After some good skiing, I returned to New York and that’s when Philippe Blime decided he would replace his departing president part-time while still remaining the Look’s GM in France. He got himself an AMC Pacer as a company vehicle (a car his wife fancied) and came to visit a few times.
By the middle of that year, Blime realized that his plan wouldn’t work and decided to hire a replacement for Paul. I told him I wanted that top job, but he said that while I had the potential, I should stay put doing the marketing manager job my product manager position had gradually evolved into since I had been working in America. He just didn’t think I could pull it off. The man was stubborn and lacking solid common-sense.
In addition, he decided to hire two sales managers, Harrington in the East and Pike in the West. Harrington was an advertising manager for Olin skis and was clearly eyeing Look’s top job. He spoke a good game but wasn’t able to walk any of it.
Same thing Pike, a Xerox alumni, who had a great baritone voice but had no clue about the ski business and its quirky distribution. These choices reflected very poorly on Blime who might have been a number guy (?) but was woefully inept at reading people.
Since the joint Beconta/Look sales force was far from perfect, Harrington had no better idea than scrap it totally, throw the baby and the bathwater, instead of doing incremental changes as would have been advisable in that instance.
Instead, he started with a fresh stable of green guys who weren’t all that good and worse, were very inexperienced. A recipe for disaster. At the same time Salomon’s products were gaining ground over Look’s and I kept on pulling my hair but still learning an awful lot by witnessing my colleagues piling up mistakes upon mistakes.
The year ended on a wonderful note, though; the birth of our son Thomas in December.
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