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Caroline Elliott describes her first days on the job at Australian owned fashion brand KOOKA in 2017 as a baptism of fire.

Only one week earlier shed impressed co-owner Rob Cromb, who told her to come on board and work out what you can do. Hed then flown to France, birthplace of the KOOKA brand, trusting the former business owner to see where she could contribute.

_One thing he said was stay away from the product,_

she recalls.

Rob $KOOKA co-owner with Danielle Vagner$ is Managing Director of KOOKA. He and Danielle grew KOOKA from a Chapel Street shop importing the Parisian label to a vertically integrated business based in Melbourne, with factories in Fiji and Sri Lanka, 39 boutiques across Australia and New Zealand, and an additional 160 boutiques throughout Europe $following KOOKA Australia's acquisition of the global brand in 2017$.

Caroline is the companys first senior management hire since its beginnings in 1992.

**TGF: Caroline, how did you spend your first weeks at KOOKA?**

Caroline: I spent that time talking to people. There were a few key areas I chose to focus on. While it was an incredibly successful business, it had no real structure and process to it. Because I have a finance background, Im all about structure and procedures whereas Rob is all about creative and the brand and the product.

**TGF: What were some of the areas that needed structure and process?**

Caroline: Because Rob was so involved in the business as an executive Managing Director, everyone relied on him to make decisions, so people werent being accountable or taking responsibility for the decisions that they should have been making. So, I did quite a bit work early on to empower those department heads to start making those decisions, and to trust themselves.

**TGF: How did you go about that?**

Caroline: The different departments were all working in silos, and not really working as a team. So it didnt really take much to bring them together. I organised fortnightly department head meetings that theyd never had before, - so there was sharing of information across departments. That was beneficial to all of them, and then they could make informed decisions. Once they all worked more collaboratively I found that decisions started to flow.

When I came on board, I set about having an internal strategy around how we can do things better as a group, how we can work together as a group; its not a company strategy because thats set by Rob, but an internal strategy to make sure were all driving the bus in the same direction.

**TGF: What responsibilities has Rob found hard to let go of?**

Caroline: When I came on he had 19 people reporting directly to him, which was ridiculous; so I did a restructuring of all the positions. He had regular contact with lots of people in the organisation; I think it was hard for him to then not have that and still feel like he wasnt losing control of what was going on. Its just taken time for him to realise that the business has become better, and its operating better, but thats just a time thing.

**TGF: How do you go about growing and developing your people?**

Caroline: A lot of people whove been here for a long time, they didnt know what they didnt know. They havent worked anywhere else other than KOOKA. They started on the shop floor. We do a lot of recruitment from the shop floor into head office. So, weve done a lot of work just developing leadership skills with people, doing some work managing people, and understanding how to work collaboratively as a group.

**TGF: You came into an established business with long-time owners. Has there been conflict?**

Caroline: We had a few moments of conflict. Rob hates structure and process, whereas Im all about it. But he does realise that the business needs it. I have stayed away from product, in terms of choosing what product goes in. We dont agree on all things, for example we havent agreed always on staffing or structure or things like that. When youre in a role like mine, you do have to remember it is the owners business, so they do have final say; but I will always give my opinion. We can agree to disagree, but a lot of the time we do agree. He certainly seeks my opinion on a lot of things.

**TGF: Tell us about how you and Rob communicate with each other.**

Caroline: We have offices next door to each other. Robs not a structured person, its very free flowing. I will book a breakfast meeting with him every couple of weeks, but because hes an executive Managing Director hes still very involved in the day to day business. In our head office we have our design team and our buying team, our main pattern makers and our sample makers, and Rob spends most of his time with that team; whereas I sit with the support team, with the retail team and the finance.

Were both in the office unless one of us is travelling so its quite ad hoc. We dont have a formal meeting every week to discuss things, its just whenever we need to but because we are a just in time deliverer of product $we deliver into stores every week$, its very fast movingso we just talk all the time. Its not a very structured relationship but it seems to work. I really keep the operations running and Rob makes sure the right product is getting into store.

