on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.
Special thanks to Starfish Media Group for use of excerpts from their documentary-in-progress about Ashley Stewart.
And a big thanks to our sponsor, Mailchimp.
