Vanessa Gold
Tony Randall speaks to the MD of Ann Summers
My destination was head office of Ann Summers and an appointment with someone who has evolved from a feisty teenager and worked her way to the top in the business world helping create and transform the family business into a retail experience which is leading the way in a competitive market making women feel sexy about themselves and giving them what they want "Orgasms ". In the first of a two part interview Vanessa Gold talks about life growing up as a teenager, the relationship with her family over the years plus working for the multi-million pound Ann Summers empire.
TR : Since leaving school and working your way up to MD of Ann Summers what have you discovered about yourself?
VG : I loved being at school and have very fond memories being there, and I remember being a very average pupil. At the time I was at school my parents had split up and I was a very feisty person indeed. The complete opposite to my sister Jacqueline and DG (David Gold) who have always been very calm. As a teenager I would fly off into a temper over the silliest things. As the years have gone on I've got so much calmer and even now when I'm working in the most stressful of roles I'm very calm. As a person I have evolved, in the early days working at Ann Summers I felt I knew everything which led at times to heated debates with DG because " I knew better". I couldn't have had two better mentors than Jacqueline and DG who have helped me mature.
TR : When you was this feisty teenager growing up, could you have imagined ending up in such a high powered job?
VG : No not at all, I wanted to be an Air Traffic Controller, my father and mother had separated and I really didn't get to see a lot of my dad at that time, probably about once a week. He left when I was just aged four and I had no real chance at all to try and build a relationship with him.
At the time, like now dad was a fantastic pilot and I have wonderful memories of watching him fly into Biggin Hill which was where I grew up. Just seeing dad fly made me think I'd love to be an air traffic controller.
I left school with OK grades not good enough to take A- Levels but generally had no aspirations to go into business. Funnily enough it was at that time that Ann Summers was just starting out that I came here to work to earn some pocket money. I loved coming into work here and over the years worked my way through the company to the position I'm in currently.
TR : Ann Summers is all about making women feel good and sexy about themselves, with competition from other high street stores and the Internet how do you keep evolving and lead the way as the sexiest brand?
VG : That is one of the biggest challenges we face. I did the undercover boss programme several years ago and one of the issues that came from my teams i was engaging with in the stores was at the time we were losing our way in being sexy. All our competitors were trying to do their version of sexy and it was a real wake up call for us and i realised we had to continuously evolve, a bit like Madonna of the high street and push the boundaries all of the time.
I'm a great believer in the saying " Don't worry too much about your competitors you can keep a close eye on them but focus your time on your own brand " Ann Summers is a brand leader and we constantly listen to our customers and making sure what they tell us helps informs which path to take.
TR : The company is a family run business, but i get the feeling " Family " in this meaning also includes all your staff from management right through to shop workers and cleaners?
VG : Absolutely, there is something very unique about a family run business compared to a corporate one. For example if you worked for Asda it's possible as a colleague you would never see anyone from head office. At Ann Summers both myself and Jacqueline are in touch with our teams and being shoulder to shoulder with them. If you work for Ann Summers no matter what you do your integral to the company.
TR : How important is feedback you get from both customers and staff ?
VG : It's massively important. When Jacqueline came up with the idea of "Party Plan" straight away she realised putting women in their own home and asking their friends to come round, have a glass of wine and have a lady stand up and talk about our products made them all feel comfortable talking about sex. And remember this all started about 30 years ago and at that time it really was not the done thing to do.
As party plan evolved we found that ladies in their own homes would tell us what they wanted from us and all about their sex life's which has helped our company produce what our customers really want.
TR : Catching up once a week and having dinner with both Jacqueline and DG is something very precious to you all, how did this all start out?
VG : I used to live in Guildford and owned a little white mini metro and every day i drove into work and at that time i was only young and i shared an office with DG. So I'd get to work early, stay late at night and do anything to show i was eager. After a while on a few occasions both DG and myself started to go out for dinner in a little restaurant in Caterham. Very slowly my relationship with him started to build, we both started to enjoy our time together. Jacqueline started to join us and all three of us have over the years built this really close relationship, I can't tell you how much that close family relationship means to me.
