RH CEO Gary Friedman has long been known for his harsh rhetoric in the luxury furniture retailer’s quarterly earnings reports and, more recently, for his blunt warnings about the economy and the housing market.
But the weekend The newspaper “New York Times profile highlighted some of his management habits, including his aversion to meetings and his preference for “adventures” with management groups, which resemble meetings but can last 10 hours or more.
He acknowledged that his vision for RH spooks Wall Street, but he refuses to hold back on his expansive ambitions, which go far beyond the typical earnings and revenue forecasts analysts are used to dealing with.
“But our vision is to create a timeless reflection of hope, inspiration and love that will ignite the human spirit and change the world,” said Friedman, who became CEO in 2001. Time.
RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, was a Wall Street favorite when the stock soared in the early stages of the pandemic as remote work and low mortgage rates sparked a boom in housing and renovations, driving up furniture sales.
Even before the pandemic, RH caught the attention of Warren Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway began buying shares in 2019.
But then the Federal Reserve began raising rates in 2022, pushing up borrowing costs and deepening the housing market freeze. RH stock has fallen more than 70% from its early 2021 high to its 2022 low. Berkshire then sold its entire stake. in 2023.
Still, Friedman remains ambitious, opening more RH retail “galleries” while expanding into branded hotels and furnished homes, which the company will market as well as manage.
While he pursues his grand plans, his team is expected to be fully committed to the company’s culture.
RH’s annual management meetings once included a ceremony in which executives had to promise to “constantly destroy my own reality to create tomorrow’s future” and explain why they might have failed, according to Time. This was later replaced by the “Daily Values Adventure”, which asks participants to “tell about a time when your ego got in the way of finding a better path.”
Friedman dismissed low ratings of RH from employees on sites such as Relatively, saying that many of them had been with the company for years, and even those who left eventually returned. But he also admitted that he has a tendency to lash out at subordinates who don’t achieve their goals.
“I don’t usually yell at people—I yell at the problem,” he told the publication. Time. “If you stand up to a problem and defend it, you can feel attacked.”
In fact, Friedman’s management style has earned him the nickname “Sunshine” from some executives—it warms on good days and scorches on bad. Time said.