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Before landing her current gig as CEO of photography product retailer Shutterfly last year, Sally Pofcher held executive roles at Gap, Paper Source, and most recently, children’s brand Hanna Andersson.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? My job as CEO is to make the consumer experience easier, better, fun, and more interesting. When you deconstruct that, it’s everything from sourcing raw materials overseas, to making products in factories, to shipping to consumers’ homes. It’s delivering a site experience that’s easy, compelling, frustration free—and resolving that for the customer if it’s not. It’s bringing the right people into the organization with the right talent and mindset, and then nurturing an environment where those people show up invigorated, invested, and proud to do their best work. And ultimately, it’s assuming all risks involved (financial, privacy and security, health and welfare) and delivering all that economically in a way that drives growth and properly rewards both the people doing the work and the shareholders who’ve invested in the company.
One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? With my years in consulting, operations, and executive leadership, my profile leans toward operator with a financial background. And that’s true! But what you may not see is my deep passion for design, aesthetics, and storytelling. I find equal parts joy in operational efficiencies as in font, art direction, and product curation.
What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? At Shutterfly, we have gems that are incredible, like Make My Book, where customers can send a set of photos to our team who makes the photo book in 24 hours for free. It’s such a game changer. But we have lots more opportunity to up our game across the portfolio of products and services we offer. For example, I spent multiple hours my first week here poring over photo paper. You can see the difference in the resolution and the color pop of your photos on the right paper projects.
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What’s your go-to coffee order? I have three daughters, who are currently 23, 21, and 11. When my youngest, Ella, was born, I started ordering an Earl Grey tea latte with nonfat milk, no sweetener, and extra cinnamon powder on my walk between the train station and my office every morning. Walking into Starbucks and hearing the barista call out, “Your usual, honey?” provided that delicious moment of normalcy—a hug in hot liquid form—that I needed to kick off the day. I’ve placed the same order every single morning since.
Worst piece of advice you’ve received? When I joined Gap after McKinsey, I was (strongly) encouraged to pursue a career in treasury. It was assumed that a person with my background, with an aptitude for finance and analytics, couldn’t be successful on the creative side. Moving to a small company, Paper Source—where I was actively involved in the selection of every curated product, the layout of every catalog, the art direction and storytelling of every campaign, in addition to managing the financial responsibilities of business transformation while interacting with and delivering for our stakeholders—was the exact right intersection of my skills and passion.
What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? When I was 15, I babysat and worked at the local five-and-dime, constantly saving my pennies for the latest cool clothing item. I remember shopping at TJ Maxx and putting clothes on layaway! Invariably, I’d finally save up enough for an Izod sweater or such, which my mother would wash and dry (and shrink!). Today, I am still an enthusiastic consumer, and still always on the lookout for the next cool clothing item. But I’ve expanded in breadth and price point. I have a set of super frugal hacks, like the $8 L’Oréal ColorStay lipstick that doesn’t come off on my Starbucks cup, or the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, and my favorite $7 white T-shirt from Target that I buy in bulk. And at the higher end, I absolutely love my olive-green Loewe bag—there’s no logo on it, and it’s absolutely glorious.