My destination was head office of Ann Summers and an appointment with someone who has evolved from a feisty teenager and worked her way to the top in the business world helping create and transform the family business into a retail experience which is leading the way in a competitive market making women feel sexy about themselves and giving them what they want "Orgasms ". In the first of a two part interview Vanessa Gold talks about life growing up as a teenager, the relationship with her family over the years plus working for the multi-million pound Ann Summers empire.
TR : Since leaving school and working your way up to MD of Ann Summers what have you discovered about yourself?
VG : I loved being at school and have very fond memories being there, and I remember being a very average pupil. At the time I was at school my parents had split up and I was a very feisty person indeed. The complete opposite to my sister Jacqueline and DG (David Gold) who have always been very calm. As a teenager I would fly off into a temper over the silliest things. As the years have gone on I've got so much calmer and even now when I'm working in the most stressful of roles I'm very calm. As a person I have evolved, in the early days working at Ann Summers I felt I knew everything which led at times to heated debates with DG because " I knew better". I couldn't have had two better mentors than Jacqueline and DG who have helped me mature.
TR : When you was this feisty teenager growing up, could you have imagined ending up in such a high powered job?
VG : No not at all, I wanted to be an Air Traffic Controller, my father and mother had separated and I really didn't get to see a lot of my dad at that time, probably about once a week. He left when I was just aged four and I had no real chance at all to try and build a relationship with him.
At the time, like now dad was a fantastic pilot and I have wonderful memories of watching him fly into Biggin Hill which was where I grew up. Just seeing dad fly made me think I'd love to be an air traffic controller.
I left school with OK grades not good enough to take A- Levels but generally had no aspirations to go into business. Funnily enough it was at that time that Ann Summers was just starting out that I came here to work to earn some pocket money. I loved coming into work here and over the years worked my way through the company to the position I'm in currently.
TR : Ann Summers is all about making women feel good and sexy about themselves, with competition from other high street stores and the Internet how do you keep evolving and lead the way as the sexiest brand?
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| Sexy Retail Experience |
I'm a great believer in the saying " Don't worry too much about your competitors you can keep a close eye on them but focus your time on your own brand " Ann Summers is a brand leader and we constantly listen to our customers and making sure what they tell us helps informs which path to take.
TR : The company is a family run business, but i get the feeling " Family " in this meaning also includes all your staff from management right through to shop workers and cleaners?
VG : Absolutely, there is something very unique about a family run business compared to a corporate one. For example if you worked for Asda it's possible as a colleague you would never see anyone from head office. At Ann Summers both myself and Jacqueline are in touch with our teams and being shoulder to shoulder with them. If you work for Ann Summers no matter what you do your integral to the company.
TR : How important is feedback you get from both customers and staff ?
VG : It's massively important. When Jacqueline came up with the idea of "Party Plan" straight away she realised putting women in their own home and asking their friends to come round, have a glass of wine and have a lady stand up and talk about our products made them all feel comfortable talking about sex. And remember this all started about 30 years ago and at that time it really was not the done thing to do.
As party plan evolved we found that ladies in their own homes would tell us what they wanted from us and all about their sex life's which has helped our company produce what our customers really want.
TR : Catching up once a week and having dinner with both Jacqueline and DG is something very precious to you all, how did this all start out?
VG : I used to live in Guildford and owned a little white mini metro and every day i drove into work and at that time i was only young and i shared an office with DG. So I'd get to work early, stay late at night and do anything to show i was eager. After a while on a few occasions both DG and myself started to go out for dinner in a little restaurant in Caterham. Very slowly my relationship with him started to build, we both started to enjoy our time together. Jacqueline started to join us and all three of us have over the years built this really close relationship, I can't tell you how much that close family relationship means to me.
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| The Gold Family |
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