How I Got Here: Cargo Crew’s Founder and Chief Creative Officer on what it takes to be a good leader
WORDS BY CAIT EMMA BURKE
“In my experience, it’s when you acknowledge where your knowledge gaps are and invite experts in to plug them that your business will actually take on a new dimension.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
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Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
This week we speak to Felicity Rodgers, the Founder and Creative Director of Cargo Crew, a design-led uniform business based in Melbourne. After studying fashion design at RMIT, Felicity jumped in the deep end and started a fashion label with a friend. As anyone who’s worked in the fashion industry will know, running a label can be tough but she credits this experience with setting her up well for running a larger scale business.
First launched in 2002, Cargo Crew has become a hugely successful and innovative company, providing high quality and functional uniforms for businesses around the world without compromising on style. Below, Felicity shares the hurdles she’s overcome along the way, and what she believes makes someone a good leader.
What do you do and what’s your official job title?
I am the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Cargo Crew. We are a design-led uniform business that creates workwear you actually want to wear.
Take us back to when you were first starting out. Did you study to get into your chosen field, or did you start out with an internship/entry-level role and climb the ladder? Tell us the story.
I studied fashion design at RMIT. Reflecting back on my time at university I feel the course was excellent at developing my skills for not only apparel design, but also for visual communication and teaching us how to marry together ideation with commercial outcomes. These skills have been instrumental in my business journey. Upon graduating I worked in fashion PR for one year before embarking on creating a young designer fashion label with a girlfriend from university.
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Running a clothing label at a very young age was challenging and while it provided us with creative freedom and many career firsts, the operational and financial pressures of a wholesale business were tough. During the five years of running the label, we were often approached by businesses wanting us to design them a fashionable uniform, and it was these experiences that seeded the idea for me to start Cargo Crew.
I founded Cargo Crew in 2002. At the time I felt the uniform providers in the industry were focused on pumping out generic, average quality apparel, and I saw an opportunity to bring both design and quality to the market. I also saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional model of uniform supply, which was for us to sell directly to our customers, rather than sell through a wholesale, distributor model. I feel this has been one of the keys to our success as we hold the relationship directly with our customers and are constantly learning, understanding their needs and delivering on that has been a significant part of our success.
What challenges/hurdles have you faced getting to where you are now? Can you tell us about one in particular?
Kicking off my career by launching a young designer fashion label was definitely a stepping stone towards creating Cargo Crew, however starting a fashion label at a young age with no financial backing is not for the faint hearted. We relied on the sales of each range to fund the next season, and often being paid by stockists was a long drawn out process meaning cash was always tight. Experiencing this level of financial pressure at a young age was extremely challenging, but it taught me the importance of responsible cash flow management – a lesson that helped me set a stable foundation for operating Cargo Crew from the outset.
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Other challenges related to the operational hurdles you learn to overcome along the way, when building a business from scratch. Over the years there has certainly been pressure to become an expert in a broad range of areas, some of which I didn’t necessarily consider my strengths. Wearing multiple hats and problem solving can be taxing, but being curious and outcomes-driven often delivers the answers and results you need. One of the most rewarding aspects of building a team as the business has scaled has been bringing in experts who have helped build out various parts of Cargo Crew.
What do you want people to know about your industry/your role?
A uniform is a really powerful way for brands to build customer experience and create a strong visual language. Ultimately if you feel good about how you look at work, that helps deliver a better day all round! But a uniform doesn’t have to conjure up memories of school or some stiff, corporate aesthetic. We are proud Cargo Crew brought something new to the category – every design and product comes from a place of passion and setting a new standard for industries like retail and hospitality.
What’s the best part about your role?
There are many best parts! Firstly, being a family run business, I get to work with both my sister and husband who co-founded Cargo Crew alongside me, and together with our team we are able to continue to create the path of what a modern uniform business can offer. I love getting to work with incredibly talented people who represent Cargo Crew – our ambassador Curtis Stone and all the chefs and creatives in our network who give us so much inspiring feedback and motivation to continually innovate. From day one we have been passionate about creating a ‘brand’ that people associate with quality, design and good feels.
What would surprise people about your role?
As a founder, I think there can often be an internalised pressure that you have to know it all, do it all and be everything to everyone. But in my experience, it’s when you acknowledge where your knowledge gaps are and invite experts in to plug them that your business will actually take on a new dimension. Obviously that sort of team expansion comes with time and growth, but I think there can be a reluctance from some founders to take steps away from the operational side of things. But being a good leader means having perspective and vision, and those things come more easily when you have a bit of mental space to think big!
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What skills have served you well in your industry?
With time, passion, perseverance and curiosity are attributes that you can harness and turn into skills. And they will help you to navigate almost any challenge and opportunity in business. For Cargo Crew, part of our success is really owing to being really customer obsessed. People obsessed. We want to deliver the best experience as well as the best product. That, and having a background in fashion design has also been extremely helpful for me personally because it’s meant I can apply design thinking to a category that lacked innovation until we started the brand!
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
Get inside the head of your customer and never stop trying to solve their problem. Building a business comes with challenges, but it can also be incredibly exciting and rewarding. Have an ongoing focus on competing against yourself, rather than following others. Don’t expect overnight success, but do celebrate every win along the way.
What about a practical tip?
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was “Do interesting things, and interesting things happen”. I love this as a guiding principle – not just in business but in life, too! When you feel a bit stuck in growing your business, or taking your career to a new level, approach things with curiosity and don’t be afraid to do something a little different, a bit unexpected. That’s where the magic happens.
Read the rest of the How I Got Here series here.
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