**TGF: What would you say to owners or founders of business thinking of taking on a 2IC?**

Caroline: I think it comes down to trust, you have got to be ready to delegate. Rob had never had any senior management in the business until I came on board. And weve subsequently brought in a CFO $Chief Financial Officer$, a general counsel $legal$ and also a CIO $Chief Information Officer$; all of whom have taken on group roles which means they work across the global business.

Its been quite a job for Rob to let go and delegate and it just comes down to trust at the end of the day. I think it probably took about three months for Rob to understand what I could do and what I could bring, and the benefits of that. I think for owners of businesses, especially those whove started from scratch, its very hard to let go of the baby.

**TGF: Whats been the secret of KOOKA s longevity in the industry?**

Caroline: Youve got to have a good product. KOOKA has been very true to its customer base. We know who the customer is, and theyve been very loyal. One thing Ive noticed is its culture, KOOKA has an extraordinary culture. There are girls whove worked here for 10 years and they look like theyve only just left school. The head of HR is really the keeper of that culture. There are ingrained values that are documented and displayed all over the office and everybody is expected to live and breathe those values, and we spend a lot of time training around those  including in all the decision making we do. So for someone $like me$ from a finance background whos all about numbers and figures and the bottom line thats something that I definitely learnt coming into KOOKA, how important making sure the culture is right.

**TGF: Youre on a lot of boards, any tips for those considering applying to a board position?**

If youre seeking a board role do your due diligence, because the role of director can be fraught with all sorts of dangers. So, do your due diligence particularly on the chair but also on the other directors who are involved, because you could have to make some fairly sticky decisions sometimes  and make sure youve got an interest in whatever it is, whether its an organisation or a charity of a business or whatever, just make sure you have an interest in whats going on, because it takes up a lot of time.

**Carolines GREAT EIGHT, answers to our eight getting to know you questions:**

**Recommended book:** Anything by Tim Winton, _Good to Great_ by Jim Collins and _Losing My Virginity_ by Richard Branson.

**If you could co-author a book with anyone in the world who would it be, and whats the book title?** Richard Branson, I love his free-flowing attitude and focus on customers. I dont know what the book title would be.

**Best piece of advice you can share?** Dont languish under bad leadership, it just stifles your development. All you learn from bad leaders is what not to do, not what you should be doing.

**What's been your lowest moment, and how did you recover from it?** I started a sushi manufacturing business. Id started it from scratch with my brother. When Ansett \[Airlines\] went down and S11 \[Melbourne inner-city blockade\] happened, the bottom fell out of the market, because we were the major supplier to the events and the hotel industry. We had to put it into voluntary administration. We had 25 staff. I ended up on the front page of the Herald Sun which was very much a low point. I just wanted to pull the doona over my head and hide but I didnt have that luxury, so I had to get up and keep going. What I learnt from that really set me up to do what Ive done ever since then, which is going into businesses which are going through some sort of change, be it divesting or investing  so while it was horrible at the time, it has set me up for the career that I have today.

**How do you relax?** I relax by reading, I love reading trashy magazines, and watching a good Netflix series back to back.

**Whats a fun fact thats not widely known about you?** Ive bungee jumped off the Victoria Falls Bridge $between Zimbabwe and Zambia$, a long time ago.

**What do you think is the secret of success?** The late Richard Pratt, the founder of Visy Industries, once said the success of business is easy  just spend less than you earn. If not that, then youve got to have a great product or great service that people need, and great leadership.

**What is your prediction for 2025?** I think the way we shop will be very different. We probably wont be trying on clothes as we do today where you have to go into a store and take them off, well just have avatars of ourselves on our phone and well just be scanning the clothes and well be able to virtually try them on.

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In the Mind of the CEO: Caroline Elliott, CEO, KOOKA

How Elliotts complementary skills in structure and process helps companys creative MD

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Stay Inspired

In the Mind of the CEO: Caroline Elliott, CEO, KOOKA

How Elliotts complementary skills in structure and process helps companys creative MD

Keep informedStay Inspired

Keep informed
Stay Inspired